AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
A 
176 
[June, 
GOING TO THE HAY FIELD. 
Engraved for the American Agriculturist, 
Tlie above engraving, from an English paint¬ 
ing, shows the bright side of Haying time in that 
country. The artist represents the whole fami¬ 
ly going forth to participate in the labors which 
are to transform the waving grass into stores of 
winter forage. The girls as well as the boys, 
will have a hand in the business, and their rud¬ 
dy cheeks, when they return at night, will glow 
with the bloom which healthful exercise imparts. 
Even the baby is taken along to nestle and crow 
in a bed of new mown hay. Last season we 
saw many English haying scenes, none exactly 
like the above, but there were often gangs of 
thirty to fifty men and women all in one field, 
and when done there, they passed on to the next 
estate. The almost perpetual rains there, re¬ 
quired much more “making” of the hay than 
in our dryer climate. We felt half tempted to 
set up the business of supplying “ liay-caps,” 
for we arc quite sure they would be a god-send 
there. They pay with us, where much longer 
seasons of dry weather can be depended upon. 
Were we presenting an American scene, we 
should perhaps show only two persons, one 
driving a mowing machine, and the other fol¬ 
lowing with a horse-rake. Our labor-saving 
machines have in many sections of the country 
done away with much of the picturesque and 
poetical in hay-making; but we can afford to 
loose these if they bring us larger crops and in 
enlarging our home comforts help us to a higher 
civilization. Still, on many farms, especially in 
new countries, the scythe, the hand-rake, and 
the pitchfork are to be used in securing the 
great liay-crop,—great, for it is more valuable 
than cotton was in the best days of its reign,— 
great, for it is part of an ever present miracle, 
an intermediate stage between gross earthy ma¬ 
terial and life sustaining milk and meat. 
It is not in Europe alone that women go into 
the field. In this war time, where the absence 
of men has made labor scarce, women, who are 
ever in advance of men in patriotism, take a 
share of the farm labor upon them. We have 
just now a letter from “Elizabeth,” in Iowa, 
who says: “ Last year I helped my father stack 
our hay, nearly twenty tons, and felt all the 
better for it. I am willing to work out of doors 
for years yet, and let my brother fight for our 
country. I would rather do it than that one 
star should fall from our glorious old Flag.”— 
With such women as these to take care of the 
homes, who shall despair of the country I 
House Pitch-fours. —Next to the mowing 
machine and horse-rake, the horse pitch-fork will 
be found the most valuable labor-saving imple¬ 
ment tor the hay making season. Very good 
forks, with pulleys and ropes complete, cost 
about a dozen dollars, the interest of which is 
less than a dollar a year. With one of these, a 
load of hay is quickly and easily raised and 
deposited in the highest mow, by a horse. Sev¬ 
eral kinds are made, any one of which is better 
than none. Two good ones were advertised 
last month, and they may be in this paper. 
