426 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 25, 
and timesaving, there is a great difference in the various 
makes of elevators. We use what is styled the cross¬ 
draft elevator. With this it is necessary to drive only 
far enough to raise a slingful, so it will clear the 
beam. When the team is stopped the draft is held 
automatically, and team is returned to the barn draw¬ 
ing the slingful back to the desired point. This saves a 
great deal of driving, as well as a lot of expensive rope. 
Determine at what point the team should stop, then 
mark the place by placing a piece of board just so the 
team will not have to walk over it. Place a similar 
mark to indicate when the team on its return trip to 
the barn has drawn the slingful to the desired point. If 
the above marks are correctly determined each trip 
may be made accurately and without hesitation. They 
not only facilitate matters, but are necessary for the 
man unloading his hay alone. Another way of helping 
the work along is to tie a couple of feet of quarter-inch 
rope to the ends of each sling. This will often obviate 
the necessity of losing a lot of time spent trying to 
find the end of a sling when ready to hook it to the 
block. 
UNLOADING ALONE.—When one wishes to un¬ 
load alone, he can drop a slingful into the mow, then 
elevate another to the desired place, mow away the first 
slingful and when that is done, trip the second one and 
mow that away before going back to the load. The 
third slingful may be dropped into the mow and left 
there till the second load is brought to the barn, when 
the first sling is hooked before leaving the wagon. 
This slingful is left hanging ready to trip till the last 
slingful from the first load is mowed away, when it is 
tripped and mowed away. This method will save the 
man working alone much climbing about and a lot of 
time. In possession of a loader and elevator, the 
farmer is independent. With these as his absolutely 
dependable helpers through haying, he can take a day 
off and celebrate the “Glorious Fourth” with true 
American enthusiasm. One farmer in this section 
made 26 acres of good hay alone except for the as¬ 
sistance of l'.is wife, who drove the horses while un¬ 
loading. Where two wish to make their hay together 
it is best to use two wagons. Each man can load and 
unload his own wagon. While one is at the field, the 
other may be unloading. W*th a third person to drive 
the horses while unloading it is possible to put into the 
barn a load every half hour. The young man working 
here on this farm last year put a load of hay into the 
mow and had the team ready to drive to the field, all 
in 17 minutes, and this without knowing that he was 
being timed. The writer was in the mow and had the 
hay mowed away and was down and ready for the field 
in that time. I mention this to show what a time- 
saver the elevator is. It also enables one man to put 
hay in one of our modern barns with peak nearly 
or quite 50 feet above the floor, where it would be well- 
nigh impossible to get‘in the old-fashioned way. The 
amount of hay one can load in a day depends to a great 
extent upon his skill. This same element contributes 
largely to what one can accomplish in the mow. I 
should have stated that it will be necessary to use a 
low standard on the hind end of hay rack in loading. 
Some do away with the hind standard entirely. 
THE HARPOON FORK.—For the benefit of those 
who have a small quantity of hay to make, and feel 
that circumstances will not warrant the expense of an 
elevator, I give sketch of an outfit which, with the har¬ 
poon fork instead of slings, one may unload hay in 
medium-sized barns about as well as with the slings 
but, of course, not so rapidly. This outfit for ordinary 
barns consists of not more than 125 feet of three- 
fourths-inch rope, 35 feet of three-eighths-inch rope, four 
pulleys, one floor hook and a harpoon fork. Cut shows 
pulley fastened to rafter near peak and to one side of 
barn floor; pulley fastened to about third rafter from 
end of barn, near peak and over mow in which it is 
desired to put the hay. The floor pulley is fastened 
with hook in floor at one side near the door, or to 
post near floor. If in the floor be sure the hook reaches 
the sill. At the left is pulley which is strung on rope 
between pulleys. To the ring in centre pulley is fast¬ 
ened fork, trip rope attached. The forkful of hay will 
draw slightly against the side of mow and it will be 
necessary to nail three or four boards with top ends 
fastened to the beam for the hay to draw against. 
1 have attempted to make this article complete en¬ 
ough so that anyone at all familiar with machinery 
may not fear going far astray in caring for his hay 
crop should he follow the suggestions given. While 
reasonably complete in itself I hope through friendly 
criticisms and additional suggestions the readers of 
The R. N-Y. will receive information that will as¬ 
sist in solving the help problem as well as light¬ 
ening the work of the man with a crop of hay. 
Ohio. ___________ D ‘ PRICKETT * 
DRAG THE ROADS. 
