AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
£07 
Prolific Clover. 
We recently counted seventy-six stalks spring¬ 
ing from a single root of the common red clover. 
It grew upon a reclaimed muck swamp and was 
very rank. One can see from this instance the 
enormous productiveness of a single seed of this 
plant, and its great advantage as a green crop for 
turning in to ameliorate the condition of the soil. 
Every one of the myriad leaves draws carbon from 
the air, and furnishes it to the soil in its most 
available form. Clover with plaster is an indis¬ 
pensable crop in the rotation adopted by many of 
the Pennsylvania farmers. It precedes the wheat 
crop, and secures that fine tilth, which is found to 
be so important in the cultivation of that cereal. 
The roots of the clover plant are much larger 
than those of the common grasses and extend 
deeper into the subsoil. The decay of these roots, 
leaving vacant spaces for the passage of air and 
water, must have a considerable influence upon 
the mechanical condition of the soil. As a forage 
crop, clover is undervalued. The yield is not only 
very large, but the quality, as tested by experi¬ 
ment, stands among the best. 
— -- » - —-» — 
Hay Caps Again. 
If all our older readers kept the last volume, and 
we had not many thousand new ones to look out for, 
we would simply say: read last year’s sugges¬ 
tions. The fact is, we know these hay caps are 
among the most useful and economical imple¬ 
ments for all hay-makers on a small or large 
scale ; and we are also aware that not over one 
farmer in a hundred has yet tried them, and until 
they do we shall keep at the subject, giving line 
upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and 
there—a good deal. 
By a Hay Cap, we mean a simple square pieces 
of unbleached, unprepared cotton cloth, with a cord 
sewed upon each corner and tied to a wooden pin. 
Our engraving fig. 1, show one of these caps 
spread out, and fig. 2, one of the pins— rather 
magnified. 
Fig- 2. 
To make them, get a piece of cheap, coarse, 
unbleached cotton, the more closely woven the 
better. That 2 yards wide is best, though IJor 
li yards wide will do, if a wider kind is not at 
hand. Cut or tear this into square pieces. The 
torn edges may be hemmed or not, as they will 
unravel very little. If there is abundant time, it 
is better to hem them. Fasten a strong small cord 
upon each of the four corners, and to this tie a 
wooden pin about a foot long, say one inch in di¬ 
ameter at the blunt end and sharpened to a point 
at the other. These pins may be rough or whit¬ 
tled smooth. They may be cut from twigs or 
from branches of trees ; or they may be split from 
a straight grained inch board sawn into lengths 
of one foot. A single notch in the blunt end will 
hold the cord from slipping off. You can cut the 
cloth, make the pins, tie them on, and complete 
ten or a dozen caps in an hour. All painting or 
varnishing preparations upon the cloth are worse 
than useless. The plain cloth will shed rain as 
well as a cotton umbrella, while any substance 
put on to make it water tight will prevent the es¬ 
cape of the moisture from the damp grass, which 
of course is not desirable. 
The engraving, fig. 3, shows how to use the 
caps. In the cut, however, the hay-cock is repre¬ 
sented too flat; in practice it should be more 
pointed in the center, in order to shed off rain 
well. Cut down the hay; let it wilt a little; 
pitch it into cocks, and throw a cap over each, 
fastening down the four corners with the wooden 
pins attached to them. Your hay may then stand 
until it is cured, and afterwards until you are 
ready to take it in. Twenty or thirty, or more 
of these caps may be laid flat one upon the other; 
then two persons can take hold of the bottom one 
and thus carry them along. They drop the pile 
by the side of a hay-cock, seize the corner pins of 
the upper cap, spread it over the hay and pin it 
down ; then take up the remaining caps and go 
Fig. 3. 
on to the next cock. Two active persons can in 
this way cover eight or ten tons of hay in a single 
hour, and as quickly remove and gather the caps. 
Advantages. —Every one is familiar with the fact, 
that hay “ cured in the cock ” is greatly superior 
to that dried in the sun. By curing in this way 
there is far less waste of leaves and “scatterings,” 
than when gathered into windrows after being 
dried. This is especially the case with clover. 
