Tbt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
931 
Cutting, and Curing, the Clover 
IMPORTANT WORK.—July 4, 1924, marks 
the 148th anniversary of the signing of 
the Declaration of Independence; a re¬ 
markable event in the history of our great 
nation. July 5, 1924, marks another anni¬ 
versary in this part of our country, but 
this year we shall have to postpone our celebration 
until July 7. Yes, Monday following the 4tli will 
undoubtedly be hailed as the official date for begin¬ 
ning our annual hay harvest, and this year we have 
been blessed with a bumper crop. We have heard 
the old folks repeat those old familiar sayings about 
“A cold wet May,” etc., and, true to form, we have 
our hay. Some of us have beautiful fields of Al¬ 
falfa ; some have splendid fields of clover; some have 
equally nice fields of mixed clover, Timothy and 
Red-top. They must now come down, be stored 
away, to take care of that live stock, those cows, 
those horses, those sheep, and all other animals re¬ 
quiring an abundance of good, clean, 
well-cured roughage for that long six 
months, that long half year, that that 
live stock must be patiently and cor¬ 
rectly cared for. But our problem is 
the present one, and it might well be 
termed the three “C’s”—to cut, to 
cure, and to care for. 
JUDGMENT NEEDED. — Fortu¬ 
nately there is no book of rules that 
we can follow to the word in curing 
our hay. We have the variations in 
the weather, we have our various local 
help questions. Some of our nicest 
clover is lodged. It will have to be 
cut all from one way, or miss half of 
it. We have many perplexing prob¬ 
lems, but our hay must go into the 
mows well cured and palatable. We 
are all set for that purpose. Our mow¬ 
ers have been hauled out of storage, 
oiled up, knives ground, spare sickles 
Sharpened; the tedder is in shape for 
the job; the hay “riggin’ ” has had a 
little patching up; the rake is in good 
rig; horseshoes have been x’eset; a few 
odd repairs are at hand in case of a 
break; in fact, everything has been 
done that we can possibly think of so 
as not to have any delay after the 
game begins. For we expect to realize 
as high as .$4 per ton on our hay next 
Winter if present milk prices continue, 
by feeding it up to our cows. 
HOW IT IS HANDLED.—Our eyes 
turn skyward. We wonder what the 
weather is going to be like. We usu¬ 
ally take what we get, but we do not 
always want what we get. But we 
know what we are going to try to do. 
We are going to slash right into that 
clover first. We are going to cut it 
down, and have the tedder right be¬ 
hind the mowing machine to bring 
those heavy wet stems up, out into the 
air and sunshine where the sun and 
wind can do their work. We seem to 
think that very few, if any, of the 
leaves are shaken off by that method. 
But we are very careful with clover. 
We let it lie that way until it is fairly 
dry to the hand. Then we rake it up 
into windrows and let it stay in that shape until 
our judgment tells that it would be a good idea to 
cock it up for over night, or if weather permits, for 
a day and a night. In cocking it we believe that it 
is a very good stunt to put it up in good-sized cocks, 
well built up, and not in bunches just thrown or 
pushed together. After a night, or a day and a 
night, we hustle those hay cocks into the barn just 
as fast as we can. It seems a lot heavier now than 
when we cocked it up. It really isn’t. Those hay 
cocks have just settled down a bit, and we have been 
pitching and handling more hay than we really 
thought. And, too, those hay cocks have gone through 
a nice little sweat, which will make them behave 
themselves in the mow, and you will be surprised 
next Spring, or some time through the Winter, to 
notice in your mow full-bloomed, green-stemmed, 
green-leaved clover, not much different, except for 
pressing, from the clover which fell behind the cut¬ 
ter bar. It is a joy to see such hay come out of the 
mow in the Winter. It makes one feel that the 
effort was worth while. It feeds well, and it would 
produce milk were milk worth while producing. 
A RULE IN BLACK AND WHITE.—However, 
in handling a hay crop of any description, I believe 
there is one rule that might be set down in black 
and white, and which ought to be followed, and that 
is: Cut and cure your liay in the field, and use your 
barn only for storage. w. g. miller. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
A Working Day’s Reflections 
'CEDING THE SHEEP.—The work today began 
by planting enough potatoes for ourselves along 
the short rows of a cornfield planted yesterday, then 
some early sweet corn, then shelling seed for an¬ 
other field to be planted next week. After this, the 
belt was put on the sheller and 20 bagfuls shelled 
for the sheep. There is no nicer chore than loading 
Dorothy Perkins Rose Trained Over an Arch. Fig. 400 
Wistaria Rambling Over a Tree. Fig. 401 
a bag in the little Ford truck, driving to the pasture 
and putting it in the troughs, calling the 160 ewes 
and their lambs, and watching them line along the 
troughs. They are in fine flesh and must be kept so, 
and besides some of the lambs must end their happy 
lives with us, and go after the town and city wealth. 