The picture shown at Fig. 199 is taken from the Road 
Red Book of New York. The lower “split log drag” is 
made as shown by using two split logs, which scrape and 
smooth without piling up tne dirt. The upper drag is 
made of two railroad rails, and is much heavier than the 
other. There is some argument as to the best time to 
drag the road. Shall we do it while the soil is wet, after 
a rain or wait till it is dry? Here is a sensible argument: 
No cast iron rule can be laid down how soon after 
a rain to go over the road with the King drag. Much 
depends on the condition of the road; if the wheel 
track or tracks are deep, the best work can be done 
at a time when the mud is of the consistency of mortar. 
The tracks will fill up easily and full, and if the sun 
is shining while you are working or soon thereafter, the 
whole will bake so hard and dry that rain will run 
off like water from a duck’s back, provided that the 
road has been properly graded. If you wait until the 
road is partly dried up, so as to crumble, you can fill 
up the wheel tracks, too, and the road will look smooth 
and nice after you are through, but the loose soil, with 
which yoy filled the wheel tracks, will not bake and 
harden, and at the next rain will absorb water, and the 
condition become gradually worse. The only objection 
TOOLS FOR WORKING THAT ROAD. Fig. 199. 
I have to working the road at this time is—that both 
yourself and team get plastered with mud, but at no 
other time can you acomplish as much good. The 
more you puddle the clay road and keep sod and grass 
off of it the harder it gets. Create a condition, so that 
no water will ever stand on your road any length of 
time, and much of your road problem is solved. 
Ohio. _ J. H. BOLLINGER.. . 
WHEN TO CUT AND HOW CURE CLOVER. 
Probably no other forage crop is so universally 
grown and has such an economic value as clover hay, 
and with no other has the period of cutting and manner 
of curing such an influence upon the feeding value. 
Clover is at its best and has greatest feeding value— 
digestible—just as it gets to the flowering stage; after 
that it grows rapidly woody and becomes very quickly 
less digestible. If cut at the right time and properly 
cured stock will eat practically the whole plant, stems 
as well as leaves. If I could cut my whole crop of 
clover in a single day I would wait until the majority 
of heads were in full bloom, but as this is impossible, 
and it grows woody so fast, I prefer to begin cutting 
as soon as the field gets fairly red. In fact, since the 
advent of the Clover midge, which so effectually de¬ 
stroys the blossoms, I do not depend upon the appear¬ 
ance of the blossom so much as the development of 
growth. If clover is of good growth a tedder is very 
necessary in the manufacture of good hay. The juices 
of the stems after clover is cut are taken out most 
rapidly by the circulation into the leaves. These can 
only draw the juices out of stems while at least par¬ 
tially green; if allowed to be burned by the sun, they 
soon pass beyond the stage of taking moisture from 
the stem, so it is important to use a tedder to pre¬ 
vent the burning of the leaves. In cutting clover I 
like to start the mower about 3 P. M.; run it till dark, 
start it again early in the morning and run till about 10 
A. M. Then start the tedder and go first over that 
cut in the afternoon and then that cut in the morning. 
Immediately after dinner go over again with the ted¬ 
der and follow with the rake, and at once put into 
good-sized cocks. If weather is good the second morn¬ 
ing, as soon as dew is off the cocks may be opened out 
and in an hour may be drawn to the mow. If the 
barn is tight, clover hqy maj r be put into the mow 
while containing a good deal of moisture which is the 
juice of the plant, but it does not do to put it in if at 
all wet with rain or dew. For that reason it is' well 
to be.provided with hay caps to be used in showery and 
catching weather. . If clover is properly put into cocks 
as soon as well wilted it will stand a good deal of rain 
without much injury. j. s. woodward. 
Niagara- Co., N. Y. 
STARTING A GOOD MEADOW. 
I would like to learn how to treat a small piece of wet 
land in order to put it down to grass for hay. I want to 
get the hay from it this year. I have been advised after hay 
is cut in July to put it down to rye after a good coating of 
manure; at the same time sow grass seed, to cut the rye 
in Fall, and to sow clover seed after the rye is cut. Is this 
right? If so, what kind of grass seed do I want? 
Concord, Mass. B. B. f. 
Of course, the wet land should be drained if your ex¬ 
pect to make a profitable meadow out of it. To answer 
your question we will state what we would do if we 
owned this field. Cut the grass early and make into 
hay. Then get the level of the field and have ditches 
dug so as to drain it thoroughly. Put in drain tile, tak¬ 
ing card! to have a suitable outlet. Then plow the 
ground thoroughly, and harrow it every week, or 
whenever green growth starts until late August. Take 
a fair sample of the soil and pack it in a glass or cup. 
