HINTS ON RAISING FARM CROPS 33 
summer to protect them during the winter, and 
the farmer is well repaid the next season, in 
a sure crop, and a heavy yield, by insisting 
that the first year’s seeding be unmolested. 
There are various mixtures that are used 
for hay purposes, but perhaps the most com¬ 
mon mixture is timothy and clover. Timothy 
is a very hardy plant, and seldom dies in win¬ 
ter. Clover is more susceptible, however, to 
winter-killing, and the farmer usually mixes 
timothy seed with his clover seed, so that if, 
for any reason, the clover fails to come up, 
he still has the timothy to fall back on. Tim¬ 
othy is raised to a large extent for hay all 
over the country, as it is an especially good 
feed for horses, although not so good for cat¬ 
tle and hogs. There are various kinds of 
clover raised for both hay and pasture pur¬ 
poses, and the details of raising these clovers 
will be reserved for a separate chapter, but 
it may be said how that clover is well thought 
of, both for hay and pasture, by most Ameri¬ 
can farmers. Alfalfa will also be treated sep¬ 
arately. 
We will close this chapter with a few words 
on the manner of making hay. Hay, as a rule, 
is cut -when the plants are in bloom. Some 
kinds demand cutting before this time, how¬ 
ever, as there would be a large loss of leaves 
if they were allowed to ripen too much. The 
hay crop is cut with a mower, and then raked 
into- either wind-rows or in cocks. The hay 
is left in this condition for a day or two, so 
that some of the moisture of the green hay 
can be evaporated. When the hay that is left 
