396 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SPECIAL. 
WHAT GRASSES AND CLOVERS ARE 
MOST VALUABLE FOR HAY: WHEN 
AND HOW MUCH SEED SHOULD BE 
SOWN; AT WHAT PERIOD OF ITS 
GROWTH SHOULD IT BE CUT; HOW 
CURED; SHOULD IT BE SOWN SEP¬ 
ARATELY OR WITH SOME OTHER 
CROP? ETC., ETC., ETC. 
Answers from Dr. W. J, Beal, of Michigan; 
Gen. Wm. G, Le Due, of Minnesota: Major H. 
E. Alvord, of Houghton Farm; Professor 
G. E. Morrow ,of Illinois; Waldo F. Brown, 
of Ohio: Prof. W. Brown, of Canada; J. 
B. Armstrong, of California; Prof. J. 
Troop, of Indiana; D. IF. Smith, of Illinois; 
Prof. E. M. Shelton, of Kansas; Prof. J. W. 
Sanborn.ot Missouri; Sec, Phil, M. Springer; 
Jonathan Talcott; F. P. Foot; Daniel Bat¬ 
chelor y T. D. Curtis; A. C. Glidden; L. N. 
Bonham, and others. 
A FEW NOTES ON THE GRASSES. 
DR. W. J. BEAL. 
Which grasses and clovers are the most 
valuable for hay? That depends on locality, 
whether East, West, North, South or Middle; 
whether the land isdry or moist, sand or clay; 
whether for one, two, or more years. In 
Michigan Timothy has long held first rank as 
a grass for meadow, though some of us think 
that for certain places other grasses are pre¬ 
ferable. Tall Oat Grass, for meadow or pasture 
on light land, has been tried in quite a 
number of places, and has given universal 
satisfaction. It must be cut rather early, as it 
soon becomes of poor quality after flowering. 
In some places Orchard Grass is raised and 
preferred to anything else, especially on very 
rich, strong laud where it is to remain for 
several years. Many do not give it a fair 
trial, and do not study it long enough to know 
its peculiarities, and stick to Timothy for 
everything, or add clover to it. 
1 know of no fields of Taller Fescue iu our 
State; but think that, if tried, it would prove 
a very strong competitor to Timothy for similar 
soils and uses, and much better for pasture. 
Most of the seed is mixed with that of Rye 
Grass, which it much resembles, and which is 
much cheaper and of little value for Michigan. 
Red Top is generally sown on river bottoms 
for hay or pasture. June Grass, or Kentucky 
Blue Grass, soon works into pastures, unless 
they are frequently broken up, and makes fine 
food for all kinds of live stock. Its growth is 
rather small, but it is of excellent quality. 
White Clover is a fickle plant and works into 
soils adapted to it; it is sometimes, though sel¬ 
dom, sown purposely. Medium Red Clover is 
a great favorite, sown without any grass on 
sandy land, or with Timothy on heavy or 
loamy land. It is mown one year and pas¬ 
tured one. 
It is the custom—and probably a correct 
one for this IState — to sow the grasses in 
Autumn and the clover in Spring, after the 
coldest weather is over. The date had belter 
not be given, as it would do more harm than 
good, on account of the diversity of seasons 
and the different latitudes. How much per 
acre? I do not know what to say. Practical 
farmers vary in this respect, some sowing five 
times as much as others. I do not know who 
are right, in the East more seed is sown per 
acre than iu the West. The land is too often 
in poor condition for fine seeds aud many are 
wasted. At what period in its growth should 
it be cut? Rrofessor Sanborn, of Missouri, 
and some others will tell yon to let Timothy 
and other true grasses get well towards seeding 
before cutting. Most people think it best to 
cut about the time of flowering. If tbe 
weather is favorable, I prefer to begin to cut 
some before flowering. I am not a farmer, 
and like many others, give au opinion, iustead 
of the results of careful and repeated feed 
tests. It may be a long time yet before we 
can answer this question. 
In Michigan nearly every farmer follows 
the fashion, and ‘’seeds down” with wheat or 
oats, rarely with barley. True, it is quite a 
common thing, if the season is wet, to see 
Timothy crowding on the wheat aud damag¬ 
ing the crop. If tbe land is not in first-class 
order and strong, a failure to “catch” is quite 
common, and leaves the farmer with unset 
tied plans for meadow. He usually hurries off 
to town and buys some seed of Huugariau 
Grass to patch out his hay crop, aud reluc¬ 
tantly plows up what should be his meadow. 
A few, very few, have tried sowing grasses 
and clovers on well prepared land with no 
other crop, and every one who sees the result 
is pleased with it. In a good season, a fair 
crop may be cut the first year, and a failure 
to catch is unknown. 
Ag. Coll., Lansing, Mich. 
PROF. J. W. SANBORN. 
