4888 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
463 
HAY-MAKING IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 
PROFESSOR G. E. MORROW. 
Tendency to early cutting and less curing in 
the field ; practice at the University farm; 
the mower and other haying tools used ; 
mowing'and stacking the hay ; advantages 
of devices not used on the farm ; saving 
of Timothy seed ; Timothy the main hay 
crop; other grasses grown. 
Neither opinion nor practice as to the 
best methods in making hay has become uni¬ 
form among the farmers of Central Illinois, 
except in general lines. There is reason to 
believe the general tendency is toward earlier 
cutting and less extended curing in the field 
than formerly was the'rule. Our practice on 
the farms of the University of Illinois is, per¬ 
haps, fairly characteristic of that in the region 
round about. We cut about 150 acres each 
year, mainly of Timothy, or of Timothy and 
clover, although this year there is almost no 
clover in the meadows. It is obvious that not 
all this acreage can be cut at the time or hand¬ 
led in the way that would be considered the 
very bost if the total acreage could be har¬ 
vested in a day. 
We have mainly used a Eureka six-foot direct 
rear-cut mower for two or three years, and 
have liked its work well. As neither machine 
nor horses pass over the cut grass, this is left 
in much better condition for rapid curing 
than that cut by side-bar machines. We 
have not found this machine to do well in 
heavy Mammoth clover, and have had some 
trouble because of one part requiring fre¬ 
quent renewals. We do not use a tedder. 
For four years we have used, and liked well, 
a hay loader—a modification of the “Foust”— 
taking the hay either from the swath or the 
windrow, In heavy grass or clover we have 
liked the plan of taking it direct from the 
swath, but generally it is more economical to 
have the hay raked into small windrows. 
In practice two men, with a boy to drive the 
team, will load as much as is desirable on an 
ordinary two-horse wagon and hay-rack in 
15 minutes. It is possible to put on a ton in 
10 minutes or less, but this rate is not kept up 
during a day. 
Last year wo tried a new side-delivery 
continuous windrow hay-rake, manufactured 
at Sterling, Ills., and liked it well in heavy 
grass or clover. With us it did not work sat¬ 
isfactorily when the grass was thin and short. 
For use in raking for a hay loader this has 
some marked advantages over the ordinary 
spring-tooth hay-rake. We use one of these 
with a pole, often doing the raking with the 
horses from the mowing-machine. 
In unloading at the barns or stack we now 
use a double harpoon fork. For a year or 
two we used, and fairly liked a “shir-sling” 
apparatus, by which a third or fourth of a 
wagon load was lifted by means of ropes 
surrounding it. We have three styles of 
“tracks and carriers” in the barns. For 
comparatively small stacks we have used a 
simple arrangement, consisting of a tripod 
made of three poles, each 25 or 30 feet long, 
the center being over the center of the stack. 
The fork is attached to the end of a rope, 
which passes through a pulley above, then 
down one of the posts and through a pulley at 
the ground, there attached to a singletree. 
For long ricks a simple arrangement with a 
well guyed pole at each end, far enough 
apart to allow both rick and load to bo 
between them, has worked nicely. 
Commencing cutting Timothy soon after the 
bloom has fallen aud supposing the weather 
warm aud dry, we would prefer cutting near 
evening, raking soon after noon the next day 
aud putting in the barn during the afternoon. 
During the hot and very dry weather of 
last summer, when there was little dew, we 
put up a good deal of hay the day it was cut. 
Oftentimes we must do as we can and not as 
we would choose. Unless there is an appear¬ 
ance of rain after the hay is partly dried we 
rarely put either grass or clover in the shock. 
Doubtless the use of a tedder would be 
of advantage in some cases, but we prefer to 
have the hay handled as little as possible. 
There are many devices we are not using, 
some of which give good satisfaction. Espe¬ 
cially where much hay is stacked, many like 
well the large rakes with a horse attached at 
each end, by which a large mass of hay is 
drawn to the foot of a framework with inclined 
plane, upon which the rake aud hay are drawn, 
the hay being deposited on the stack or, more 
rarely, on a wagon. A neighbor farmer still 
practices putting his hay in rather large 
shocks, leaving them until they have settled 
well aud then drawing them to the stacking 
place by means of a rope thrown round them. 
Others draw the shocks by means of a rake 
with long teeth which run under them. 
