1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
581 
MORE ABOUT THAT GRASS CROP. 
THE SEED AND TIIE CURING. 
In a “Good Crop of Grass,” page 525, you say that Mr. Clark 
uses, for each acre, 14 quarts each of Red-top and Timothy. Do 
you mean 14 quarts of cleaned Red-top, or Red-top in the chaff? 
Most of our farmers are using cleaned Red-top, about four pounds, 
where a bushel in the chaff was formerly used. chas. o. flagg. 
Rhode Island Experiment Station. 
Apparently, the article this week concludes the story of Mr. 
Clark’s hay crop. Yet, glancing again at the caption, “ From 
Seed to Mower,” there must be more to come. If you stop at the 
mower, you will not satisfy one of our friends who declares that 
that amount of grass cannot be converted into hay without call¬ 
ing other acres of land into requisition for a curing place. N. s. 
ANSWERED BY GEORGE M. CLARK. 
I use all reeleaned seed. 1 have never used, of late, 
any Ited-top that had chaff in it, for the simple rea¬ 
son that I could not tell how much seed I was using. 
As to the quantity of hay that can be cured upon 
an acre at one time, from my experience, I think that 
15 tons could be easily cured upon one acre in two 
bright, sunshiny days. Much depends upon the work 
expended upon it. It certainly costs not one-quarter 
as much per ton to make 10 tons upon an acre at one 
time, as it would to make 10 tons on 10 acres. When 
cutting six tons or more of hay to the acre, I have 
never found tedder sticks on any mower that would 
clear a track ; hence I have a man follow the mower 
and turn the swath off so that the mower knife will 
have a clear sward to travel on at all times. This, 
also, by tilting the blade forward, allows the knives 
to pass under any crinkled or fallen grass, and cut 
all smooth, and, by immediately turning the swaths 
over when cut, brings the wet grass on top. As soon 
as the mower has been round the field three or four 
times, I start the hay tedder which I keep going all 
the time from about 8 a. m. to 2.30 p. m. About 10.30 
o’clock, I turn all my hay again by hand. About 1, 
I again turn by hand so as to be sure that all green 
or wet hay is brought up to the sunlight. Usually, 
my field is gone over with the hay tedder from eight 
to ten times the first day, besides the hand turning. 
At 2.30 p. m., I start the horse rake and the hand 
forks raking and heaping when the weather looks 
fine, into heaps of about 100 pounds each. If the 
weather turn bad, I pile four to eight of these heaps 
into one, just in proportion to the weather risk. By 
4 to 5 p. m., all has been heaped, and each heap 
raked after and nicely trimmed. In this manner, the 
hay is piled when hot, and goes through a sweat. The 
ground is uncovered, and the vapor passes off with¬ 
out passing through the hay at night, and in the 
morning, at 7.30 o’clock, the field is dry, the hay 
warm. It has passed through a sweat. I then spread 
it over the whole surface of the ground, and turn it 
with the tedder about once every hour until near 2 
o’clock, and once or twice by hand. Usually, by 1 
o clock, much of the hay will be in fine order for 
carting, at which time I commence and try to get it 
all into the barn before the dew commences to fall. 
This refers to good weather, and is modified in ac¬ 
cordance with the weather. One thing, however, is 
certain: My hay is all heaped up and heaps nicely 
trimmed, and the field made as clean as possible 
before the storm, even though the grass has not been 
cut two hours. 
An adjoining landholder, this year remarked in a 
sarcastic way, that he thought that be knew how to 
make hay, but he found that he did not. A few days 
later, he cut about 10 acres and 10 tons adjoining my 
field. I had 20 tons cut at the same time. I stirred 
and heaped mine as usual. The weather looked bad, 
so I made heaps of 1,000 pounds each, and se¬ 
cured my hay the second day all right. He pursued 
his usual course, viz., to rake with the horse what he 
could, and let the rest go, so that his field was about 
half raked and half spread at random. We had a 
slight shower in the night that, together with the 
steam from the earth, wet and damaged his hay, and 
the ground was wet. It took until 1 o’clock to get 
the water out. At 3, it was hardly dry. Then came 
another shower and caught it—some in small heaps, 
some in windrows, and some spread, all wet. Four 
days’ rain followed, and the hay was hardly fit for 
bedding. A few days later, 1 cut a dozen tons more, 
stirred, heaped and completed the baying on the 
second day. He cut about 20 tons at the same time, 
and treated in his usual way. A little only of that 20 
tons he secured in a damaged condition on the second 
day. The rest of it was caught in a three days’ rain 
storm and spoiled. Now, his way may be better than 
mine, but he has not as heavy grass as I have. If he 
had, he would agree with many of your correspond¬ 
ents, that it is impossible to cure three tons of hay 
upon one acre of land at one time. 
