July, 1933] Roughage Production in New Hampshire 29 



III. HAY PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT AND COSTS. 



Labor requirements on hay: 



The labor by operations required for hay is shown in Tables 25-27. 



Table 25. Hours of labor by operotions per acre avd per ton on 22,102.5 tons of per- 

 manent haif raised on 15,270.5 acres. 



Seeding: 



Four methods of seeding permanent hay are usually as follows: 

 seeding wnth oats cut for grain, seeding with oats or some other annual 

 plant cut for hay, seeding in late summer after some annual \\&y crop, 

 and seeding in corn after the last cultivation. 



Only a small amount of plowing was done for permanent hay. 

 Plowing labor was charged to the small grain or annual hay crop, ex- 

 cept on those areas unsuitable for inclusion in the regular rotation, 

 which were plow^ed, fertilized and reseeded without the use of an an- 

 nual hay or a cultivated crop. 



Seeding as such is included with the annual hay-crop seeding. The 

 usual better hay stand obtained where seeding follows the harvest of 

 the annual hay crop, warrants the extra labor involved. The items 

 of plowing, fitting and seeding constitute a small proportion of the 

 total time per acre, yet good practice in these operations is so essential 

 for a good hay crop that any change should be directed toward obtain- 

 ing a better roughage. The most common seeding mixture is about 

 10 pounds of timothy, three pounds of red top, four of alsike, and six of 

 red clover. This is modified to meet special conditions such as wet 

 land, light soil, suitable alfalfa soil, permanence of seeding, amount of 

 manure available, and pasture use. Many farms are able to obtain a 

 better (juality of hay by reducing the amount of manure applied for 

 corn and using more as a light top dressing for hay. The shorter ro- 

 tation makes possible the production of a larger proportion of legume 

 hay. including more alsike and red clover, and on suitable soils alfalfa 

 in the seeding mixture. Such an alfalfa mixture contains not more 

 than six pounds of timothy, eight pounds of red and five of alsike clov- 

 er with four to six of alfalfa. This has produced very satisfactory re- 

 sults on several of the farms studied. 



