T/rt  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
71  i 
Hay  Caps  In  Hay  Making 
WE  have  many  letters  from  people  who  ask 
about  hay  caps  and  their  practical  use  in 
hay-making.  Probably  the  great  majority  of  farmers 
in  this  country  never  saw  a  hay  cap.  and  would 
hardly  know  what  to  do  with  them  in  case  they  had 
a  dozen.  Old  boys  in  the  New  England  hayfields 
will  remember  how  those  caps  were  handled. 
Through  their  use  it  was  possible  to  make  the  finest 
quality  of  hay,  especially  in  wet  or  rainy  weather, 
when  clover  was  to  be  cured.  The  caps  have  proved 
more  expensive  in  late  years,  and  not  so  many  of 
them  are  used  as  formerly.  The  true  hay  cap  is  a 
cover  somewhat  in  the  shape  of  an  umbrella,  which 
is  put  on  the  top  of  a  hay  cock  to  shed 
the  water.  Some  of  them  are  made  of 
wood  pulp  stamped  into  a  hard  mass. 
We  have  known  them  made  of  a  thin 
metal,  but  most  of  them  are  made  from 
a  thick  sailcloth  or  canvas.  In  some 
cases  grain  sacks  are  used,  water¬ 
proofed  by  using  oil  or  some  similar 
preparation.  The  cloth  caps  are  gen¬ 
erally  made  square.  A  heavy  weight, 
usually  a  stone,  is  tied  at  each  end  of 
the  square  so  as  to  hold  the  cap  down 
over  the  haycock,  and  thus  prevent  its 
being  blown  off  by  the  wind.  They  are 
largely  used  in  curing  clover  and  Al¬ 
falfa,  or  a  crop  like  oats  and  peas, 
which  dries  out  slowly.  The  customary 
plan  is  to  get  the  hay  partially  dried 
out.  Then  cock  it  up  while  warm, 
making  sure  that  it  has  no  water  in  it. 
Then  the  caps  are  put  on  the'  cocks, 
where  they  remain  from  one  to  three 
days.  It  is  thought  that  the  longer  the 
hay  stays  in  this  shape  the  better  it  is, 
if  the  conditions  are  right,  for  in  this 
slow  curing  the  color  and  aroma  of  the 
hay  and  the  leaves  are  largely  saved. 
Of  course  the  theory  in  the  proper  cur¬ 
ing  of  hay  is  that  the  moisture  in  the 
stems  should  be  evaporated  through 
the  leaves.  That  is  the  proper  way  to 
get  rid  of  it.  The  clover  hay  should 
not  be  exposed  to  the  air  and  sun  so 
that  the  leaves  will  shrivel  and  dry 
before  the  stems  have  been  dried  out. 
When  that  happens  it  is  difficult  to 
cure  the  stems  properly.  When  the 
half-cured  clover  is  thrown  into  cocks 
and  covered  by  the  cap  the  water  is 
slowly  sucked  out  from  the  stems 
through  the  leaves  and  evaporated. 
The  cock  thus  leaves  the  hay  in  the 
best  condition  on  much  the  same  theory 
that  the  modern  system  of  dehydration 
or  removing  the  water  from  fruit  or 
vegetables  by  warm  dry  air  leaves  a 
much  better  product  than  the  old  sun- 
dried  evaporated  fruit.  After  two  or 
three  days  under  the  hay  cap  the  cap 
is  removed  and  the  cock  is  put  open 
to  the  sun  with  very  little  shaking. 
After  a  few  lioui's  in  good  sun  and 
wind  the  hay  is  l’eady  to  be  hauled  in. 
There  can  be  no  question  about  the 
fact  that  a  higher  quality  of  hay  is 
made  when  the  hay  caps  are  properly 
used.  This  is  particularly  true  of 
clover  and  Alfalfa.  The  cost  of  the 
caps  will  be  considei*able,  and  quite  a 
little  labor  is  involved  in  handling 
them,  and  of  late  years,  with  the 
scarcity  of  labor,  the  hay  caps  have 
been  very  largely  given  up. 
as  six  bushels.  It  bore  very  heavily  the  Fall  of 
1916-1917,  and  always  has  some  nuts  when  other 
trees  fail.  We  are  growing  the  young  ti*ees  from  the 
nuts  aixd  are  setting  out  100  young  seedlings  this 
Spring.  We  plant  the  nuts  in  the  Fall,  taking  them 
from  under  the  tree  as  they  fall,  and  plant  them 
about  two  inches  under  the  soil.  Thus  far  Ave  have 
got  about  a  50  per  cent  hatch ;  that  is,  about  one- 
half  the  nuts  sprout  and  come  up  the  next  Spring 
and  Summer. 
I  am  a  ha ck-to-tli e-lander  in  a  small  way,  coming 
here  with  my  wife  and  daughter  in  the  Summer  of 
1910.  My  wife’s  grandfather,  Joel  Palmer,  a  native 
of  Connecticut,  came  here  in  1810,  and  took  up  the 
land  from  the  Government.  He  became  a  tanner 
and  raised  a  family  of  nine  children.  They  are  all 
gone,  and  only  a  few  of  his  grandchildren  are  left. 
My  daughter,  the  fourth  generation,  will  inherit  the 
property.  The  story  goes  that  one  of  the  family 
brought  nuts  from  the  Centennial  in  Philadelphia 
in  1876,  and  planted  some  of  them,  and  from  that 
planting  our  present  crop  has  come.  One  tree  is 
about  50  years  old,  the  one  shown  in  the  picture 
about  30.  H.  C.  FLETCHER. 
