754 
Vhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 28, 1921 
Notes on Clover and Alfalfa Hay .Making, 
As Done in Iowa 
W ITH weather conditions favorable, we cut 
Alfalfa before there is danger of clipping 
the new buds starting from the base of the plant. 
The next day it is raked into small windrows with 
a side-delivery rake. This is done as soon as the 
Alfalfa is nicely wilted on top. A side-delivery rake 
is best, for it does not pack it together, but leaves 
it loose for tin 1 wind and sun to get at. After drying 
awhile these windrows are turned over with the 
rake so as to expose the other side. When cured 
enough it is loaded onto the wagon by drawing 
straddle of the row with a loader hitched behind the 
wagon. It takes from two to three days to cure the 
Alfalfa, depending on how drying the wind is. If 
we feel that we cannot chance the weather, it is 
cocked as soon as nicely wilted. After 
standing at least a day the hay is scat¬ 
tered, leaving it so as to drive the 
straddle of the rows with the loader. 
Pitching hay either on or off the wagon 
is a lost art to the present generation 
of haymakers. 
Clover is handled about the same, 
except it is left in swaths until nearly 
cured. As it will not shed rain it is 
left on the ground or in windrows until 
hauled to the barn. While we grow 
some Alfalfa, we have not succeeded so 
well with it. the last three or four 
years: whether it has been on account 
of weather conditions at critical times, 
or our soil is getting out of condition 
for it. I do not know. It seems to do 
better as we go towards the Missouri 
River. Last year clover was a good 
crop. For three years before that it 
was nearly a failure. Seed sown a 
year ago made a big growth after the 
harvest, hut it is making a very poor 
showing now. Clover seed was sown 
with the oats this year the last of 
March and early in April. The oats 
are very thin, having had a hard freeze 
just as they were nicely sprouted. 
Where clover was not sown the oats 
were resown, and now are too thick. 
It is too soon to tell what the clover 
will do. 
There will be very little, if any. fruit 
on account of freezing. Pastures are 
very good. No Spring wheat sown; 
Fall wheat is looking good. Stock 
came through the Winter in good con¬ 
dition. and has been on pasture since 
April 20. .terome smith. 
Iowa. 
Fn Southern Ohio 
About .Tune 20 the little Red or 
Medium clover is ready to cut. and 
when half or mo”e of the heads are 
brown and the weather is fair cutting 
begins. The exact procedure depends 
somewhat on personal preference and 
available working force. In general 
start cutting in the morning when the 
dew is off. and cut what can he put up 
the afternoon of the next day. three or 
four loads for each team. Next morn¬ 
ing cut again as before, and before quitting for noon 
rake up the hay cut the day before in medium or 
small windrows, and leave till after dinner. Begin 
hauling and putting in mow or stacking after dinner 
right from the windrow, and finish before dew falls. 
If the hay is light and mixed with Timothy, and 
the weather is dry and hot, rake the hay the first 
afternoon and cure in the windrow. Curing in 
windrow makes a brighter hay. but requires drier 
weather or longer time than -when curing in the 
swath. Heavy hay requires tedding or turning till 
the proper degree of curing is attained. Curing in 
shock is not resorted to. owing to shortage of labor 
and danger of damage from hard rains. 
Mammoth or Sapling clover matures later, usually 
with Timothy, and is handled about like the little 
Red clover, the treatment depending on the propor¬ 
tion of Timothy present. Alfalfa is less grown here 
now than a few years ago. probably due to the effect 
of the war on farm practice and the better adapta¬ 
tion of clover to a short rotation. Except for the 
firs! cutting Alfalfa does not require more care in 
curing than clover; but to get the desired green 
color curing in windrow or shock is necessary. 
Timothy hay is a cash crop here, and important 
for feeding farm horses, but lets of clover hay is 
put up for cattle and sheep, and horses, too. Silage 
and shredded fodder have their places in feeding, 
and help divide up the farm labor over a longer 
season. However, clover hay is an important feeding 
crop, and deserves the best possible treatment con¬ 
sistent with labor cost. W. E. duck wall. 
Highland Co., O. 
