325 
MAY 45 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
starting in growth, is Oftentimes of great 
service. There is hardly a crop on the farm 
in regard to which so much neglect is dis¬ 
played in cutting and curing it in its proper 
season as our hay, to the great detriment of 
ts quality, as well as of its marketable value. 
HAYING TOOLS AND IMPROVEMENT 
OF MEADOWS. 
PROF. I. P. ROBERTS. 
Tools and implements are so numerous and 
so much improved in all directions that it is 
impossible to give a “list of them’' without 
taking up several columns. On large farms a 
mower should have a wide cut; it should leave 
the grass loose aud untramped by wheels or 
the feet of horses and as nearly In the position 
in which it grew as possible. The Eureka 
mower comes nearer to filling the above con¬ 
ditions than any other one with which I am 
acquainted. There is but slight difference in 
the self-dumping hay-rakes; all that are well- 
made are good. Hay tedders are too expen¬ 
sive for most farmers, considering their liabil¬ 
ity to get out of repair and the little time they 
are in use. Then, too, unless they are used 
with the utmost judgment they seriously injure 
the quality of the hay. 
The hay-rake may often be made to serve the 
purposes of a tedder without in jury to the leaves 
of the grass. The hay should be raked fairly 
green, left for a few hours till wilted or nearly 
dry and then turned over with the rake, the 
operator holding to the lever till the windrow 
has been inverted. In extreme cases this opera¬ 
tion may be repeated. Hay T should be cured 
as much as possible in the bunch: therefore it 
would appear to be better economy to buy 
hay-caps than tedders. "We are about to make 
a careful test of the value, cost and durability 
of hay-caps. 
Hay loaders even of the best kinds can 
hardly)be recommended for general use. They 
all imply]drawing hay from the windrow or 
unraked, and this is not the right method or 
Ihe best method. Better spend the money for 
hay-caps than for bay loaders. The best’con¬ 
trivance for unloading, where the barns are 
sufficiently ample to justify track, ropes, etc., 
is the sling, which takes off from 700 to 800 
pounds at a draft and does not tear the load 
to pieces or drop large portions of it on the 
floor. This hay and grain unloader or sling 
is certainly the best contrivance, except pos¬ 
sibly where the location of the barn will per¬ 
mit drawing the wagon and load into the 
very top of the barn and the method of up¬ 
setting the entire load with one sboi’t pull. 
The greatest improvement and saving in 
securing the hay crop yet remains to be gen¬ 
erally adopted. 1 refer to the truck wagon. 
This has low, broad wheels, 30 inches in di¬ 
ameter, and axles six to 12 inches longer than 
those of the ordinary wagon. Instead of the 
ordinary rigging, a flat one made chiefly of 
boards, 14 feet long, and eight feet wide is 
used. The unusual width of the rigging and 
the lowness of the load obviate at least one- 
half of the labor of getting the hay on the 
wagon, save the loader (in fact a loader is 
hardly necessary) and obviate all sliding off 
or upsetting of the hay. No farmer can 
afford to be without the low, wide wheeled, 
long-axled truck. Finally, in fact, there is 
not a single really poor haying implement 
made. Some of them lack in the quality ot 
the material used; especially is this the ca*e 
with the wooden parts. 
Two methods are open to us in the improve¬ 
ment ot meadows. If they are rough aud 
hopelessly unproductive, the heroic treat¬ 
ment will be fouud best. Plow, replow, 
level, clear off all stone and stumps, fertilize 
and re-seed, using some clover, which will dis¬ 
appear in about two years. By this method 
plant food will be set free at the surface and 
with that, added by fertilizers and that 
brought from the subsoil by the clover roots, 
there will be enough available fertility in the 
surface soil to produce many abundant har¬ 
vests. The second method is to thoroughly 
scarify the surface with a sharp-toothed har¬ 
row in the spring of the year, sow a little 
grass seed and one or two hundred pounds of 
commercial fertilizer per acre and roll with a 
heavy roller. This, of course, shmld be done 
in addition to giving the meadows a light coit 
of fine manure either immediately after hay¬ 
ing or later in the fall. If the meadow is over¬ 
grown with moss an application of lime, a 
little grass seed, the harrow and the roller 
will work wonders. Where it is desirable to 
have the meadows permanent, little or no 
pasturing should be done in the fall. 