A word as to the hay tedder : Use any good make, 
one with action enough to crimp the plant. The hay 
tedder of the general pattern of the Bullard’s or 
knuckle-arm style, will move the hay so quick that 
the stalk will be bent and fractured on each fork tine, 
and thus allow the sap to pass off easily. That is the 
kind of hay tedder to use, and when one uses that 
kind, he will find the grass plants full length when 
dry, but fractured in many places for the escape of 
moisture. 
It is said that eternal vigilance is the price of suc¬ 
cess and liberty. I have found, in making hay, that 
it is not so much the amount of work as the time it is 
done. When a boy, before the time of mowing 
machines, horse rakes, horse forks, improved cultiva¬ 
tors, etc., the new grass culture was out of the ques¬ 
tion. Then it was all work and no play. It was a 
large meadow with small barn and not grass enough 
to fill. Now we can have a small meadow and a large 
barn in the lower corner well filled with hay, and 
with modern tools, filled easily. That is part of the 
new grass culture. The farm I occupy had then a 
larger meadow, but never cut 10 tons of hay. I 
now cut 60 tons from a smaller field. 
BIG STATEMENTS REGARDING NEW FRUITS. 
S. E. H., in speaking of a new raspberry, page 531, 
stated that it was 10 times as productive as Shaffer, 
and many others on his grounds. This is a 
monstrous claim to make for any variety of fruit. 
Shaffer will yield, say, 100 bushels of berries per acre, 
This new variety, yielding 10 times as much, would 
yield 1,000 bushels per acre. Consider a single cluster 
of raspberries. The new variety would be worthy of 
dissemination if it produced one-tenth more, other 
things being equal; therefore, on this single cluster, 
we assume that the new berry has one additional 
berry of the same size as the others. It must be a 
good berry that will yield one-tenth more than the 
Shaffer, which is itself a monstrous yielder. But 
consider this cluster of fruit magnified 10 times in 
number, or if not a single cluster thus magnified, 
consider a bush containing 10 times the number of 
clusters. Looking at it in this light, is it not ap¬ 
parent that, when any one claims one variety to yield 
10 times more than another, he is making an extrava¬ 
gant claim ? But there is a clause, “ 10 times as pro¬ 
ductive as any other variety on my ground.” While 
the natural assumption is that the new variety yields 
10 times more than others, it is possible that the 
others were destroyed by cattle, or frost, or met with 
some other similar misfortune. In any event, the 
statement is misleading. 
But now we have a statement from the sober, 
sedate, reliable S. D. Willard, long and favorably 
known as vice-president of the Western New York 
Horticultural Society, claiming that this new currant 
is four times as productive as Fay or Cherry. I know 
Mr. Willard to be a truthful man, and know that he 
would not intentionally mislead; but I am tempted 
to believe that he made this statement somewhat 
rashly, and without consideration. Should it bear 
twice as much as Fay or Cherry, it is a wonderful 
variety. It seems to me that, knowing, as we do, the 
value of Fay and Cherry, a new variety that would 
yield three or four times as much would be too much 
to expect. 
I am an introducer of a new red raspberry, but I 
would not dare claim that it would produce twice as 
many berries as Cuthbert, much less three times, 
much less 10 times as many, as is claimed by S. E. II. 
The fact is that varieties of small fruits have been 
so greatly improved during the past few years, that 
we must not expect new varieties to double the yield, 
or warrant any extravagant expectations. If the new 
variety is a little better in quality, a little brighter 
in color, little larger in size, little more productive, 
and a little more hardy, is that not enough ? 
_ CHAS. A. GREEN. 
10 days or two weeks, the celery will be ready for use, 
and the boards are then available for use elsewhere, 
thus keeping up a succession. 
Celery intended for the winter markets is not 
Usually blanched before storing, though it is well to 
hill it up slightly to straighten up the leaves and 
make the plants compact. That intended for late 
fall use will, of course, need some attention, as from 
four to six weeks are required to blanch the later 
crop. Boards are seldom employed in blanching this 
late crop. 
Storage. —If on well-drained soil, the plants may 
be left in the rows till the last of November. If the 
plants are well banked, a little freezing of the tips of 
the leaves will do no harm. The mistake of applying 
winter protection too early is often made, thus injur¬ 
ing the crop by keeping it too warm. For winter 
storage, the method in vogue in some celery-growing 
districts is, on well-drained soils, to make beds of four 
to six double rows of plants with a wall of earth 
between—in effect, a series of parallel trenches on 
the surface of the ground. Bank up on the outside 
till the tips of the leaves just show above the surface 
of the bed. Leave the bed in this condition till hard 
freezing begins, then throw two or three inches of 
soil over the surface. Let this soil freeze hard before 
applying litter, and never apply heavy covering at the 
first approach of cold weather. The soil in the bed 
is still warm, and if a heavy coat of manure be put on 
top, the frost is soon taken out of the surface soil, 
and the temperature will be high enough to induce 
decay. The secret of success in the winter stor¬ 
age of celery is to keep it cool. As severe winter 
weather approaches, the covering of litter may be 
increased unless there should be a fall of snow. 