When the seed of Timothy is to be saved, 
the fairly ripened grass is cut with a self-bind¬ 
ing reaping machine; the sheaves are put up 
in* small k shocks_until well dried; sometimes 
thrashed directly from the shock and some¬ 
times put in barn or stack. If the hay can be 
secured without rain, the thrashed straw, when 
baled, sells for nearly as much as does the un¬ 
thrashed hay. 
Throughout all Central Illinois Timothy is 
the great hay crop. Red clover is being in¬ 
creasingly grown. Last winter much Qf this 
was nearly or quite destroyed. A good many 
of the older meadows show more Blue Grass 
(Poa pratensis) than I have ever noticed. In 
some sections of Southern-Central Illinois, on 
the light-colored soils, Red-top is the chief 
hay grass. Here it is not a favorite. 
University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill. 
(SariJnt, 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
Asparagus ; beans ; roots; cabbages, cauli¬ 
flower, etc .; celery; sweet coi~n; cucumbers', 
egg-plants-, horse radish ; kale; lettuce; 
melons ; onions; parsley ; peas. 
Stop cutting asparagus. 
If Lima and other pole beans are sprawling 
on the ground, tie them up to the poles. 
Pinching them will»make them shorter and 
stockier, but not any earlier. From now till 
the first or middle of August sow a row of 
snap beans once a week. Thin beets, turnips 
and carrots where they are too thick, and sow 
again. Plant out cabbage, cauliflower, Brus¬ 
sel’s sprouts and savoys as the ground becomes 
empty and ready for them. Snowball or 
Erfurt Cauliflower may yet be sown for late 
crops to heart in frames before Christmas. If 
you want good celery keep it thin and the 
plants stocky. Water abundantly. If it 
grows too rank in the seed-bed crop the leaves 
a little. I always prick off my young celery 
in June, and in July transplant it as ground 
becomes vacant and ready. It succeeds peas, 
cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, sets-onions or 
strawberries. 
Sow a little more corn once a week till tho 
end of July. The crows became suddenly in¬ 
fatuated with my three earliest growings, but 
after that I dusted some red lead over the 
moistened corn before sowing, and while this 
hasn’t hurt the germinating of the corn at all, 
it has completely estranged the crows. This 
is a good time to sow cucumbers for pickles. 
If the potato-beetles infest tho egg-plants a 
solution of Paris-green, as for potatoes, may 
bo used upon them, providing fruit has irot 
begun to form ; but if tho fruit is advanc¬ 
ing use weak kerosene emulsion or have re¬ 
course to haud-picking. Give horse-radish 
ground a thorough cleaning and pulverize 
tho surface ; after this time of year it will 
grow enough to choke out small weeds. 
Bow a little of Dwarf Curled Kale; then as 
the summer advances and ground becomes 
vacant and when too late to fill up again 
with boans or corn, plant kale in it. Kale 
doesn’t need to be mature to be fit for use. 
Dwarf Green Erfurt (from Thorburn) was 
the best kale I had last year.. It was really 
dwarf and curly, and what wasn’t used 
lived over winter first-rate, aud I thought so 
well of it that I have kept it for seed which 
is now within a week or two of being ripe. I 
sow a few seeds of lettuce every week so as 
to keep up an unbroken succession, for at 
this time of year lettuces don’t last any time; 
they “bolt”’before they heart. Give melons a 
thoroughly good cleaning before you let them 
grow into a matted carpet: thin out some of 
the shoots where they are too thick, and 
shorten in any that would run out too far. 
But remember, pinching doesn’t hurry up 
the crop of fruit. An old corn-cob dipped 
into gas-tar and laid on the ground near the 
root of the vines in each hill serves, it is 
said, to dispel the squash “bugs.” 
Keep seed onions clean aud well but not 
deeply hoed. It is on these aud not on sets- 
onions we depend for our winter supply. Po¬ 
tato onions may keep as well as Yellow Dan¬ 
vers, but they haven’t got the flavor. As soon 
as sets-onions, top-onions and potato-onions 
are ripe, pull them and lay them in rows on 
the ground for a day or two to cure, then 
top them and bring them indoois. Spring- 
sown parsley is now in good using condition. 
If you use a lot of it in winter sow it now in a 
frame. Plants saved from early sowing usu¬ 
ally run to seed before winter is over. 
Peas sown now won’t pay for the seed used 
in sowing them; better stop sowing till the 
end of July or first of August. Even then it 
isn’t certain that the crop will be worth the 
bother in connection with it. If we now have 
more peas than we can use, let them stay a 
week or two longer to ripen; they will make 
just as good seed as any you can buy. 
