1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



419 



For the New England Farmer. 



MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUIT SHINES. 



O, yes, we always do, but we mew it while the dew is on. 



!Mr. Editor : — While reading an article in your 

 last, taken from the Homestead, headed, "Make 

 Hay while the Sun Shines," I found so many items 

 about hay-making that crossed my grain, that I can 

 hardly refrain from adding a chip from my experi- 

 ence of ten years in farming, in which I have cut 

 and put up from one to two hundred tons of hay 

 per year. 



After trying various experiments, I adopted this 

 one plan of getting hay, as far ahead of any other. 

 Mow the grass while the dew is on, and make it 

 ■while the sun shines. Dew is nothing more or less 

 than vapor condensed, and is as readily evaporated 

 from mown grass, if properly spread, as from stand- 

 ing grass. Mowing, I had my men in the field, at 

 earliest dawn ; each man with two sharp scythes, 

 so as to have no stopping, except for breakfast, and 

 mow around the field that we intend to cut ; calcu- 

 lating so as to have it finished by ten or eleven 

 o'clock, A. M. All the scythes are carried to the 

 grind-stone, which is turned by horse power, (a 

 very great improvement, by the way, for one who 

 has a power.) While one hand is grinding, the 

 others spread and "shake up" what hay the boys 

 have not finished. Thus, all the lighter work comes 

 in the heat of the day, and I find that it causes 

 much less back-ache to dry dew-wet grass, than to 

 mow dry grass, and there is no difficulty in drying 

 it in good weather. In bad weather, I arrange my 

 work accordingly. 



We can mow more grass in one hour in the cool 

 of the morning, than in two hours at noon-day, 

 when the fine grass cuts like wood, and the coarse 

 like wire. I think the writer of that article has 

 never sweat "like a man a mowing," or he would 

 never advise mowing grass after the dew is off. I 

 infer, also, from his "setting out for his winrows," 

 that he uses no horse rake. I use the wheel hcrse 

 rake, and it as far excells the back-breaking hand 

 rake, the clumsy revolving rake, or the boy-killing 

 drag, as the mowing machine is superior to the 

 common scythe. Now if your readers will just lay 

 aside all other kinds, and try the wheel rake, they 

 will rake over more and rougher ground, cleaner, 

 with less power, and more ease, than with any ma- 

 chine ever used. 



After dinner, while the boys are getting the 

 teams and rakes, the others are turning and shak- 

 ing. As soon as dry, commence raking around 

 the piece, enough for two rows of tumbles, tumble 

 with the horse rake, and start the team with two 

 to pitch on to each load ; by hauling the rack long, 

 wide and flat, one can easily load for two to pitch. 

 If you have two teams, have two rakes. Soon as 

 one team is loaded, to the barn, and start the 

 other, (the extra pitchers assisting at both loads,) 

 around the piece. The boy and horse rake raking 

 the scatterings towards the centre ; avoiding the 

 necessity of driving over raked ground, or raking 

 the same ground more than twice. Thus a boy 

 fourteen years old will rake, tumble up, and rake 

 after as much hay as a team with two to pitch on 

 can draw ; or as much as six men with hand rakes ; 

 and do it up clean. 



Pitching off and mowing in our old fashioned 

 barns, the old way of "sweat and pitchfork" is per- 

 haps the best. It is a well known fact, that the 



sooner the hay is pitched off after it is loaded, the 

 less work it requires to do it. Therefore, unless 

 caught out late, never let a load stand over night. 

 I find it a great improvement to build chimne\^ in 

 my hay-mow, to carry off the heat and vapor, 

 thus preventing the heating and moulding in the 

 mow. Set four long, slim poles in the centre of the 

 mow, about one foot apart. Nail short pieces of 

 boards to keep them in, and fix a flue from the 

 bottom to the outside of the mow, to let in the cool 

 air, and a current of air will be formed and carry 

 off the heat, and cure the hay, if put in quite green, 

 so that it will come out next winter, fresh and sweet 

 as new mown hay. 



"I have," says the writer, "never gained anything 

 by putting my men at colossus work before break- 

 fast." My experience is entirely to the contrary. 

 I have not only gained by working my men in the 

 cool of the day, when they are full and strong, but 

 have lost much, when obliged to mow two hours 

 before dinner ; finding myself and men too much 

 exhausted to work or eat, and altogether unfit for 

 pitching in the afternoon. Now does this not 

 seem a more reasonable and practical way of do- 

 ing up the haying ? I have practised and found it, 

 with the other operations on my farm, so profita- 

 ble, that I find myself a liftle "above board ;" and 

 feeling somewhat weary from continued hard la- 

 bors, I feel disposed to take the world a little more 

 easy. To do so, I shall sell my home farm, situat- 

 ed two miles north from the thriving village of 

 Rutland, Vt. A beautiful location, and more par- 

 ticularly described in the advertisement on another 

 page. Your subscriber on Cream Hill. 



Whoa Haw Hush. 



CABBAGE INSECTS. 



Anbury, or finger and toes, and lice on cabbage. 

 — Probably the very best specific for the dire dis- 

 ease of Anbury on cabbage, is wood ashes. As 

 this in all country places is extremely easy to be 

 got at, it would be well for all those who take an 

 interest in their garden, to have this material sav- 

 ed for it, instead of giving it to the "soap man." 

 For independent of its utility for this purpose, it 

 is fine for keeping in check the fly on cabbage, and- 

 it is well known as a useful agent in the way of 

 manure. What we would advise is this. Have it 

 always collected and kept dry, in barrels or other- 

 wise, until wanted for use, and especially during 

 the season of making, the Winter. 



In the Spring, if more is accumulated than is 

 likely to be wanted for use in cabbage planting or 

 dusting to keep off insects, apply it to the ground, 

 and plow or dig in with other manures. 



At the time of planting cabbage, get some of 

 this wood ashes, and about its equal bulk of sand, 

 and mix together ; take a stick or crowbar, and 

 make a hole where each cabbage is to go, and fill 

 the hole up with the mixture — set the plant with 

 a dibble thick in the centre, and no Anbury will 

 ever trouble the plant, providing there was none 

 on it at the time of planting. 



Perhaps this is too much trouble for many who 

 read this, and inapplicable for the immense num- 

 bers planted — in such case a tolerable good sub- 

 slitue consists in making a "mush" of the same 

 material, thick enough to allow it to adhere w^ell 

 to the roots, and dip the same into it before plant- 

 ing. This has been found a good preventive in 