Was  there  ever  a  crow  of  usual  intelligence  deceived  by  a  "scarecrow”? 
.actually,  seen  them  pulling  corn  right  in  the  shadow  of  some  stuffed  figure.  There 
is  an  anjmate  sc-  a  r  e  e  r  o  w  ”  in  the  above  picture.  The  trouble  is  she  cannot  remain 
or  some  good  repellent  on  the  seed  far  better  than 
in  the  field.  We  consider  tar 
any  scarecrow. 
English  Walnuts  in  Western 
New  York 
I  AM  sending  you  a  picture  of  an 
English  walnut  tree  (Fig.  269) 
that  stands  a  hundred  feet  back  of  my 
home,  on  the  bank  of  a  tiny  bi-ook  that 
is  fed  by  the  overflow  of  the  Barge 
Canal,  and  finally  finds  its  way  into 
Lake  Ontario.  This  is  only  one  of 
several  English  walnut  trees  on  this 
small  place.  However,  this  one  bears 
the  lai’gest  and  the  most  paper-shelled 
nuts  of  several  trees  growing  on  oxxr 
few  acres. 
Last  seasoix  we  had  160  pounds,  most 
of  which  AA'e  sold  at  40  cents  per  pound. 
This  particular  tree  has  borne  as  many 
Don’t  Handle  the  Potatoes  Rough 
HERE  is  said  to  be  a  potato  digger  and  loader 
on  the  market  which  works  fairly  Avell  in  sandy 
-soils  where  there  are  no  stones.  It  takes  the  pota¬ 
toes  from  the  digger  and  loads  them 
into  a  wagon  which  is  driven  alongside 
Where  the  soil  is  heavy  and  cloddy  or 
where  there  are  stones  the  machine 
does  poor  work,  because  it  does  not 
know  how  to  tell  a  potato  froxn  a  clod 
or  a  stone. 
Potato  experts  are  very  decided  in 
their  opinion  that  the  less  handling  of 
potatoes  by  machinery  in  getting  them 
from  the  ground  to  market  the  better 
tlxeir  chances  of  their  keeping  and 
bringing  a  good  price.  One  of  them 
tells  me  that  potatoes  dug  and  placed 
in  barrels  in  the  field  brought  double 
the  price  on  the  Chicago  market  that 
was  obtained  for  those  that  had  been 
handled  in  the  usual  l’ougli  way.  One 
of  our  assistant  County  Agent  leaders, 
who  has  been  making  something  of  a 
study  of  this  matter,  says  that  aboxit 
90  per  cent  of  the  losses  in  stored  pota¬ 
toes  is  caused  by  injuries  received  in 
rough  handling. 
I  suppose  you  are  familiar  with  the 
stoiy  of  how  a  Government  man  found 
out  what  was  the  trouble  with  the 
oranges  that  rotted  on  the  way  from 
California  to  the  Eastern  markets.  In 
the  old  days  shippers  of  oranges  fig¬ 
ured  on  a  certain  loss  of  from  40  to  60 
per  cent  of  all  oranges  shipped  from 
the  coast.  The  man  who  was  sent  out 
there  to  investigate  the  matter  thought 
he  saw  where  the  trouble  started.  He 
picked  a  case  of  oranges  himself  and 
carefully  wrapped  them  himself  and 
put  the  case,  together  with  another 
case  picked  and  packed  by  the  regular 
help,  under  a  bench  in  the  packing 
shed  and  left  it  there  10  days.  At  the 
end  of  that  time  his  oranges  wei’e  all 
good  and  nearly  all  the  otliei-s  were 
rotten.  The  growers  and  packers  saw 
the  point,  and  since  that  time  oranges 
are  handled  like  eggs,  their  skins  are 
not  broken,  aixd  there  is  small  chance 
for  the  germs  of  rot  to  make  their  at¬ 
tack.  Our  potato  men  say  that  some¬ 
thing  along  this  line  will  have  to  be 
done  for  the  much  abused  potato.  They 
are  voting  against  the  potato,  loader 
and  the  potato  sorter,  which  add  their 
share  to  the  bruises  which  the  potato 
gets,  and  it  rather  looks  as  though  they  ' 
are  right.  j.  m.  d. 
We  have 
e 
English  Walnut  Tree  on  Tuliner  Hojjiestead,  Monroe  County,  N.  Y.  Fiy.  26!) 
A  Good  Asparagus  Bed 
AN  article  on  page  319  by  Hugh 
Findlay  on  “Planting  Asparagus 
in  the  Home  Garden”  attracted  my  at¬ 
tention,  and  rather  sxirprised  me  that 
he  did  not  get  a  longer  period  for  pro¬ 
duction  after  using  so  much  care  in 
planting,  cultivation  and  feeding  the 
plants.  I  planted  a  bed  in  the  Spring 
of  1870.  began  cutting  it  in  1878,  and 
it  has  been  under  continual  cultmxtion 
since  that  date,  and  has  ne\rer  failed 
to  produce  an  abundant  crop  each  year 
since.  The  first  20  years  I  had  rotted 
horse  manure;  since  then  it  has  had 
an  abundance  of  choice  composted 
leaves,  hen  manure  from  the  droppings 
boards,  bonemeal  and  blood  meal 
spaded  in  iix  the  Fall  aixd  again  in  the 
Spring.  The  bed  has  good  natural 
drainage  and  is  about  six  inches  abox’e 
the  rest  of  the  garden. 
The  original  plants  have  spread  out 
quite  a  good  deal,  so  that  there  is  no 
semblance  of  tows  as  originally  planted. 
