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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Juno G, 
MAKING HAY OF LEGUME PLANTS. 
Curing Clover and Cow Pea Vines. 
There is no dispute as to the value of well-cured 
legume hay, especially for milch cows, owing to the 
richness of these plants in protein. There is also no 
doubt that the curing requires more care and time 
than hay made from the grasses. But that perfectly 
sweet and clean hay can be made from the clovers, 
cow peas and some other legumes my own experience 
has well shown. The curing differs from that of the 
grasses from the fact that it must be done with as 
little exposure to the sun as practicable. The leaves 
of these plants arc the most valuable part of the crop, 
and any method of curing that sacrifices the foliage re¬ 
sults in poorer hay. Hence the necessity for housing 
the crop before the leaves are crisp to prevent their 
shattering off the plants. Much has been said about 
waiting for the dew to get off before mowing. But 
if the tedder is used after the mower some little dew 
left will do no harm. Years ago I had to cut clover 
in a narrow valley where the sun cast a shadow of 
a mountain on the bottom till eight a. m. and the 
shadow of another came over after three p. m. I 
found that in that little valley there was always some 
moisture on the clover the day through. Therefore 
I began cutting as soon as the clover was not posi¬ 
tively wet, and liable to choke the mower. Imme¬ 
diately behind the mower the tedder was started to 
toss the cut clover up lightly, and was kept going 
over it until noon. If the day was hot, the clover 
would often get wilted enough to rake into windrows 
what had been cut before noon. The next morning 
these were opened out after turning them with the 
horse rake and let lie till the afternoon, when this 
part was cocked and the next cutting raked. 
I prefer to cut Red clover as soon as a head shows 
brown here and there, and not wait, as some do, till 
it is brown all over. Cut at that stage there will be 
far less dusty hay. Hay caps are essential to the sav¬ 
ing of clover hay, for at the time when it is cut we 
are always liable to thunderstorms. Caps made of 
good twilled cotton about four or five feet square are 
best. The waterproof pressed papier-mache caps 
are worse than useless, as they hold down the steam 
and the clover gets wet and heating under them. I 
never tried them but once, and want no more of 
them. Do not allow the .clover to heat in the cock, 
but turn it, and as soon as a bunch can be taken in 
the hands and given a hard twist and no sap runs to 
the twist, it is ready to house. On no account let it 
remain out till the leaves get crisp. In storing it, do 
not tramp or pack, but simply let it settle naturally. 
I was once cutting clover hay in Virginia and stor¬ 
ing a good deal of it in the loft over a long shed that 
surrounded my barnyard. I had built this shed 364 
feet long, as a place for the cows to eat hay at noon, 
and made the loft over it with doors at intervals 
opening on the barnyard. In starting to store the hay 
I directed the men to fill it full to the roof as they 
went, I having classes till 10 3 . m. and could not be 
present. This hay was stored as directed, and then 
a rain stopped us. A few days after, we started again, 
and I directed the hands merely to pile the hay on 
top of the first, as that had settled considerably. At 
30 o’clock my horse was saddled at the door, and I 
rode to the barnyard. A negro was standing in one 
of the doorways with a load of fresh hay outside, and 
a steam was coming from the door. I called to him 
to stop moving the old hay, as he would spoil it. 
“It is already spiled,” said he, “for it is hot to my 
feet.” I made him stop, however, and pile the fresh 
hay on top the old hay. The only mouldy hay I had 
in that loft was where he moved it at the door and 
let in the air with the mould germ. The rest cured 
bright and sweet. 
I cure cow-pea hay in a similar way, but the hay 
caps are not so essential as with Red clover, for rain 
noes not damage the pea vines as badly as the clover, 
but the hay will be all the brighter for protection from 
rain. I never mow cow peas longer than noon, and 
try to get them wilted with the tedder as fast as pos¬ 
sible and rake the same afternoon into windrows and 
open the next morning and cock that evening, and 
store them as soon as they will show the same test 
that I apply to clover. These, too, I pile in the mow 
with as little tramping as possible, and leave every¬ 
thing open. I formerly shut up the barn tight, but 
have since found that the curing is far more rapid 
with it open day and night. At one of our Summer 
institutes in North Carolina, about 20 miles from the 
city of Raleigh, I told the farmers my method of 
curing pea vines, and invited them in the Fall to come 
and see the hay and see what its character was. The 
Commissioner of Agriculture, who was present, told 
me I was taking a risk, as the hay was not then made. 