From Western Massachusetts 
I am sorry to say that we have lost considerable 
Alfalfa from winter-killing in the county this last 
season. As to methods of curing, there ai*e various 
bunch carefully and let stand in bunches for one or 
two days if the weather is fine Then, the third or 
fourth day, pitch the bunches apart lightly to admit 
the air, and allow the sun to reach it a little and 
draw to the barn, as far as possible in the heat of 
the day, and pack solidly in the mow. This method 
preserves the leaves, leaves the hay light and bright 
and ensures a quality that causes all animals to eat 
the hay with great relish. n. walker m'keen. 
Maine. 
Sweet Clover as Silage 
The Ohio Station has never put any Sweet clover 
in the silo, and cannot speak from first-hand exper¬ 
ience. A few years ago we analyzed a sample of 
Sweet clover silage for a Western farmer which was 
cut late in the Fall. It was reported 
to be “7 ft. high and destitute of 
foliage.” The percentage composition 
was as follows: 
Water. 71.6 
Ash . 1.9 
Crude protein. 4.5 
Fiber . 11.7 
Nitrogen-free extract. 9.1 
Fat . 1.1 
A large amount of water was used 
with this particular lot of Sweet clover, 
which would of course be unnecessary 
with the fresh product. The sample 
in question was of good quality and 
was reported to be a very satisfactory 
feed. In analysis it corresponds quite 
closely to analyses of clover and Al¬ 
falfa silage given by Henry and Morri¬ 
son in “Feeds and Feeding.” 
This station has had experience with 
Red clover silage. While it was con¬ 
sumed by dairy cattle readily, it was a 
rank, vile-smelliug product, as well as 
a very expensi\ e one. The legumes 
contain too little sugar and too much 
protein for the best silage. They can 
as a rule be handled much cheaper than 
hay, and since they are consumed so 
completely and satisfactorily as hay, I 
cannot recommend ensiling them except 
in rare instances to save the product. 
This applies to Sweet clover if har¬ 
vested in June in good condition for 
hay. Later, when overgrown and very 
woody, about the only way it could be 
utilized for feed would be as silage, and 
the limited evidence is that it makes a 
fairly good silage under these condi¬ 
tions. C. G. WILLIAMS. 
Ohio Experiment Station. 
I 
“Tlic Last Grand Army Man” 
in use, hut the one used by our largest grower is to 
cut in the morning, rake into windrow in the after¬ 
noon with a side-delivery rake. The following day 
the hay is rolled over with a side-delivery rake and 
put in the barn in the afternoon while still pretty 
green, but warm and free from moisture. It is then 
salted in the mow, a peck or so to the ton, and keeps 
perfectly. This is considered by this farmer the most 
practical way to secure the crop in this climate, and 
is entirely successful when two good days can be 
obtained together. Where the farmers have hay 
caps, curing in the cock is satisfactory, but in our 
climate it is very difficult to secure it by this method 
without caps. j. h. putnam, 
Franklin Co., Mass. County Agent. 
Down in Maine 
As to how the best farmers manage to er v e c. wer 
hay, the usual practice is to mow after tl dew is 
well off, let it wilt till afternoon, then stir it lightly 
with a tedder and let it lie as long as possible and 
avoid the falling dew, and in this locality the dew 
begins to fall by four o’clock in clear weather. Then 
Orchard Heaters’ Experience 
I N “Brevities” in a recent number you 
inquire “Where are the orchard 
heaters this year?” In reply I wish to 
say that they were used here this sea¬ 
son with most satisfactory results. They 
are called “smudge pots, and burn a 
low grade ot crude petroleum. Person¬ 
ally, I have little faith in smudging, 
believing that in a series of years the 
expense will outrun the advantages, 
but this year happened to be the one in a consider¬ 
able number in which the operation proved profit¬ 
able. The mercury went to 26 after most of the 
bloom had fallen, and the apples were set on the 
trees, and practically the entire crop was frozen and 
killed in orchards not heated, but in smudged or¬ 
chards the temperature was raised to 30 degrees and 
the fruit thereby saved. I know of instances where 
a crop was entirely destroyed in one orchard, while 
another directly across the road from it was heated 
and will make a full crop. One orchard man stated 
to me that he had smudged for 10 years without 
visible results, and this year decided it was an un¬ 
necessary expense, and did not smudge, losing his 
entire crop, which he is confident could have been 
saved by the use of pots. This was the one year in 
perhaps a dozen when conditions were such that by 
raising the temperature of the orchard from two to 
four degrees, and creating a heavy black smoke 
among the foliage the desired result was ob¬ 
tained. B. G. DRYSDALE. 
New Mexico. 