Two tablespoonfuls of fresh pyrethrum to 
two gallons of water, sprayed upon cabbages, 
will kill^the cabbage worm. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
(Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
asking a question, please see if it Is not answered In 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper. 
PEANUT CULTURE. 
S. B. H., Craw fordsvillc, Ind .—Tell us all 
about the culture of peanuts, more particularly 
how the plant grows and forms the nuts. Peo¬ 
ple here say the blossom must be covered with 
soil before the nut can form. It seems to me 
that the cultivation of this plant might be pro¬ 
fitable in this part of Indiana. 
Ans. —The peanut is one of the most remark¬ 
able plants in its way of forming its fruit. 
The peanut is the fruit just as much as an ap¬ 
ple, or peach, or walnut is a fruit. It belongs 
to the pea or leguminous order, and its botani¬ 
cal name is Arachis hypogoea. We have 
raised peanuts, in little lots, off aud on for 20 
years, merely for the children or to show the 
plant’s queer method of producing fruit. We 
plant peanuts six inches apart in drills three 
inches deep and two feet apart. At the first 
hoeing the plants are thinned to a foot apart. 
In rich soil this is close enough. Without 
any hilling up we raise in this way as many 
as we need for home use in favorable seasons. 
In short, unfavorable seasons the peanuts do 
not fully mature, and are worthless. There 
is now in the market an early, small peanut 
that matures some two weeks before the larger 
varieties. In field culture the drills should be 
far enough apart to allow of horse cultiva¬ 
tion, and as soon as the plants bloom they 
should be hilled up. A warm, sandy, rich soil 
is best—just such soil as sweet potatoes thrive 
in. As soon as the little yellow flowers are 
fully expanded the pistil begins to grow, while 
the branch holding the flowers droops. This 
pistil penetrates the soil, and begins to enlarge 
much the same as a potato enlarges, though, 
being an embryo true fruit, there is no further 
analogy. The writer has known these pistils 
to penetrate quite firm soil and to form per¬ 
fect peanuts two inches below the surface. 
The after cultivation consists merely in keep¬ 
ing down the weeds until, as we say of corn, 
the crop is laid by. They may be harvested 
with a close-pronged fork or plowed out, dried 
and housed. 
WOLF TEETH IN A COLT. 
E. F. It., Troy, N. Y. —My two-year-old colt 
has what is called wolf teeth. My neighbors 
say that unless they are removed, they will in¬ 
jure the eyes and ultimately cause blindness. 
Will they do this? 
Ans —Certainly not. Wolf teeth are two 
small superfluous teeth which appear on each 
side immediately in front of the first molar or 
double teeth on the upper jaw. Among horse¬ 
men there is a widespread impression that 
these teeth are injurious to the eyes, frequent¬ 
ly causing blindness unless they are removed. 
It is practically the unanimous opinion among 
veterinarians, however, that these teeth have 
little or no influence on the eyes. If the gen¬ 
eral opinion of horsemen were true all horses 
would be in danger of blindness, as all horses 
have these teeth at some time of their lives. 
So strong is the belief in the blinding effect of 
“wolf teeth,” however, that whenever a horse 
is attacked with ophthalmia or any other af¬ 
fection of the eyes, the owner is likely 
to look for these teeth, and if found they 
are thought to be the cause, aud 
are knocked out, usually very roughly. 
In doing this the gums are generally lacerat¬ 
ed, causing considerable inflammation, which, 
acting as a counter-irritant, attracts the in¬ 
flammation from the eyes, and of course the 
belief is strengthened that wolf teeth cause 
blindness. While the horse is cutting his per¬ 
manent teeth (the last often when about four 
years old) the irritation is frequently commu¬ 
nicated by sympathy to the eye. After the 
complete eruption of the teeth he usually 
recover without treatment. During the period 
of inflammation wolf teeth are oftenest sought; 
but in reality these are not the cause of any 
affection of the eye. As a general rule they 
soon fall out spontaneously. They do sometimes 
lacerate the tongue, causing soreness and 
inflammation. In such cases they should 
be drawn out. A pair of forceps will do this 
easily. The old plan of knocking them out 
with a hammer and cold chisel is too barbar¬ 
ous for any reader of the Rural. 
CARE OF 100 HENS. 
J. L. B., Maysville, Ala. —I want to keep 
100 hens next winter; how should they be fed 
for eggs ? How many can be advantageously 
kept together? The poultry-yard is an acre in 
extent, planted to grain, and the fowls have an 
unlimited range, with two houses 10x12 and 
8x10 feet. 
