GRASS AND HAY 173 



market hay is the result of improper practices, such as allowing the 

 meadow to become grassy and weedy, cutting too late, improper 

 baling, etc., on the part of the producer, and is not caused by rain 

 or unfavorable weather alone, as is generally supposed. 



(5) In order to grow timothy nay successfully year after year, 

 the farmer must also grow some legume crop in the rotation for 

 either hay or pasture or as a green-manuring crop, which aids in 

 keeping up the crop-producing power of the land. 



Legume hay does not sell well in most markets, primarily be- 

 cause horse feeders have not yet learned the value of clover or alfalfa 

 hay. A proper understanding of the value of these hays on the part 

 of the feeders would be an enormous benefit to the whole hay 

 industry. 



The average horse feeder is too liable to think that the hay 

 which is selling for the highest price on the market is the most val- 

 uable for all feeding purposes under all conditions. He should 

 change some of his beliefs, especially in regard to some of the kinds 

 of hay. 



It is almost impossible to place a definite money value on any 

 kind or grade of hay that will at the same time represent its true 

 value to both producer and feeder. This is because the value may 

 depend on several things, such as the purpose for which it is fed ; the 

 place where it is fed, for hay fed on the producer's farm has a dif- 

 ferent value to him than to the city feeder; the price of the more 

 concentrated foodstuffs ; and the size of the total crop for the United 

 States. 



When considering the profit from hay growing the farmer 

 must consider not only the cost of production, or growing, curing, 

 baling, and marketing, but to a certain extent the value of the fer- 

 tilizing elements which the crop removes from the soil. 



Tne feeder should value any kind of hay according to the 

 amount of digestible nutrients which it contains, its palatability, and 

 its efficiency in keeping the horse in good condition and enabling' 

 it to accomplish the desired amount of work. 



Fertilizing Elements in Hay. It is time for the producer to 

 figure very closely on the cost of production, especially for the dif- 

 ferent kinds of hay. Throughout the East and South commercial 

 fertilizers are being used in large quantities, and this practice is 

 gradually extending westward to the great Mississippi Valley States. 

 Every crop takes certain elements ofplant food from the soil. It 

 has been found that ordinary soil becomes exhausted first of its sup- 

 ply of available nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. It is these 

 three elements which are bought and applied in the form of com- 

 mercial fertilizers in order to get paying crops. The producer, 

 whether he uses commercial fertilizers or not, should know that when 

 hay is removed from the farm there is a loss of fertilizing elements 

 which are of value to him but not to the city feeder. 



There is quite a difference in the amount of plant food con- 

 tained in different kinds of hay plants. For example, one ton of 

 timothy hay contains, on an average, 20 pounds of nitrogen, 10 



