HARVESTING HAY IN THE WEST. 



To make alfalfa hay a man needs wide-cut mowers, 

 a supply of rakes, forks and men, then unlimited 

 faith and hopefulness. Especially is this true in the 

 humid East. In the West it is not so much a matter 

 of dodging showers as it is of economizing labor. In 

 the East it is a struggle to get the hay dry enough, in 

 the West a struggle to keep it from getting too dry 

 and thus losing its leaves. 



When Ready to Cut. Before starting the mowers 

 the farmer should get down on his knees in the field 

 and examine the stage of growth of the plants. It 

 is not possible to judge accurately by the state of 

 bloom or any other external sign. He must part 

 the stems and look down close to the earth to see if 

 the little shoots have formed, the shoots that sucker 

 out from the bases of the stems and that are to make 

 new growth. If these shoots, some call them "buds," 

 have not appeared, then one takes risk of injuring 

 his second crop by cutting. He had better as a rule 

 wait a few days. It is hard to explain the injury 

 that sometimes comes to alfalfa when mown off too 

 soon. The succeeding crop may be lessened by half 

 or more if the alfalfa is mown off too early. 



Nor can a man delay long after these buds ap- 

 pear without injuring his alfalfa. This injury 

 comes from two sources: for one thing the stems 

 become woody and the leaves are lost; then the 



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