I Ithaca, N. Y. 
VIRGINIA HAY-MAKING. 
H L. WYSOR. 
The combination of grasses grown for hay 
in this section is either clover and Orchard 
grass or clover and Timothy—generally the 
latter. Timothy is invariably sown in the 
fall with wheat, as it seldom gives a good 
catch when sown in the spring. Clover and 
Orchard grass are usually sown in March or 
April on wheat or with oats. The best catches 
are now obtained with oats, unless a sod has 
been broken for the crop, in which case it is 
better to rebreak the stubble for wheat before 
seediug down t > grass. It is not necessary or 
desirable to use other grasses for hay than 
those mentioned, since this country is the 
natural habitat of Blue grass, which in a few 
years drives out all cultivated grasses and 
takes possession of the land. When this oc¬ 
curs, if hay is wanted, the meadow must be 
broken, planted to corn and re-seeded. 
Orchard grass is not held in as high an esti¬ 
mation, either for pasture or hay, as Timothy; 
but it succeeds better on dry soils. It must 
be cut when in bloom, for if allowed to ripen, 
it is not as good as wheat straw. It and 
clover ripen together, aud are mown here 
about the middle of June. Timothy is har¬ 
vested a month later. The best farmers favor 
early cutting, especially for Timothy. The 
early cut hay is more palatable to stock, and 
the aftermath is more abundant. When 
Timothy is allowed to ripen its seed before 
beiDg cut, it seems to destroy the vitality of 
the plant, and the aftergrowth sometimes 
does not start for weeks, and in case of con¬ 
tinued dry weather very often not at all. On 
account, however, of the pressure of work in 
the corn field or in 'the wheat and oat har¬ 
vests, haying is very often delayed far beyond 
the time when it should have been attended to. 
No machines, except, of course, the mower 
and the horse rake, are used here as a general 
thing. Hay tedders and appliances for load¬ 
ing or unloading are not common. The hay 
is usually stackei in the field, and for this 
purpose is put up in small cocks, which, after 
being allowed to settle for a day or two, are 
hauled up to the stack by means of one horse 
and a chain or grape vine, aud they are then 
pitched by hand. 
The average yield per acre of dried hay is 
probably less than a ton, though the best 
meadows give double that quantity or more- 
No manures are used excoot the commercial 
fertilizers employed in seeling down, from 
150 to 300 pounds per acre. The cattle men 
feed on the meadows through the winter, but 
the tramping done by the stock in wet 
weather more than counterbalances any ben¬ 
efit derived from their droppings and litter. 
In a few iusta ices meadows are top-lressed 
by those who keep their stock in barns, but 
stable manures are more commonly applied 
to other crops. 
From my own experience, the best way to 
increase the productiveness of meadows is to 
apply, every three or four years, 200 or 300 
pounds per acre of raw bone-meal aud harrow 
it in with a sharp too). The Acme, I should 
think, would be excellent for this purpose. 
This, I am satisfied, will in many cases double 
the yield. Bone-meal with me has always 
shown more effect on grasses than any other 
commercial fertilizer. 
I am trying this spring a small quantity of 
Texas Blue gra^s received from the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. The seeds are bound 
up aud connected by means of a kin 1 of lint, 
which prevents their being separated or scat¬ 
tered. Unless someway can be devised of 
ridding them of this lint, they cannot be 
made available or become an article of com¬ 
merce like Kentucky Blue. They are at pres¬ 
ent offered by seedsmen at $3 per pound, a 
price which permits of their use only for ex¬ 
perimental purposes. 
Japan clover seed is now grove eleau and 
PORK.—Sactions through loins. The upper picture taken from an animal 
fed for the production of lean meat; the lower two from animals fed in the usual 
way. Fig. 117. See page 340. 
PORK.—Section through fifth rib. Upper “fed for lean;” lower two fed 
in the ordinary way. Fig. 118. See page 340. 