I replied that I had never failed, and did not expect 
to fail that season. Along in September a farmer 
drove up to the Station farm and said, “I came to see 
that hay, for not a man there believed what you said.” 
“There is the barn and the hay,” said 1 ; 'go and see 
for yourself.” He went and thrust his hand as far as 
he could into the hay and pulled out some. “Well, 
it is all so, and the leaves are still green in color, 
and it is the best pea hay I have ever seen.” A week 
later he brought up one of his doubting neighbors to 
see the hay, and he, too, was satisfied. At one insti¬ 
tute I said that owing to the condition of my peas 
and the dry hot weather. I had stored my hay the 
third day after cutting it. Afterwards I received 
letters saying that the writers had tried the third day 
and the hay moulded. It simply showed that people 
often do not listen right, and failed to consider the 
condition of their crop and the state of the weather, 
for under some conditions of weather and maturity of 
the crop, the pea vines will have to be left out a week. 
Recently a practice has been followed in the South 
which gives fairly good results, but does not save 
the leaves as perfectly as 1 do. Sending a sample of 
MR. DTIMMEirS HAY BARN. Fig. 220. 
my hay to the editor of the Southern Planter, of 
Richmond, Va., an English farmer, he said in his next 
issue that it was the prettiest hay he ever saw in 
America, so green in color that it reminded him of 
well-cured English hay. By the common method the 
vines are mown and stakes set over the field about 
six feet tall, after the method the peanut growers use 
to cure their crop. The green cut vines are at once 
raked and cocked in tall narrow cocks around these 
stakes, which serve to hold them up in a more nar¬ 
row shape than without them. The hay is left there 
till completely cured, rain or no rain. The result is 
fairly good feed, but a great loss of leaves. Some 
go to the trouble to nail cross pieces to the base of 
the stakes to hold the hay up from the ground. It 
cures in this way, but it is far more expensive than 
my way and makes poorer feed. The stage at which 
cow peas should be cut is just as the pods turn yellow 
and show signs of ripening. After complete ripening 
the leaves soon fall and before the yellowing stage 
the curing is more difficult. My attention was called 
to the advice given by one editor of an agricultural 
paper, who told an inquirer that he could cut two and 
perhaps three crops the same season from a sowing of 
cow peas. No one ever did that, I am sure. Peas 
mown before blooming and getting weakened by seed 
formation, will often make a poor sort of second 
growth, and in fact can be pastured by cows two or 
three times if it is done before blooming. But hay 
cut at that stage is poor in amount and quality, and 
A PART OF THE HATFIELD. Fig. 221. 
the second growth will hardly be of much value. One 
good crop is about all that can be expected. In North 
Carolina I have known two crops taken the same sea¬ 
son from the same ground, by sowing early in May 
and mowing in July an early variety, and then at 
once sowing an early variety on the same land to be 
harvested in September. But one cutting from one 
sowing is all that can be had. Mr. Tufts, at Pine- 
hurst, N. C., last year made five tons of hay per 
acre, from the two sowings on the same land, and 
that on land that a few years ago would hardly have 
grown peas six inches high. The main thing in saving 
legume hay is rapid wilting, keeping as much from 
the sun as practicable, and housing while still limp 
but cured to such an extent that the curing will be 
easily completed in a barn. \v. F. massey. 
HIGH AND LOW MEAT PRICES. 
When prices of meat to eastern consumers were raised 
the last time the excuse given us was that owing to the 
panic western farmers were obliged to sell their stock in 
order to raise money. Thus the supply of live stock ran 
short. It was claimed that the farmers got more for their 
stock when we paid more for the meat. There seems to 
lie little truth in any of these statements. 
