Profitable Hay Making 



THE SEEDING— THE GROWING CROP— BEST METHODS 

 OF CURING HAY 



By Professor Thomas Shaw 



Formerly of the Minnesota Experiment Station, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 



The Corn Crop— The United States 

 stands first in the popular estimate. 

 This estimate is based on the fact that 

 the corn crop far exceeds, in direct cash 

 value, any other single crop grown in the 

 United States. In 1910 the farm value 

 of the corn crop was $1,523,968,000. The 

 hay crop is second, with a farm value of 

 $747,769,000. Wheat ranks third, with a 

 farm value of $621,443,000. 



That corn is king among farm crops, 

 to use a popular phrase, would be apparent 

 from the above figures. But it is only apparent. The grass crop 

 is the most important crop that the United States produces, and 

 may continue to be so through all time. That such is the fact 

 may readily be shown. Let it be observed: 



1. That the estimated value of the grass crop included only 

 hay, while it is undoubtedly true that the pasture crop is more 

 valuable by a large margin than the hay crop, because of the 

 immense area in pasture. Add these values, and the cash value 

 of the grass crop will exceed that of the corn. 



2. The corn crop has cost much more to produce than the 

 hay crop, hence the net profit from growing the hay would 

 approximate much more nearly the net profit from growing corn 

 than the maximum value of the former does that of the latter. 



3. The full value of the hay to the farmer is not shown by 

 its commercial value in the matured form. While the grasses 

 have been growing into arable farms where rotation is practiced, 

 they have been storing the ground with their roots, which, along 

 with the stubbles, when the meadows are broken up, furnisli 

 liumus for the growing of other crops. Those leguminous in 

 character always in addition leave the ground richer than they 

 found it in nitrogen, and nitrogen is the costly element of 

 fertility. 



The indirect value of the hay crop to the farmer can not be 

 stated in figures. But it would not be extravagant' to say, that 



