Vol. LXVI. No. 2995. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 22, 1907. 
WEEKLY, (61.00 PER YEAR. 
“GRAVITATION” FOR A HAY FORK. 
Handling Hay in Connecticut. 
The haymaking portion of our place (we have named 
it Fair Meadows) consists of seven large, well-cleared 
fields, on which a boy, a pair of horses and a mowing 
machine with a six-foot cutting bar can get down 
enough grass in a few hours to keep three men and a 
team busy several hours in getting it up again. If the 
grass is heavy it is tedded with a two-horse tedder, 
then raked with a horse rake, and pitched, loaded and 
unloaded by men and hand forks, and the loads raked 
after by a boy (or sometimes by “the Madam” herself) 
with a drag rake, called a “bull rake,” said drag rake 
being an easy and efficient tool when properly hung and 
intelligently handled. 
By far a large portion of the public farm work is 
not classed as skilled labor, but, oh dear me, how dis¬ 
tressing are the ways of slack, untrainable, untrained 
help in the hayfield! In mowing, team and machine 
it possible to dress it off and build a stable upon 
it with hay barn adjoining, the hay barn to be 30 x 40 
feet and 24 feet from sill to eaves. We are aware that 
manure cellars are considered unsanitary and out of 
date; but after much study of various automatic de¬ 
vices, also the lay of the land, our pocketbook, and the 
liability of being frequently without help, we decided that 
it is the cheapest, easiest and generally most 
satisfactory method of cleaning the stable, and 
saving the fertilizer. We would like a cistern 
for saving the liquid manure, but cannot hear of 
any which have been successfully used. By having the 
barn floor over stable, and the hay barn all mow, it 
will not be necessary to have the barn very high, and 
will require no high pitching of hay in unloading and 
mowing away. The barn floor is to be 16 feet wide and 
40 feet long; at the right the hay mow, at the left a 
grain room done off from the attic over the stable, and 
beyond that a room for cut bedding, to be put in by the 
same cutter and blower which fills the two silos at that 
could possibly get on it—not in great hunks—but well 
distributed. After the wheat comes off in June, I should 
disk it twice, once each way. After the first shower the 
weeds will begin to appear, then disk again. Keep 
this up until about the first of September. Don’t plow 
under any circumstances, but kill all the weed growth 
by surface cultivation. All this sounds like work and it 
is work, but the best remunerated work a farmer ever 
did. About September first, if there be moisture enough 
for germination, sow 20 pounds of seed per acre. Use 
a wheelbarrow seeder and sow 10 pounds each way. 
This covers ‘skips’ and gives a better distribution of 
the seeds. Then slant your harrow teeth and cover by 
going over the field at least twice. 
“If this cultivation has been given as outlined, there 
will probably be enough moisture to cause germination 
even in very dry weather, but the growth will be aston¬ 
ishing after the first shower. Don’t pasture it, don’t 
mow it, but let it grow up, fall down and go through 
the Winter in that shape. The next Spring you will be 
A BUSY DAY IN A PENNSYLVANIA HARVEST FIELD. Fig. 231. 
should be so managed that no grass is left “hogged” off. 
After raking the windrows should be closed up, the 
heaps rolled and raked after and when the last load 
leaves the field it should leave it as clean as a well-kept 
lawn, and with intelligent help who understand their 
work and take an interest and pride in doing it well 
this is not a lengthy nor tedious task. We like early- 
cut, quickly cured hay, so usually begin haying the last 
week in June, and do not plan to have more than one 
day's work cut ahead, as even with continued pleasant 
weather too long exposure to sun and dew cause a de¬ 
terioration in the quality of the hay for dairy feeding. 
As to what labor-saving devices we use, we are planning 
to use the only one never known to break, need oil, or 
get out of order, namely, gravitation, to lighten the 
task of mowing away. 
Last September we had the misfortune to have our 
hay and stock barn struck by lightning and burned, to¬ 
gether with 60 tons of nice hay and most of our vehicles 
and machinery. It was a swift and terrible destruction, 
but that, as Kipling says, “is another story”; and.we 
intend to rebuild. The burned barn was 40 x 50 feet, 
and consisted of cement-floored manure cellar, stable 
occupying next floor, and two haymows above, with 
barn floor between them. The stonework for 
this barn cost $1,000 when it was built, in 1869. 
This stonework is badly burned, but we think 
end of the stable. Gravitation will then come to our 
aid in feeding the grain, silage and hay. 
Connecticut. mrs. f. l. ives. 
A WESTERN ALFALFA GROWER TALKS . 
Mr. E. C. Dameron, of Pike Co., Mo., wrote an excellent 
letter to a local newspaper, from which we make the follow- 
ins: extracts : 
“After several years’ experimentation, with both suc¬ 
cess and failure, I unhesitatingly advise Fall seeding. 
While I know of no plant that excels Alfalfa in vigor 
of growth, after it is once established, it is extremely 
timid about its association with other plants in its early 
life. Weeds and foxtail are its worst foes, and how to 
avoid them or to reduce them to the minimum is the 
problem before the Alfalfa grower. It is with this in 
view that I advise the Fall seeding, I have about 50 
acres to cut next year, all of which is on low-lying 
land rather inclined to be wet. While this land is very 
fertile, I do not consider it ideal Alfalfa land. To my 
mind the piece selected for seeding down next Fall 
should be upland naturally well drained and fertile. It 
should be borne in mind that as Alfalfa is the most 
valuable crop one can possibly raise, it is entitled to the 
best piece of land on the farm. 
“If the piece selected be now in wheat, I should top- 
dress it during Winter with all the stable manure I 
amply rewarded when you find it the first green thing to 
be seen, and it will remain so when everything in the 
landscape is parched, dry and sun-cooked. 
“On the other hand, if the land selected be in sod, 
stalks or what not, I should grow a preparatory crop. 
Nothing that I know of enriches soil more quickly or 
puts it in better tilth than cow peas. Anywhere be¬ 
tween May 15 and June 15, I should plow and order 
the land and, .with a wheat drill, plant about a bushel 
of peas to the acre, any variety, but preferably Whip¬ 
poorwill. Don’t wait for this crop to mature, but cut 
for hay, for feed, pasture it or “hog ’em off’ in time to 
prepare your seed bed. Disk this pea stubble until you 
are tired, but don’t stop short of five times. Proceed 
then as above described. I have given above the result 
of my experience, and this experience seems to be 
borne out by recent experiments made at the various 
agricultural stations. The keynote is the preparation of 
a perfect seed bed on good rich soil, and a season of 
the year when there is least danger from weeds. Be 
warned that a failure is sure to follow careless, slip¬ 
shod methods, but the careful painstaking farmer may 
rest assured that the labor he may put on an Alfalfa 
field will be rewarded a hundred fold. My experiments 
have been confined to my own farm, ’tis true, but I 
believe that Alfalfa will grow on any soil that will 
produce Red clover. It is one of the clover species it- 
