Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1863-07-24
IFrom the Country Gentleman
value Of Hay Caps.

me that the advantages to be der1v-
ed from the use of Hay-Caps are not
sufficiently understood by our farm
ers generally, and l therefore desire
to call the attention of the readers
of the Country Gentleman to the O.
pinions of their value expressed by
some who have used them.
Hon. III. F. French, while on his
way in New Hampshire, thus wrote
to the New England Farmer.
'Hay-Caps do pay, and no mistake.
Take four yards of yardwide cotton
sheeting; sow it together SO as to
make two yards square,; hem the
rough edges, turn up each corner
two or three inches, and sew 1t
strongly; tie in short twine to form
loop, and you have a hay-cap ready
for use.
Four sharp wooden pins of hard
wood, half an inch in diameter, eigh-
teen inches long, to be thrust up
wards through the loops into the
bottom Of the cock, complete the
preparation.
Well how do the hay-caps work?
is the question on all sides. why
don't they get wet through, just as
your cotton shirt does on your back"
The reason is, my friend, because
they shed rain just as your cotton
umbrella does. IF the hay were We
ry fine and and very green, so that
the cloth would touch it at all points
1t would doubtless take off much of
the water; but coarse or partly dri-
ed hay is IN contact with the cloth
at comparatively few points, and so
the cloth conducts the water away
like the covering of a tent. Coarse
clover will remain safe through a
weeks rain with such protection,
while / have had fine hay which was
cooked up green, injured by heating,
not by water, in three days. On
the whole; a farmer of moderate
meanse, who cuts much coarse hay,
cannot afford to be without some
thirty or forty hay-caps. He will
save their value in one such season
as this or that of last year.
The above is pretty persuasive
testimony. Now let those who are
not yet convinced, or not yet resol-
we'd to provide themselves with the
articles which Mr.. French and 9TH
ers have so highly commended, lis
ten to what Mr.. Emmerson of Hollis,
Nh, has said on the subject:
'One great objection is the time
of putting them on. Now 1 will go
into the field with any man of equal
strength and ability to work, and
putup ten cocks of hay and put on
the caps, quicker than he can cock
up ten cocks of hay and put on the
caps, quicker than he can cock up
ten cocks and trim them so as to be
fit to turn rain without the caps
It does not take half the trimming
with caps that it does wit hout caps,
I have used caps from Is to 20
years, and | have never known a
cock of hay to be blown over, after
it was properly capped, by gusts of
wind, such as usually precede
showers, while at times I have had
every cock not capped tipped over,
or the top blown off.
The best cap is good sheeting
cloth l 1-8 to l IA yards square
(without paint, varnish, or anything
of the kind, } with a loop at each
corner, and fastened to the cock by
a small stick about 20 inches long.
think painted or vanished caps
might have the effect to prevent
the escape of steam. But common
cloth will not. I have never had a
cock of hay much injured by the
rain, that was properly capped
Mr.. ID. mentions a case in which
he was obliged to cut crop of oats
while quite green. He set up 16
to 20 bundles together, and put caps
over them. They stood thus sever
al weeks, and were found perfectly
dry.
We trust we have now presented
reasons enough to convince any one
of the utility of hay-caps, and that
many will thank US in after years
for services in this resDect.