36 BULLETIN 1271, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR OX FLAX 
In time of seeding, flax has a much wider range than any of the 
other spring-sown grain crops. The flax plant is frost tender and 
can not be safely sown as early as oats or barley; but, since it is not 
subject to rust as are other grains and is less affected by hot weather, 
it can be sown much later in the spring than any other grain crop. 
The seeding time on these farms varied from May 14 to June 15. 
Harvest varied from July 26 to September 5. This elasticity in the 
time of seeding and harvest makes it possible to fit the crop in at a 
time when it will interfere least with the labor demands of other crops, 
TAME HAY 
Tame hay is always seeded with small grain, usually oats, as a 
nurse crop. Since the seed is either mixed with the grain in the drill 
box or sown with a grass-seeding attachment to the drill, there is prac- 
tically no extra labor involved in seeding the crop. Sixty per cent of 
the tame grass seeded during the three years of this study was a mix- 
ture of timothy and red, or alsike, clover. The remainder was clear 
clover. The practice of seeding clear clover is increasing rapidly. 
In 1920 less than one-third of the grass seeding was clear clover, but in 
1922 two-thirds of the acreage was sown clear. In case of the mix- 
ture, the first year's crop is largely clover, but the following year the 
timothy predominates and increases from year to year until the field 
is plowed up. Clear-clover seeding is usually cut only one year and 
then plowed up. It is the usual practice in the Windom area to cut 
only one crop of tame hay a year and then pasture the field. A 
small acreage is cut for seed. 
Most of the acreage cut for hay is raked, although some is picked 
up directly from the swath with a hay loader. A small acreage 
is tedded before raking and some is cocked by hand. Most of the 
tame hay is hauled into the barn, but any in excess of the mow space, 
or any from fields distant from the barn, is stacked in the field. Some 
of the hay stacked is pitched on a wagon or loaded with a loader and 
pitched onto the stack by hand. Usually, however, a sweep rake and 
swinging stacker or a bucking pole is used. 
LABOR REQUIREMENTS FOR TAME HAY PRODUCTION 
The labor requirement for tame hay are shown in Tables 27 and 
28. The operation of hauling and stacking includes both hauling to 
the barn and stacking in the field. Since a portion of the hay from 
so many fields was put in the barn and the remainder stacked, it has 
been impossible to separate the requirements for these operations. 