The average annual loss in haying, from damage 
by rains and dews, is much greater than is gener¬ 
ally supposed. It is a low estimate to say that 
this loss is equal to one dollar per ton on all the 
hay cut in the country. Who can estimate the 
number of animals which are rendered unhealthy 
and often lost from eating musty damaged hay 1 
Who that has carried hay to market does not 
know that bright, green colored, well cured hay 
will bring two to five dollars a ton more than the 
same hay in a dark colored, “ banged,” poorly 
cured condition. The feeding value of hay de¬ 
pends much upon the amount of sugar, starch and 
gum it contains, but in sun-drying much of these 
materials is changed to woody fiber. All of this 
is obviated by having a supply of cloth hay caps 
(umbrellas), so that you can not only dry it in 
cocks despite rains and dews, but also take your 
own time for doing it. Let us estimate 
The cost and profit of Hay Caps. —At 14 cents a 
yard for the cloth, a cap H yards square will cost 
21 cents. The making can be done at odd spells, 
or on rainy days, and this trifling cost need not be 
reckoned. A dozen of them, costing $2.50, will 
cover a ton of hay. They may be used, on an av¬ 
erage, at least three times fach season. If care¬ 
fully housed they will last ten years. This will 
be $2 50 for covers for 30 tons, or about 8 cents 
per ton. Allowing even 50 per cent for interest 
and storage, we have a cost of only 12 cents per 
ton, or a dollar for 8 tons. But we may even double, 
this last estimate and the cost would then be only 
twenty-five cents a ton for all the advantages to be 
derived from the use of the caps. 
Other uses of the Caps. —The caps provided for 
hay may also be used for covering wheat and 
other grains standing in shooks in the field. It 
will pay to provide them for this purpose alone. 
We have heard of their being used over corn. 
When used for this purpose, they are of course 
subjected to longer exposure to weather, and 
will not last as many years, but even then thej 
will pay we think. 
Large Caps for Wagons. —Several persons have 
used, and recommend providing one or more 
large sheets to throw over loads of hay and grain 
in an emergency, and also over stacks necessari¬ 
ly left unfinished at night, or interrupied by show¬ 
ers. The plan is doubtless a good one. 
We have received very numerous letters from 
subscribers, saying that even last Summer, which 
was a comparatively dry one, they found the 
caps to pay double their whole cost, in one 
season. Try a few of them this year, and if your 
experience is so different from that of others 
that you do not think they will pay, why the cloth 
will not be lost. Your wife will tell you that 
“cotton cloth never comes amiss, no matter what 
shape it is in.” 
- — o .. . 
A Plea for Moles. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Hogg, the Ettriek shepherd, observed that on 
lands tenanted by the mole, the foot-rot in sheep 
was much less prevalent than where they had 
been extirpated. An intelligent farmer in the 
south of England, writes : “ From long and at¬ 
tentive observation I feel satisfied that no animal 
is more beneficial in its calling than the mole. 
The farmer, I think, ignorantly and wantonly de¬ 
stroys them. Were he to reflect a little, and 
make a few observations he would, in most cases, 
protect and not destroy them, as they are very 
interesting assistants to his labors. They destroy 
the wire-worm and all kinds of grubs, and so 
beneficial is this, that I have seen many fields ol 
corn greatly injured, if not destroyed, by the moles 
not being permitted to work in them. I never 
allow them to be trapped. Year before last I had 
afield of wheat in u'hich the moles were busily at 
work. I was anxious to preserve them, but, in 
my absence, a neighboring mole-catcher entrap¬ 
ped them. Exactly at the place fiom which they 
were removed, and for about an acre further into 
the field, the wire-worm entirely destroyed my 
wheat. I made it my business to examine many 
places in the neighborhood where traps were set. 
In one field I saw eight traps in an area of about 
an acre of wheat. I examined the place and found 
the worm at the root of almost all the plants. Sev¬ 
eral other fields were examined where traps were 
set in the same manner with results always the 
the same.” 
Some time ago I was passing with a friend over 
a field, and he observed that it would grow nothing 
on account of the wire-worm. I told him to get 
moles. “ Why,” said he, “ we cannot keep them 
out of it; we destroy quantities of them every 
year!” I said, “ don’t destroy them.” He took my 
advice, let the moles mind their own business, 
and si:.«e that time the field has borne excellent 
crops. This may be new to some of your read¬ 
ers. A Whistler at the Plow. 