To open the beds, take the litter off from one end, 
break the crust of soil with a pickax, and remove 
any desired amount of the celery ; then carefully re¬ 
place the covering. This plan has the merit of cheap¬ 
ness, and for holding plants through the winter, is 
preferable to pit or cellar. 
The treatment of celery stored in trenches varies 
with different growers. In general, however, it is 
best to have the trenches only wide enough for two 
or three rows of plants, otherwise there will be loss 
from heating. A single board is laid over the top of 
the trench, or, in some cases, two boards are put to¬ 
gether, forming a span roof. As cold weather comes 
on, soil and litter are thrown over the outside of the 
boards. It is seldom advisable to place leaves and 
litter inside of the boards, next to the plants, not only 
because of the heat, but because this forms a con¬ 
venient nesting place for rats and mice. 
If the crop is to be disposed of as early as January, 
it may well be stored in a cool cellar or pit. In this 
case, the plants are set very closely together on loose, 
moist loam. To avoid the heating consequent on 
packing large quantities of plants together, compart¬ 
ments about two feet wide by eight or ten feet long, 
are made by setting up boards which shall come to 
the tops of the plants when in place. If the plants 
are closely packed, so as to exclude the air, it is un¬ 
necessary to use earth between them. The soil in 
which the plants are placed should be moist to pre¬ 
vent wilting, but the foliage should always be kept 
dry, or there will be trouble from rotting. When 
plants are stored in this way, it is important that the 
temperature of the pit or cellar be kept uniform and 
not much above 40 degrees. If, however, it be desired 
to hasten the process of blanching, the temperature 
may be raised. w. M. munson. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
HOW TO BLANCH CELERY. 
METHODS of modern gardeners. 
The old custom of repeatedly handling the plants, 
has given way to more expeditious methods, and it is 
generally conceded that one hilling before the final 
banking is sufficient. When ready to hill the plants, 
cultivate deeply between the rows, then draw the soil 
loosely about the plants with a hoe or a scraper made 
for that purpose. This hilling should not be done till 
the plants have thickened up considerably, as the 
leaf stalks do not thicken after the soil is drawn 
about them. If banking with earth is to be practiced, 
one of the machines made for that particular purpose 
will be found very helpful. 
For blanching the early crop, the use of boards is 
preferred to that of earth. The work is done more 
expeditiously, and there is less trouble from rotting. 
The method consists, simply, in placing boards about 
a foot wide along each side of the row, with one edge 
close to the plants. 1 wo men then go along and raise 
the boards to a vertical position, placing clamps or 
hooks at intervals to hold them in place. A very good 
clamp is made by sawing two notches, about an inch 
wide and three inches apart, in a short piece of board. 
This will hold the wide boards rigidly in place. In 
If you care to know about a new bean harvester, send your 
address to the Farmer’s Handy Wagon Co., Saginaw, Mich. 
If you wish to learn about ensilage and ensilage machinery, 
write to Minard Harder, Cobleskill, N. Y. It’ll soon be time to 
fill the silo. 
Don’t neglect to paint those harvesting tools and implements 
before they are stored away for future use. And, by the way, 
don’t forget to store them away under shelter. This will, also, 
be a good time to put a new coat of paint on the buildings and' 
fences. O. W. Ingersoll, 246 Plymouth St., Brooklyn, N. Y., will 
send you paint ready mixed, just as you want it, and cheap, too. 
Thk large acreage of corn planted this year to supply the de¬ 
ficiency in the hay crop in many sections, will cause especial 
interest in corn harvesting machinery, and manufacturers in 
these lines are meeting the demand by issuing catalogues and 
books that not only give illustrated descriptions of the imple¬ 
ments, but also the best information obtainable in regard to har¬ 
vesting and preserving the crop. The L. B. Silver Co., Salem, O., 
have issued illustrated circulars and catalogues describing their 
hand and power cutters and shredders, and also “ A Book on 
Silage,” by Prof. F. W. Woll, all of which are sent free on applica¬ 
tion. 
The Bickmore Gall Cure Co. are sending out a reduced fac¬ 
simile of one of their advertisements, also the response of one of 
the large mining companies of West Virginia to that advertise¬ 
ment, and two letters from the same company, telling how their 
gall cure cured two mules suffering from sore shoulders—which 
until then they were unable to heal—while the animals were 
working in the mines. Most large companies are reluctant to be 
quoted as recommending such an article, and this fact, together 
with the reproduction of the actual handwriting on the letters, 
seem to show that the Bickmore gall cure will cure a collar or 
saddle gall under the harness, while the horse is being worked. 