Ans. —In estimating for the number of hens 
on an acre all depends on how the yards are 
arranged. Twenty-five hens are as many as 
should be in one flock. When large numbers 
are together it becomes a matter of competi¬ 
tion. The acre may be divided into two fields, 
of half an acre each, and the 100 hens might 
be divided into four flocks, each flock being 
given liberty every other day. Five square 
feet of room should be allowed each hen in the 
poultry-house. Hence, a house 10x10 feet 
should accommodate 20 fowls. This is neces¬ 
sary so as to allow scratching space in winter, 
at which period they will be at times confined. 
More space is not objectionable. The best 
mode of feeding for eggs is to give a fair sup¬ 
ply of bulky food, such as chopped clover 
scalded, and sprinkled with bran, with wheat 
at night. Three times a week give an ounce 
of meat to each hen. In feeding the clover 
give all they will eat, as they cannot eat too 
much of it. It should be chopped very fine, 
or it may cause crop-bound. One quart of 
wheat is sufficient for 20 hens. If the food is 
too concentrated the hens will become fat and 
not lay. 
FEEDING VALUE OF “GLUTEN MEAL ” 
F. P., Stockport, N. Y. —What does the R. 
N.-Y know about the feeding qualities of the 
meal from starch factories? What per cent, 
of nutriment is taken from it in taking out 
the starch? Is it good for young calves, pigs, 
etc? 
Ans. —The refuse from starch or glucose 
factories, known in the trade as “gluten 
meal,” is a nutritious and healthful feeding 
substance. Only a portion of the starch is 
taken from the corn, the hull and the germ 
being left with a part of the starch of the 
kernel. The hull contains all the fat of the 
grain and tho germ or chit contains most of 
the nitrogen. Analysis shows that tho starch 
or gluten meal dried contains the following 
substances. 
Nitrogenous matters.... 8.5 per cent. 
Carbohydrates . 40.5 “ “ 
Fats. 4.7 “ “ 
Water . 14.0 “ “ 
The moist meal contains: 
N itrogenous matters.... 3.6 per cent. 
Carbohydrates. 18 8 “ “ 
Fats. 2 0 “ “ 
Water.72.2 “ “ 
The crude fiber is not included in the carbo¬ 
hydrates given above, but a small quanttiy of 
it is digestible and it adds something to the 
feeding value of the meal. It may be fed to 
any animal safely if not given to excess,and is 
an excellent food for milking cows if it is not 
permitted to become sour. It resembles in 
many respects browers’ grains, when it is in 
the ordinary moist condition ;it is far better for 
use when dried 
Miscellaneous. 
S. H. C. McHenry, Ills. —What is the name 
of the inclosed grass ? 
Ans. —This is Creeping Wheat, Quack or 
Couch. It has many other names. Its 
botanical name is Agropyrum repens, hav¬ 
ing been removed from the old genus 
Triticum. It makes hay of the first 
quality; it is highly prized by some and ab¬ 
horred by others because of the difficulty 
of getting rid of it when once well established. 
T. P., Stockport, N. Y. —What is a recipe 
for making what is called “small beer?" 
Ans. —We should say that the best plan 
would be to send to Sweet’s Pharmacy, Park 
Row, New York, for a 25-cent package of 
their root-beer ingredients. This is the best 
article of the kind we know of. 
J. B. K., Catawissa, Pa. —The grass is 
Phalaris arundinacea—Reed Canary Grass. 
Cattle do not relish it either as pasture or 
hay, and will not touch it if they can get 
better. When cut very young, not over a 
foot high, and used for soiling, cattle will eat 
it if starved to it. 
Subscriber: You can not set the Philadel¬ 
phia lawn-mower too high. Keep it at its 
greatest hight always. The fault of lawn- 
mowers is they cut too short. Do not lower 
the revolving blades or raise the horizontal 
blade until it is necessary. They should never 
quite touch. Touching means an immediate 
wearing off of the steel, and nothing is gained, 
DISCUSSION. 
B. B.’S “NOTION” ABOUT “PAUPER LABOR” 
CRITICIZED. 
J. C. A., Troy, N. Y.—Bucephalus Brown 
remarks in the Rural of June 23 that “one 
of the most childish whims that ever came 
from a politician’s mouth is the stereotyped 
one about the competition of the pauper labor 
of Europe.” I have understood the reference 
so frequently made to pauper labor, to mean ) 
not poor-house labor, but rather that which is 