The questions asked me by the Rural I will 
answer according to the light of my personal 
experience, mainly. 
First: The most valuable grasses and clov¬ 
ers for bay will depend much upon the variety 
of soil and its physical condition. Under 
favorable conditions, I have yet to find auy 
single grass that will supplant Timothy (Phle- 
um pratense). I am bound, however, to state 
that my experience with varieties is limited, 
having had very bad luck with the seed of 
varieties that are only in limited demand, 
such seed almost invariably turning out too old 
to germiuate, or not being true to name. At 
present, I have only 23 varieties under obser¬ 
vation. Red Clover (Trifolium pratensp) is, 
in my experience, unsurpassed by any other 
sort for good loamy soils. It is easy to 
make three to five tons of dry Timothy or 
Clover per acre. This will give as much or¬ 
ganic matter per acre as a good crop of corn 
and its fodder, or fodder corn for ensilage. 
Thus these grasses do well if they yield as 
much as corn, a rank-growing grass; and 
when we find better, we shall have a prize. 
Second: The seed has been sown by me over 
most of the spring, late summer and fall 
months. If sown in the Fall, it should be done 
as early as tbe first half of September, and 
better before, or it will not root enough to 
stand a bad Winter. Clover should not be 
sown in uorthern latitudes in the Falk After 
much shifting experience, I now prefer spring 
sowing, and even am not averse to sowing 
with grain crops. I have had but little of the 
bitter experience cotuplaiued of by mauy in 
sowing grasses wilh other crops. Grass is, in 
its early stages, a slow grower, and I can get 
good results iu grain, aud under the best con¬ 
ditions, a crop of grass the first year. On a 
flue filth aud a fertile soil, l think few will 
fail to secure good grass with a light seeding 
of grain. Grass alone, sown in the Spring, is 
out-grown by the rapid gi'owing annual 
weeds, which have to be cut, or the misery of 
their seeding is experienced. 
For several years on a large farm I grew 
little or nothing except grass. When 1 had corn 
aud raised no other grain, I sowed the grass 
occasionally in the corn after the last hoeing. 
I have done much seeding in August, and 
some ou the early frosts of Spriug, or late 
spring snows (tbe latter method is a bad one), 
but now, in a rotation system of crops, I sow 
in the Spring, and meet with good success; 
and if, in any degree, I have a failure, I cau 
sow again on all thin spots, after the grain is 
off, and still again in tbe Spring when the 
frost is working tbe ground, or in the Fall, 
after the spring sowing, on the fall frosts after 
it is too Jate for germinatiou. These night 
frosts aud day thawings open aud close the 
grouud aud let the seed in well, and, on the 
whole. Fall is a good time -to sow for several 
reasons, when one is determined to sow grass 
seed alone, or when one is sowiug over dead 
spots for new grass. It is bd important mat¬ 
ter to inspect all fields or sections that need 
re-seeding. Indeed, an annual seeding of fields 
is nature s way, and is often profitable. 
Third: The amount of seed should vary from 
six quarts to about as many bushels. The 
poorer tbe farming and the more dishonest the 
seed dealer, the more seed will be required. 
Given a soil in flue tilth—that is, plowed well, 
harrowed by a harrow that lifts and pulver¬ 
izes it, is smoothed off and fiued with a harrow 
on the Thomas Harrow principle; if the seed 
is brushed in with a light brush-harrow, and 
if the soil is an open one, or if it’s a little dry, 
rolled; if the seed is home-raised, or not over 
a year old, and well kept, aud tbe soil is fat 
with good available plant food—six quarts of 
Timothy or six pounds ?f clover will seed au 
acre. Per contra, if, instead of a fine, rich 
soil open to, aud inviting tiny rootlets in all 
directions, we have a cloddy soil, plowed bad¬ 
ly when wet, and half tilled, where dry lumps 
repel the minute I'oots of the small seeds of 
grass, aud where cavities are dry and, of 
course, foodless; if the seed used is poorly pre¬ 
served or has been moist, au t has heated, 
and if to it, when fresh, is added tbe seed of 
the past aud of t he previous year, aud so on, 
‘•a<l infinitum," and if the soil is as poor as 
Job's turkey, under the belief of the owner 
that anything is good enough for grass, then 
au unlimited amount of seed will be needed, 
aud no amount will be enough for a good crop 
of grass. I use 12 quarts of Timothy and 10 
pounds of clover seed per acre with good suc¬ 
cess, and deem this amount desirable. As my 
farming is rotation of crops, [ seldom sow 
Timothy aud clover together. 
