xviii BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The Hay Ckop. 

 The great question of supplying cheap forage for our cattle 

 will never be solved until we realize that we are growing a 

 smaller hay crop per acre than is commensurate with profit- 

 able agriculture. The average for 1912 was less than 1^ 

 tons per acre, with a value of less than $27, and yet the high 

 prices for hay which have prevailed the past five years ought 

 to have stimulated the growing of better crops of hay. The 

 greater part of our hay land is capable of producing over 

 4- tons per acre, and while much other land is light, and 

 suffers during a dry season, yet with proper care even this 

 should produce 2 tons per acre. Many of us are apt to think 

 that hay land will go on producing indefinitely without any- 

 thing being returned to the soil, not realizing that once a 

 hay field is well started the application of a few dollars' 

 worth of fertilizer each year will often more than double the 

 crop. The proper top-dressing of our hay lands each year 

 should be a more regular practice on our farms, and this 

 with the use of modern hay tools would materially reduce the 

 cost of producing hay. Too much stress has been laid on 

 the need of large barns for hay storage. Many of us would 

 be better off with smaller barns, using Dutch barns or open 

 sheds for storing hay. The costly upkeep of buildings on 

 many of our l^ew England farms has discouraged the second 

 and third generations from continuing on the farms. 



Alfalfa. 

 We have heard a great deal during the past few years 

 about growing alfalfa in Massachusetts, and a greater inter- 

 est than ever before is being manifested in this crop. Cer- 

 tainly the successful cultivation of it will have much to do 

 in solving the dairy question. We have quantities of land 

 suited to the growing of this crop, and yet at the present time 

 there are only about 300 acres actually planted and producing 

 in the State. Eour crops a year have been cut from many 

 fields, with an annual average of 5 tons of dry hay per acre, 

 although in most cases the crop is used to feed green. Many 

 experiments are being tried in the use of alfalfa as a silage 



