1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
343 
cars and track are good, but one can hang the fork so 
that good work can be done without them. Some¬ 
times, especially in the older, lower barns and large 
mows, better work may be done as they can be fixed 
to drop the hay in different parts of the barn, while 
the track is stationary. To hang a fork I tie a small 
pulley to the top of the fork. Fasten a pulley to the 
foot of a post on the fioor opposite the side where hay 
is to be stored. Another, directly above this, is fast¬ 
ened to a rafter or crossbeam. The other is fastened as 
far back in the mow and as high as possible to a 
rafter. If the mow is large, this pulley can be shifted 
to either side as the mow fills. Run the rope through 
the pulley at the foot of the post, then straight up to 
the second, then down to and through the one on the 
fork, then to the pulley in the mow and back to the 
fork to which it is tied. This arrangement requires 
no boards nailed to the side of the mow, and takes up 
all the fork can be made to hold without binding 
against the sides. 
When and How to Begin. 
About July 1, here, the weather settles, and we have 
two or three weeks of “ hay weather,” clear, hot, dry, 
with light dews ; then is the time to rush things, and 
we aim to finish before uncertain weather begins. We 
can do so much more work at this time, that it is 
thought cheaper than to wait for the grass to get into 
the best condition. The kind of hay and what is to 
be done with it also affects the decision. As soon as 
clover is in full bloom, or even a^ittle before, it should 
be cut. Every day after, means decreased weight and 
quality, while Timothy will increase in weight until 
fully ripe. One acquaintance believes that this gain 
more than makes up for the loss in selling price, and 
never cuts until the seed is ripe. Hay cut while just 
in bloom will be dusty, and help make heavy horses. 
To delay cutting clover causes much loss from woody 
stems, which the stock will not eat, and loss of leaves 
by dropping off while hauling. Meadows mowed 
early, start into growth with vigor, and the aftermath 
soon protects the rcots, while the late cut often dies 
from exposure to the sun. Nothing is gained by cut¬ 
ting too close ; a few more pounds this year cause a 
run-out sod next. It is popularly supposed that late 
cut Timothy is wocdy and poor hay, but Messrs. San¬ 
born & Hunt found by experiment that for beef pro¬ 
duction, it was of more value than when cut earlier. 
For milk production, it is not so good. It lacks palat- 
ability, and the cows will not eat enough of it. 
To be a successful haymaker, one should be an ex¬ 
pert in weather signs. When the upper current of 
clouds begins to fioat from the west, it is safe to be¬ 
gin mowing. A clearing shower does not harm new- 
mown green grass. I have often mowed all I could 
handle the last half day and morning of a wet spell. 
While others were mowing, we were cocking and soon 
hauling. It is a safe rule to keep hauling whenever 
the hay is fit. One friend always gets 10 to 20 acres 
in cock before he will draw any. Last year every 
pound was out in a rain. If too much is mowed at 
once, it will get sunburned before it can be bunched. 
An extra hand during haying often proves a good in¬ 
vestment. 
Getting Hay From the Ground. 
If pitched on by hand, it is a saving of time to cock 
all hay. The men virtually bunch every forkful be¬ 
fore it is lifted on. While this is being done the team 
and loader are waiting. Most of us fail to do the 
fastest work when we try to do two things at once. 
One will find it of much advantage to grade the hay 
in the field. A few loads of No. 2 hay scattered in 
the mow will be the buyer’s excuse for buying the 
whole lot at No. 2 price. 1 cut all clover, weeds and 
mixed hay in all fields first, and store for feeding. 
When riper, heavier and in best possible condition, I 
cut for market. This will increase the value of the 
hay sold at least 82 per ton. All hay should be salted. 
Cattle relish it, it keeps better and will hold its 
weight in spring. At least a pint of fine salt to the 
ton should be used. The riper the hay the more it is 
sunburned, the looser it is mowed away, the bigger 
the cracks in the barn, th e dustier and poorer will be 
the hay. A lightly battened barn with greenish hay 
well tramped, comes nearer the principle of a silo, 
and will keep hay that would spoil in ordinary condi¬ 
tions. I have drawn in clover when the blossoms had 
not wilted, which came out all right; but it was en¬ 
tirely free from any moisture. Moisture foreign to 
the plant, as dew or rain, makes poor hay. The best 
clover hay is made by cutting when nearly in full 
bloom, raking’ as soon as the top is wilted, into small 
windrows with a rake that turns the bunches bottom 
side up when it dumps, and cocking into compact, 
well pressed bunches, which are to stand from one 
to two days. After this sweating, which dries out the 
surplus moisture, making syrup of the juices, retain¬ 
ing the color and aroma, the cocks should be inverted 
by putting a fork under the bottom and tipping them 
over. This should not be done until the outside is 
free from dew and is hot. As they tip over, the 
layers will separate and the air will dry out the moist¬ 
ure in a short time. Do not turn too many at a time, 
or they will get too dry before they can be drawn. 