Fourth: Timothy should be cut after it has 
gone out of bloom, aud after tbe seed is well 
formed, but too early for tue seed to mature 
completely so as to shatter, or pass through 
stock undigested. Clover may be cut after the 
heads are browned. It does not gain in 
weight after bloom as much us Timothy does, 
and if cut late, it is more subject to the loss 
of its leaves in handling. Timothy will grow 
30 to 40 per cent, after the early bloom 
and be worth as much as, or more, per 
pound than when cut in bloom, for growth 
of steers, if intelligently handled. For butter, 
early-cut hay will excel in the quantity of 
milk per pouud of hay, and also in the color 
and flavor of the butter; but will be iuferior in 
value to maintaiu the cow and also iu butter- 
producing value per quart of milk, and about 
even as to the total amount of butter from a 
given amount of hay; but from it less butter 
will be produced per acre of hay. Gilt- 
edged butter makers will doubtless continue 
to prefer tbe early-cut hay. Readers of the 
Rural doubtless know that I base these as¬ 
sertions upon several years of weighings as 
an experimeuter. I cut my hay as I preach, 
yet I am sorry to say that I actually cut hay 
earlier than some of my friends who insist on 
cutting it in bloom. Rural readers in Mis¬ 
souri do not need to be told to cut hay late; 
nor do they generally need such advice in 
other States that have come under my obser¬ 
vation. 
Fifth: T endeavor to evaporate the moisture 
in the field to such an extent that the hay 
will not feel damp iu tbe ha d: while it will 
not be so dry as to break like a pipe-stem 
when bent. Experieuoe teaches me that in 
tight barns and when spread evenly and trod 
down well in a mow continuously tilled, hay 
may, to advantage, be got in much greener 
tbau the last generation could have stored it, 
with their open barns. Experimental tests 
in Europe and America have shown that crops 
lose little or nothing of their feeding value in 
curing. The ease of handling dried crops is 
such an advantage that, from the start. I have 
never accepted the green food craze as valid. 
Years of weighing for feeding of green foods— 
roots and fodder coru—satisfied me that the 
benefits of green food were grossly exaggerat¬ 
ed, and I have yet seen no evidence to the con¬ 
trary. 
We now know that rains aud showers re¬ 
move much of the nutrient elements of out 
grass, hence these must be avoided with much 
care; we also have the assertion of an inves¬ 
tigator that very rapid drying may involve a 
loss of substance. Both sources of loss farmers 
will,or may .find means of largely avoiding by 
such means as they yan readily master. 
The one great want of the West—of which 
Missouri is a goodly portion —is more grass 
and clover and a higher appreciation of the 
advantages of growing it carefully, harvest¬ 
ing it early aud preserving it properly. Most 
hay was sadly damaged by the excessive raius 
after being stacked last Summer. But little 
first-class hay is to be, or was to be seen this 
Spring in this quarter. As herein lies our 
truest source of wealth, here we see one of the 
weakest aud ixost reprehensible features of 
our farming. Damaged hay is equivalent to 
impaired capital, thriftless steers, or useless 
coru rations, to make the bad bay ration good. 
We have got to stack our hay better, thatch 
it after the English fashion or house it — 
which? Shelter is only a question of time, 
and not a very long time will be required to 
make it u necessity. 
Ag. Col., Columbia, Missouri. 
GEN. WM. G. LE DUC, EX. COM. AG. 
In this section the grass and clover most 
valuable for hay are Timothy aud Medium 
Clover. The seed should be sown in the 
Spring in this county of spring wheat, oats, 
etc., immediately after the smoothing harrow 
that follows the seed drill, if the ground is in 
proper condition for good work—that is, 
neither too wet nor too dry, but presenting a 
tine, regular field surface, showing plainly 
the harrow-teeth marks. The sowing should 
be done by machine, or by a careful and ex¬ 
perienced hand. If by machine, the seed 
should be carefully sifted through a sieve with 
ineBhes, to take out all straws, chaff, and to 
insure its passing through the drop holes in 
the sowing machine; and then careful inspec¬ 
tion should be made from time to time to be 
sure that no drop bole is choked or obstructed 
in any way. After sowing, I would ruu over 
the field a light plauk-smootlier, drawn by a 
light-stepping pair of active horses hitched 
close enough to the machine to keep the front 
edge a little above the surface of the ground, 
Tbe covering thus given will, I think, secure 
the germination of a greater proportion of 
the seed thuu can be secured by any other 
means. 
As to the amount of seed per acre, un ideal 
meadow for me, in this soil and climate, 
would, with present experience, Btart three 
Timothy and two clover plants to every square 
inch of surface. There are 43,.'jfi0 square feet 
in au acre, equal to 0,372,640 square inches; 
multiplied by three this gives 18,817,920 
Timothy plants, and multiplied by two, it 
gives 12,545,930 clover plants. Good, clean 
Timothy seed will weigh 45 pounds to the 
bushel, and a pound of seed will number, ou 
an average, ubout 4,500,000 seeds; six pouuds 
contain 27,000,000 seeds, which would leave 
8,182,080 for surplusage or waste, some being 
buried too deep; some not deep enough, aud 
some lying on top dried out or taken by birds. 