WORKING FOR THE CITY.—Then there are 75 
in a yearling bunch that get the best of treatment. 
They are the select ewes that gave us over 10 lbs. 
of the best wool grown, and it is a shame to sell 
them, but the new lambs are eating like a swarm of 
grasshoppers, and something must be got off the 
place. They should stay in the country, but these 
wheat, pork and cattle feeders have no money, so 
they must be fitted to send after that city money 
also. The farm is the best place on earth to think, 
and this came as we worked today. It is a strange 
condition that farmers must economize and deny 
themselves while town and city folks can buy lamb 
at 50 to 60 cents a pound. How long will this last? 
I believe it will continue as long as farmers blindly 
follow business and political propaganda. They are 
too much like sheep. When a big bunch is inclosed 
in pasture the younger and weaker follow in the 
wake of the flock, and try to subsist on tainted 
leavings. They can’t reason, or they would crawl 
or jump out into new, clean pastures, but they get 
more and more debilitated, and finally helpless. 
SURPLUS PRODUCTION.—Farmers have rea¬ 
son, but it is latent, and already since they started 
down hill more than a million of their financial pelts 
are hung on the fence, and another million have be¬ 
come nearly helpless. Good pasture cannot revive 
them. They have been charmed by politico-business 
which has led them, and all have lived more or less 
on accumulated resources of younger days. Busi¬ 
ness, which owns politics, does not want them to 
break out of that field and become vigorous. It 
wants them to follow along in the same old surplus 
production, and not disturb the old order of power 
aud profit, and the voluminous deliver¬ 
ances for farm relief have hoodwinked 
them, Tail-enders have no power to 
break away, so it wants more of them, 
and is willing even to make loans to 
them to increase them. 
T H E HANDLER’S PROFITS. — 
Wheat, hogs, cattle and milk illustrate 
this. The greatest amount of money 
can be made by handlers when farm 
products are low, and they are incited 
to compete for surplus to make them 
lower. They want them so they must 
grow more and more to keep even, aud 
that will call for sales of supplies to 
get the excess, which will progres¬ 
sively reduce it lower. Many farmers 
work for the handlers, as hard as if 
they got a salary for it, and many send 
their boys to acquire an education to 
fit them for it. A lot of them are in¬ 
citing “ton litters” and 200-lb. hogs in 
six months, when there was an excess 
of 4,000,000 lbs. packed last year. 
There should have been a deficit of 
that number, much lighter, grown prin¬ 
cipally on grass, and there would have 
been profits. This grain, fancy feeds 
and condiments is a menace to the 
grower and the whole industry. If 
providence did not send hog cholera 
pork would be two cents a pound. The 
object seems to be to get pork as 
quickly as possible regardless of cost, 
and furnish it for the sole benefit of 
the handlers. 
INUREASING MILK. — Milk is an¬ 
other. Some men are trying to injure 
their own, their Avives’ and their chil¬ 
dren’s health for the dispensers and 
condensers. They break the Fourth 
Commandment trying to break the 
price of milk,- and some sections have 
succeeded admirably. Many wheat 
growers who did not break up, but to 
whom the sight of a milk check looks 
very fascinating, are getting ready to 
go after some, which will bring sure 
disaster unless the dairymen educate 
the public on the intrinsic value of 
milk as a food and beverage. If they, 
and others following in fields that will 
debilitate them, do not break out they are goners. 
I don t know that readers will like my mixing in, 
but I am sitting under the lamp after a supper that 
fitted, following a pleasant day’s work, and feel like 
trying to offer something that may provoke thought 
for farm relief. Sheep nature has told me what I 
should adopt as well as what should be shunned. 
Tail-end sheep have taught me to watch what the 
mob does, and then do otherwise. We have grown 
no wheat for three years, had but two cows and 
sold one to a milkman, and no hog eats our grain. 
We bought two dressed ones last Winter. 
Oh* 0 - W. W. REYNOLDS. 
Several people have asked how to kill “night-walk¬ 
ers. This name is given to fish or angleworms w-hich 
often crawl out on lawns at night. We frequently find 
them on the hard macadam roads in the early morning. 
Boys sometimes go out with flashlights at night and 
catch these “night-walkers” on the lawn. We never saw 
any good reason why they should be killed. 