Meat production for two years before the recent 
panic had been very satisfactory to the farmers and 
feeders of Iowa, and as a rule they were in a condi¬ 
tion to carry their stock to maturity as usual if it 
could have been done at a profit. With corn worth 
57 or 58 cents on track, and the bulk of the corn-fed 
beef selling from 5 to 5J4 cents, and hogs the same, 
there is no inducement to feed corn to stock. If the 
price of corn had been no higher than the average, 
35 to 40 cents, there would have been no rush of 
stock to market, although the drop in price would 
have wiped out the greater part of the profit. There 
will not be to exceed 25 per cent of the usual num¬ 
ber of cattle and 50 per cent of hogs fed in this 
locality until the new crop of corn comes in. The 
panic no doubt contributed its share to cause the drop 
in price of beef and pork on foot, but the unloading 
of live stock on the market would have come, only 
not so violently. 
That the difference between the price that the 
farmer gets for his meat on foot and that for which 
it is sold to the consumer is too great goes without 
question, but the handlers of meat are not so much 
to blame as would appear. True, to combine in re¬ 
straint of trade is a violation of law, but the immu¬ 
nity bath is kept warm. If the handler can get as 
much profit on two pounds of meat as he should on 
three, why sell three? He gets all the money that 
is to be spent for meat anyway. But there is where 
our kick comes in. We are ready to furnish the 
three, and it would seem that the consumer might 
have something to say on that. When the consumer 
and producer become educated up to a point so that 
they can work together, immunity buckets will be 
turned bottom up, and the handlers of meat will 
have to compete; then supply and demand will make 
prices. Jerome smtth. 
Iowa. 
FEEDING VALUE OF HAY. 
How Milk Production is Affected. 
We have been through our usual experience with 
hay again this Spring. A gain has resulted in milk 
production from an even 140 quarts a day to 365 
quarts, just by a change in the hay fed the cows. 
A friend called the other day and said he had two 
cows in the village that had been in milk for some 
time, and were giving an average of 32 pounds a 
day. He changed the hay and they dropped almost 
to 16 pounds. That is a larger drop than I ever noted 
from changing hay, but these experiences with hay 
are so frequent that we know to a practical certainty 
what to expect from a given quality of hay fed the 
cows. There is no grain ration that can make up 
for poor hay, or even medium hay, as compared with 
first quality for cows. This time our own change was 
from hay that got wet and hurt a little to hav that 
was harvested under the best conditions. Possibly, 
too, the poorer hay may have been a little coarser. 
Coarse Timothy hay makes a poor ration for milk 
cows. That is the trouble with the hay mentioned 
by my friend. He has made a considerable effort to 
change his farm from a low production of hay to that 
of nearly three tons per acre. He says he gets the 
quantity, but for feeding cows it isn’t good for any¬ 
thing. That may be an exaggeration, but we are able 
to get nothing that equals our mixed grasses, quite 
a portion of which is Blue grass, for feeding cows. 
Moreover, we raise that hay for three dollars a ton, 
and we harvest it for three dollars more. We cannot 
get very large yields, but we get excellent quality at 
moderate cost. We try for clover and Timothy, and 
sometimes succeed. Perhaps we make a little by 
trying, but the hay question hasn’t reached a positive 
solution yet. 
On our farm we are studying how to get at least 
fair yields of hay of good quality for feeding our 
cows. If possible, we want to do this without plow¬ 
ing because of the labor problem. We are obliged to 
plow when weeds get in possession, but we would like 
to get good yields on all other plots without using 
the plow. We top-dress a good deal, and this year 
we have a dozen or more experimental plots in our 
meadows where we apply commercial fertilizers, ashes, 
lime and combinations of fertilizers. Besides this we 
have an eight-plot field in the pasture which we wish 
to improve, and several plots where we are seeding 
according to various plans recommended. Some of 
these are recommended by the College of Agriculture 
and others by fertilizer experts. I hope to be able 
to report some results in time. H. H. lyon. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. 