Medium Clover (Trifolintn pratense) weighs 
60 pounds to tbe legal bushel; clean, first-class 
seed will exceed that weight. A pouud of 
seed will average, in number, about 1.560,000; 
in eight pounds there would be 12 480,000, 
which wouLd leave 65,920 overplus seeds for 
wastage, etc. So six pouuds of Timothy and 
eight pounds of clover, if good, sound seed, 
distributed evenly over an acre aud fortunate 
in time and conditions of planting, according 
to my experience, give a good stand and lay the 
foundation for a good meadow. 1 have never 
made a meadow by mixing other grasses tbau 
clover and Timothy, nor do I know any one 
in this part of Minnesota who has. Some 
years since I tried Alsike in place of Medium 
or common Red Clover with Timothy; but 
the result was not satisfactory. The Alsike 
soon disappeared almost entirely from the 
field. 
The greater part of our land is admirably 
adapted to clover, and but little compara¬ 
tively of the country south of the Minnesota 
River to the State Hue is first-class Timothy 
land. Fields of clover are becoming more 
common than heretofore, and our best farm¬ 
ers are seeding to clover alone, using gener¬ 
ally the Medium, sometimes the Mammoth or 
Pea viue, and rarely the Alsike, sow¬ 
ing eight to ton quarts of seed in the Soring 
of the year, with wheat, oats or barley. 
The youog and tender plant finds the 
protection necessary from the fierce heat 
and drought of July and August, from the 
growing grain and stubble, gives a crop of 
bay and seed the year after it is sown; the 
seed is left to become "dead-ripe” and with 
raised sickle bar, or a header, the upper heads 
are gathered and put in windrows where they 
lie under the sun aud dew until partially rot¬ 
ted anti then they are brought to stack aud 
finally thrashed. The object of this treatment 
is to leave enough seed on and in the grouud 
to make a crop of clover for oue or more 
years. Some of our best farmers cut clean aud 
take off all theseed they cau.and sow again the 
next Spring—especially those whose soils are 
light and loose enough. This clover sod is 
then turned under before Winter sets in, aud 
sown to wheat the next Spring. This brings 
a good crop almost invariably and tbe field is 
theu, as before, mowed for its hay and clover 
seed. Salt at the rate of 200 pouuds to the 
acre is sown upon the youug wheat. The 
laud is found to improve and the yield of 
wheat to increase greatly under this treat¬ 
ment. If a good quality of gypsum or, better 
si ill, a mixture of Carolina phosphate and 
German kainit should be sown on tbe clover 
field at the rate of say 200 pouuds per acre, 
the increased quantity of clover root and 
stubble to be plowed under, would make a 
favorable showing in the succeeding wheat 
crop. 
The hay crop should be cut when the clover 
is in full bloom—when the top flowers are, 
many of them,brown. The rnowiug machine 
should be started as soon as—but uot before— 
the dew is dried off the grass, and may run 
until noon, or, on a very fine drying day, until 
2 p. m. As soon as the clover is thoroughly 
wfilted, follow up with the rake aud put iu 
windrows, and let the work be so managed 
that It will oe all in small cocks before tbe 
dew begins to fall in the evening. There is 
au art in cocking the clover hay so that it will 
shed rain, and the best hav makers iu this 
locality, claim to have acquired the difficult 
art of thatching tbe clover cocks by dexterity 
iu hnudliug the fork und laying the hay. They 
insist ou taking up small forkfuls of the wind¬ 
row, placing one on top of another until they 
have a miniature cock, then taking it up ou a 
four-tined fork and turning it skillfully so 
that the center of the foi kful comes down, in¬ 
verted upon the center of the forming cock. 
The cocks must be small und tali—such as will 
staud securely until the sunshiue of the mor¬ 
row, when the cocks are upturned to the suti 
in bunches, aired for a few hours und hauled 
to the barn or hay shed aud well salted when 
put away, suy, with two quarts of coarse salt 
to the ton. Others insist on cutting only 
what they cau wilt sufficiently in the wind¬ 
row aud carry to a close barn tbe same day, 
salting it well and letting the heat of the 
sweat or fermentation dry it out. I have uot 
thought it safe to trust this last method, and 
my hay is good enough, when cured in the 
field. The art of curing clover or any 
other plant for hay Is to treat. It in such 
a manner as will eliminate the water, leaving 
the plant with all of its fat aud uiuscle-fortn- 
iug elements as perfect us wheu growing iu 
the field. Who succeeds iu doing this makes 
good hay by whatever method he may follow. 
Hastiugs, Miuu. 
MAJOR HENRY E. ALVORD. 
In answering the questions propounded by 
the Rural, the first thiug I wish to say is that 
a variety of grasses seems to me extremely de¬ 
sirable ou every farm, whether It bo large or 