The hay should be just dry enough so that one can 
not wring water out of it, and be warm to the touch 
when hauled. 
The best Timothy hay is made by cutting when 
just out of the second bloom. At this time, hay 
should lie in the swath but a short time, as it will sun¬ 
burn while still damp underneath. It should be 
raked into small windrows before noon, and drawn in 
the same day. If a loader be used, draw from the 
windrow, but I do not think the best quality of hay 
can be made without cocking. Make hay while the 
sun shines is all right, but expose as little of it as 
possible to the scalding sun, and depend on steaming 
shade. c. e. cdapman. 
HAY MAKING IN THE NORTHEAST CORNER. 
WHERE THEY SELL THE BEST AND FEED THE BEST. 
One of the few articles which the extreme North¬ 
east exports is hay, and naturally considerable care 
is given to this crop. The old saying “ You cannot 
have your cake and eat it, too,” is nullified in the case 
of the hay crop. We cater to the Boston market, to 
which we send our long, coarse Timothy. The best 
to feed is the finer textures, which we regard as much 
superior for cows, and better than the coarse for 
horses, so we sell the best and feed the best. The 
common rotation is grain, with occasionally a hoed 
crop followed by grain and grass. Not all see the 
benefits of clover, but the more progressive farmers 
sow the mixed grasses, and value clover at its true 
high value. All land, to grow clover and Timothy, 
must be manured or fertilized, and while a few keep 
up the grass after it begins to “ run out,” with 
plaster or a top-dressing of manure, the custom is to 
let the grass run down pretty fine and thin, then 
break up and reseed. It is wonderful to note the labor 
Nature herself expends upon the hay crop, and what 
desperate efforts, usually successful, she makes to 
A Farm “ Sittin’ Room.” Fio. 94. 
From Harper's Bazar. 
clothe the impoverished soil with nutritious grasses. 
Most of our land is now mowed by the machine. 
Not BO many years ago all good haymakers devoted 
much thought to sunning the hay and sweating it. 
It had to be “tumbled up,” and “ opened out,” and 
turned, till it was as dry as tinder, and it did keep 
well, though the fine smell was burned out of it, and 
it had been badly shrunk in weight. Now, the mo¬ 
ment it is fairly dry, it goes into the barn, and not 
only keeps as well, but comes out brighter, heavier, 
and altogether more appetizing and nutritious. In 
my own practice, after getting the hay down, and 
usually it is coming down, in good weather, at all 
times of the day, so as to keep enough on hand for the 
loading crew, it is raked into windrows, say after 3 
p. m., and left that way in good weather, till about 9 
the next morning. If rain threatens it is put into 
tumbles. After 9, the rake is again taken out, and if 
the windrows are quite heavy they are turned over 
with it. I have learned that the morning air plays 
as important a part in curing hay as the sun, and 
that hay, when fairly dry, dries out very rapidly in 
the windrow, and, what is better, retains its color and 
aroma. Much of the hay is not turned at all, but the 
rake is run along the windrow and the hay bunched an 
hour or two before it is loaded. All these turnings 
with the rake are more thorough than they can be 
done by hand, and very seldom is any hand work 
necessary, except when the hay has been wet. Then 
extra care is necessary, and close watching that no 
damp locks get into the mow to start the mass to 
beating. The rake is my mainstay. It takes the 
place of the tedder, and I think fills the bill. I can 
profitably keep one or two of them going about all 
the time after 9 or 10 in the morning. The loader I 
do not use. It is easy enough to get the hay on, 
while the horse fork and carrier take it off and stow 
it away. 
Old ground—fields which have been in hay 6 to 10 
years—is mowed first, and furnishes a fine quality of 
hay when early cut. By the time the Timothy is out 
of its first bloom that is reached, and we expect to 
close the haying season about July 20 to 25. One 
reason, perhaps, why hay is not so impoverishing a 
crop is the fact that in ordinary seasons its full growth 
is made in from seven to nine weeks in this latitude, 
and it has the rest of the season in which to recuperate 
and furnish “fall feed” for the many herds of cows 
that look expectantly over the fences of poor pastures. 
