Zhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
763 
Hay Making, West of the Missouri 
Part I. 
T HE I AY OF THE LAND,—Growing, cutting 
nnd .storing the hay crop in the region west of 
the Missouri River is quite a different proposition 
from what it is in the East in many ways. In the 
first place, our land is quite level and usually free 
from stones, forest trees and shrubs. Then our 
Uncle Sam, when he surveyed it, laid it off in blocks, 
each of which is a mile square and contains *>40 
acres. These blocks are called sections. Entirely 
surrounding each section is a public road 66 feet 
wide, or rather each section borders on four public 
roads—one on each of the four sides. These roads 
shake it off behind fast, enough to prevent clogging. 
When pulling these masses of wet green hay the 
driver must scatter them to insure their drying out 
properly. When the field is also infested with 
pocket, gophers the job is -certainly a temper-trying 
one, for it is difficult to see the mounds of wet loose 
earth that these pests have thrown up in time to 
raise the sickle bar over them. That same wet 
loose earth will very often clog up between two or 
three mower guards, thus forcing the driver to stop 
and clean them out. When cutting along the side 
of the field where the Alfalfa is lodged in the same 
operating what is called a buck-rake or hay-sweep. 
A buck-rake is built a little like the old-fashioned 
wooden revolving rake that our fathers used 50 
years ago. It has big flat wooden teeth 10 ft. long, 
tipped with steel points. It is about 15 ft. wide, 
and is mounted on two low wheels that carry most 
of the weight. Sometimes there is a driver's seat 
behind, so he can ride and put all the weight, on the 
wheels when going out after a load. lie does this 
by counterbalancing the little weight that is carried 
on the points of the teeth while sliding along on the 
ground. One horse is hitched to each end of rake 
Loading Wagon With ■ Straight-sided /fat¬ 
al ways run straight north and south or east and 
west. A very convenient system, bj* the way. Each 
section is usually divided into four farms of 160 
acres each, often called “quarters" for convenience 
in designating the number of acres. Except when 
cut up by streams or little valleys our fields are 
very convenient in shape and size for working 
machinery. 
CORN AND ALFALFA.—In the irrigated regions 
of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and 
Colorado, and in the corn-growing regions of the 
same States, probably 90 per cent of the hay crop 
is made from Alfalfa, so I will tell you about that 
first. While corn is king with us. Alfalfa is queen. 
They are a great pair. One supplies our live stock 
with the fat and the other with the muscle. Fed 
together they make an almost perfectly balanced 
ration. 
FIRST CUTTING.—The first cutting of Alfalfa 
is usually ready for the mower ou June 1. We try 
to cut as soon as the new shoots of the next crop 
show at the crown of the plant, just above the sur¬ 
face of the ground. If we wait longer we lose many 
leaves, which are the most valuable part of the bay, 
and if we wait till the new shoots are high enough 
to he cut off by the mower the next crop is consid- 
. Fig. 310 T, 
direction that the mower is going it is sometimes 
impossible to do good work or to cut it at all. 
CURING IN THE SWATII.—After cutting we 
allow the Alfalfa to lie in the swath till the leaf 
stems get nearly dry enough to break off easily 
before raking it into windrows. Some farmers only 
wait till it is impossible to wring any juice out of 
the stems by twisting them. Strange as it may 
seem, it can actually be put into the stack at fhat 
stage, and it will keep, too, usually, but will get 
very hot in stack drying, and sometimes will actually 
set itself on fire. The writer once found charred 
bay in one of his stacks when opened in the Winter. 
Only the fact that it was packed so very tight with 
its own weight that not enough air could get in 
saved me a disastrous fire. I expect. Although the 
common steel dump rake is usually used in raking 
Alfalfa, the side-delivery rake is considered the 
best, as it does not handle the hay so roughly, nor 
break off so many leaves. It wears out quickly, 
hence it is not in general use. Tt leaves the hay iu 
loose windrows that dry out better. 
LOADING.—As hay usually dries out very rapidly 
with us, we only leave it in the windrows a very 
few hours under favorable conditions. Then if it 
is to he put in barn or barrack we load it onto 
e Fade Nearly Filled. Fig. 311 
alongside a guide pole, which also serves like a 
tongue in a wagon when it is desired to back up the 
rake: short chains from the breast straps of the 
horses to front ends of poles. Each horse is guided 
with a long pair of lines. 
OPERATING THE HAY SWEEP. — Arriving 
where loading is to begin the driver guides his 
horses so that one is on each side of the windrow, 
and starts back in the general direction of the stack, 
loading as he goes. This causes the rake teeth to 
run in under the windrow and gather it up as they 
go along. The teeth being a foot or so apart, the 
hay tends to pile up us more is received, till it 
frequently is 5 or 6 ft. high and the full width of 
the rake, and as far front as the teeth will hold. 
A full load is from a quarter to half a ton or more. 
It looks like a little moving haystack. An exper¬ 
ienced team and driver can certainly bring a lot of 
hay to the stack in a short time with such an outfit. 
Waiting at the stack is what is called a stacker. 
This is built with the same kind of teeth as the 
rake, but it lias two complete sets standing at nearly 
right angles to each other. When in position to 
receive the load from the buck-ralie the lower 
stacker teeth rest with the outer points on the 
ground, while the other set point up and a little 
erahly delayed, as then more new shoots must be 
grown first. The first cutting is usually the heaviest 
of the season, but not the most valuable, because of 
its coarseness, and sometimes there are some weeds 
in it. Being of rank, coarse growth, the stems are 
hard and woody, and so not relished well by the 
stock. On the rich river bottom lands the first crop 
is often liip high to an ordinary man when it is 
straightened up. To cut such a crop one needs a 
strong, lively team, an extra high strong dividing 
or swath board on the mower, and a lot of patience 
on the part of the driver, for he will likely have to 
stop quite often to clear away (or off) from 50 to 
125 lbs. of Alfalfa from his sickle bar, for it is so 
thick and heavy that the sickle bar does uot always 
vagons fitted with basket racks with hay slings in 
place. These basket racks run from 7x13 to SxlG ft. 
in size, with sides from 4 to G ft. high at corners and 
ends, hut very low midway of sides for ease of load¬ 
ing. Mostly this is done by hand, but more and 
more farmers are getting hay-loaders since help lias 
been so scarce. With a loader and a hay sling out¬ 
fit iu the barn a man can put up his hay crop alone, 
except that lie must get his wife or children to drive 
the team for him. Mostly in the past, the practice 
has been to stack the Alfalfa in the field. 
FIELD STACKS.—This is done with haying out¬ 
fits that, have been developed mostly during the past 
15 jears by Western machinery manufacturers. The 
bay is brought to the stack by a man and two horses 
back. The load on the buck-rake is now pushed 
just as far onto the stacker teeth as the horses can 
force it from the front, after which they back the 
rake out from under the load and go for another 
load at once. With power furnished by either a 
team or a gasoline engine the stacker now raises up 
the load aud drops it on the stack almost exactly 
as a man would toss a forkful of bay over bis head, 
except that the stacker raises its load about 15 ft. 
high before it slides off the points of the upper set 
of teetli. A combined machine is now made that 
does the work of both the buck-rake and the stacker. 
It is a success, too, in.spite of its bulky, awkward 
appearance. - j. h. tubbs. 