Make a slot or hole with a case knife and put therein 
a piece of blue litmus paper. Press the earth around 
the paper and leave it for an hour. If the blue color 
changes on drying to red or shades of pink, you have 
evidence that the soil is sour. If you get the same re¬ 
sults in different parts of the field you should use at 
least one ton of air-slaked lime to the acre, scattering 
it over the plowed ground and harrowing it in. If 
the surface of the field is uneven, with holes or dishing 
places, level off by scraping the soil into them. The 
object is to get a level surface with a gentle grade to 
take off surface water. With this grading done and 
the surface soil worked fine, we should, late in August 
or early in September, seed either to grass alone or to 
grass with rye or wheat, with our own conditions the 
seeding with rye would be preferred. We should need 
the green rye for forage, and one year with another 
grass seems to do better when seeded with rye. We 
should use five pecks of rye to the acre, and cover it 
with a tool like the Acme harrow. Then we should 
sow at least 10 quarts of Timothy and six quarts of 
Red-top seed per acre, and work it under with a brush 
harrow or some light-toothed tool. If the ground were 
nor too wet we would roll the field and leave it. Be¬ 
fore seeding the rye we should broadcast at least 600 
pounds per acre of a good mixed grass fertilizer or of 
the following chemicals. One part, by weight, nitrate 
of soda, one part muriate of potash, one part fine ground 
bone and two parts acid phosphate. Early in the fol¬ 
lowing Spring, just as the frost was coming out we 
would sow four quarts Red clover and one quart Alsike 
clover seed to the acre. Sow this evenly in the mud 
or on the frozen ground. Cut the rye early for hay and 
let the grass and clover follow. 
MAN, BOY AND FIFTY-TWO ACRES. 
In these days of scarce, high-priced, and inefficient 
farm labor, machinery is the final resort of the hard- 
pressed farmer, or, if his farm is too small to justify 
extensive machine-buying, his wife and small children 
must even be brought into the hayfield. Many a wo¬ 
man and girl have I seen building a load of hay on 
the wagon or mowing back oats in the barn, and I 
notice that where the women and girls help with the 
harvest the farm and buildings and family have a 
thrifty and prosperous look. Last Summer found me 
with a large hay crop to care for, and a lazy, over¬ 
grown, three-quarter-witted boy for my only help in 
the field. I was frightened at the prospect, for it is im¬ 
possible here to hire an occasional hand man in an 
emergency; the work must be done by the regular 
force, or left undone. A few weeks before harvest The 
R. N-Y. published a letter from a man in Crawford 
Co., Pa., describing his successful harvesting with the 
side delivery rake and the hay loader; I read the article 
carefully two or three times, and concluded that if 
those machines would help a Crawford County man 
they would help a Lawrence County man who was 
similarly placed. Going to the dealers I examined 
the machines and bought the last pair of machines in 
this part of the State, at $115, the Keystone side- 
delivery rake and the Deere and Mansur windrow load¬ 
er. I had never seen either machine operating, but 
when we hitched to them they worked beautifully. 
After a field was cut I would start around it with the 
side delivery rake, going three times around and rolling 
the windrow in toward the center of the field, then 
reversing and going the other way I rolled one rakeful 
from the inside onto the windrow. This gave four 
rakefuls to each windrow. As soon as the fourth 
round was added to the windrow, the boy started into 
the windrow with the wagon and loader, and drove and 
built the load, while I went on with the raking. It 
is a splendid sight to see the rake going around the 
field, making windrows the full circumference of the 
field instead of the short, transverse windrows that the 
dump rake makes, and it is a beautiful sight to see 
the windrow slowly crawling up through the loader 
and dropping onto the wagon. Of course, when one 
man both drives and builds, he has to stop often to 
fix the load, but the boy could easily put on a load in 
30 minutes. We then drove to the barn and threw off 
the load with two horses and a hay-fork on a steel 
track, then back to the field again, I to rake and he to 
put on another load. In this way we cut and put up 
52 acres, without getting a single load spoiled by rain, 
and finishing before oat harvest. We stored the ma¬ 
chines on the barn floor, taking out the tongues to 
make the machines pack close and save room. It is 
very important to have the machines put together prop¬ 
erly; some agents are very careless in setting up ma¬ 
chines, and some don’t know how. To those buying 
such machines, I would sav,. run them a week at least 
before paying for them, and insist on the agent adjusting 
every part correctly. Then use common sense, have 
your field in good order, and go ahead. The larger 
the field, the better, for the rake does not do. quite so 
well in turning corners, as the teeth are carried away 
from the hay when on the turn. For the .same reason, 
avoid curves and drive straight as' a bee line from one 
corner to the next. J. C. M. J. 
Pennsylvania. • 