When not pastured, however, or pastured only 
moderately, grass seems to have wonderful recuper¬ 
ative powers. 
I may add that upon a trip west last year, going 
through New York and back through Maryland, I 
saw no grass equal to that in the Kennebec Valley in 
Maine. But candor compels me to add that it was 
the drought in the west that made this remark possi¬ 
ble. We had a wet September and the grass had the 
rank growth of June. o. 8. paine. 
Kennebec Co., Me. 
MAKING HAY UNDER THE BEST CONDITIONS. 
1 would cut Timothy when one-half the head had 
gone out of bloom, for then I would get the most 
available nutriment in the stalk and leaves, and have 
no seed to shatter and waste when feeding. I would 
commence cutting when the dew had dried off in the 
morning, and in the afternoon rake it into large wind¬ 
rows. Next morning as soop as the dew had dried off. 
and the sun was hot, I would send one man ahead to 
throw the windrows into “ tumbles,” and tell him to 
be sure and turn every part of the hay and make his 
tumbles on dry ground, not on the ground that had 
been covered by the windrows. These tumbles should 
be made in two rows, separated just enough for the 
wagon to pass between them, and by the time the man 
making them had got a good start, the wagon would 
follow with two pitchers and one loader and take up 
the hay. 
This seems simple enough, and it is simple, but the 
trouble lies in getting men to make the tumbles right; 
they will begin at one end of the windrow and roll 
the hay to the place where they wish to make the 
tumble, and leave it in such a tangled state that the 
pitchers have to tear it all to pieces in order to fork it 
to the loader. Moreover, the bottom of the tumble 
has not been disturbed at all, and, as it has been ab¬ 
sorbing dampness from the ground all night, will be 
hardly fit to go into the mow. If a man will stand 
alongside the windrow, he can take at one forkful a 
width of hay as it was left by the hay rake, and by 
using a little skill, he can manage so as to turn the 
top of the windrow down and leave the whole light 
and loose; then by taking two steps, he can get an¬ 
other hay-rake width of windrow and lay it lightly on 
the first; four steps will bring him to the third lot, 
which will be enough to make the tumble. Then he 
goes to the other row, and, after making that tumble, 
proceeds to the next windrow. One man can easily 
keep two pitchers at work if he knows how to save 
steps and work to advantage. If the pitchers under¬ 
stand their business, they will not jam their forks into 
the top of the tumble and strain themselves by trying 
to lift the whole at one forkful—scattering a good 
part of it on the ground and sides of the load—but will 
take it off in the order in which it was put up and de¬ 
liver it to the loader in such shape that he can place 
it with the least expenditure of muscle. 
I have never used a hay loader or tedder. The ted¬ 
der is a useful implement, particularly in catchy 
weather and in curing clover hay. 
Later in the season, when Timothy has gone out of 
bloom, the seed has formed and the sun is hotter, it 
may be cut and mowed away the same day, and will 
make very good hay, but not as good as when cut 
earlier. Cut before the whole head goes out of bloom, 
and cured as I have described the hay will be of a 
green color, fragrant, and will weigh well if it is to be 
sold. One object sought in putting hay in tumbles in 
the way I recommend, is that the hay gets a good 
airing with the least exposure to the sun, and there 
will be no damp bunches to make it mold in the mow. 
Hay made in this manner costs about as little for hand 
labor as any way I have tried ; and it is a sure way 
to make good hay when the weather conditions are 
favorable. A. l. crosby. 
WHY HE SOLD THE COWS! 
MILK AND FRUIT WOULD NOT SWIM TOGETHKR. 
How They Used to Farm. 
My father and mother owned about 150 acres of 
land and had but two boys, myself and a younger 
brother. In the spring of 1883, father bought an 
adjoining farm and went in debt about 81,400. We 
did not have enough land to make a living on. The 
wheat, about 10 to 12 acres, on the home farm that 
year was not cut. We did not get the seed that went 
on the ground. A good part of it was on Blue grass 
sod not more than half plowed, was sowed broadcast 
on the furrows, and harrowed in. In fact, this was 
not the first year in which we did not raise our seed, 
and very often we had to buy our flour. 
Last year my wheat averaged from 33 to 35 bushels 
per acre. From the spring of 1883 to the spring of 
