284 MANAGEMENT OF MEADOWS. 



however slight. The same may be said of several of the 

 true grasses, and of all the leguminous plants. 



Some, intending to feed all their hay, construct these 

 shelters with a rack in the centre, and a set of joists about 

 six feet from the ground, thus furnishing both food and 

 shelter to the stock at the same time, and obviating the 

 necessity of further handling. 



Another plan of feeding, is to build a shelter with a 

 sliding roof, or one that will rest on a large stack, and 

 descend with the hay as it is eaten underneath, while the 

 bottom is planked up around about five feet high, to pre- 

 vent the stock from treading on the hay. But this is more 

 expensive and does not afford any shelter to the cattle, like 

 the sheds provided with central racks. 



When it is not desired to have a number of sheds, and it 

 is the intention of the farmer to soon dispose of his crop, it 

 is customary to provide one shed, sufficiently large, in a 

 convenient locality adjacent to the meadow, and stack all 

 the hay just outside and around it, or near enough to be 

 tossed under it to a hay press, and as soon as the crop is all 

 secured the baling begins, and is continued until it is all 

 stored in the form of bales beneath the shed, where it can 

 safely await a favorable time for sale. Right here, let it be 

 remembered that if a farmer wants a good price for his hay. 

 it must be prepared with a view to sale from the beginning. 

 It must be free of weeds, as no man, who purchases hay, 

 wants to pay three or four cents a pound for worthless or 

 noxious weeds, and however good these weeds may be, and 

 there are some that are good feed, no man wants to pay hay 

 prices for them. So should the meadow be infested with 

 weeds, and they are cut with the hay, it will pay the farmer 

 to have boys go over the windrows where they are all col- 

 lected with the hay and pull them out. Of course they will 

 not all be withdrawn, but many of them will be carried to 

 the stack. In baling, it can be culled again and the greater 

 part taken out, and should it not be done, it will enable the 



