Litchfield enquirer., 1871-08-10
EVERY DAY THOUGHTS ABOUT
 EVERY DAY WORK.


 The prospect for hay is very small this year. The dry time in May and the first of June has not been favorable for grass. and t hos kipened of early without having much bottom to it. In old meadows also { 1t feels the effects of the severe drouth of last summer, being completely killed in many places. | venture to predict a high price for hay this winter, and those who have new meadows coming on this year to make out as much hay as they cut last year are among the lucky ones. I have eight acres of new meadow, andhave only broken
 t1p af0ut i've of the poorest that I moved i4st year, 60 | think shall come out square, especially as the rains have started a good second crop on the clover meadow that I moved first If the season does not chance to end in severe drouth, my second crop on those eight acres of clover meadow will be better than the first crop. This call the best of hay. I never saw anything that would start such on amount of milk from a COW in the winter as one or two feeds per day of rowen hay. Neither meal nor shorts in any quantity that ever dared to give, with Q plenty of good fine hay, would give the amount of milk nor cream that it would give with no meal; while with two feeds of frowen hay and little meal every day can get almost or qnite as much milk and cream as in good grass feed, and the COWS will keep in better condition. When that or very early cut clover is fed during the winter there is not as much need of feeding roots as there is with hay that is "made on the
 stumps," as is great deal of our hay in
 light meadows. I believe there is more
 hay hurt by standing too long before mow-
 ing, and being made too much afterward,
 than in any other way. Two or three years I have got in hay so green that have thought it would take rust, and in the win- found 1t was made enough and more too; and mean to try one year to put in some that will not make in the mow before I get any more on it, and see if can have it come out green enough not to need cutting and steaming to induce the cattle to eat it without waste. If hay gets up to fifty dol lars a ton or more this fall, we shall hate to see it thrown back into the bedding. It . behooves us to look out a little for some- thing to piece out our fodder, if hay comes short. A good strip of fodder corn will help very much. It is first rate feed for milch cows, particularly if it is cut and
 mixed with an equal amount of hay, and
 then just moistened and dusted over with a little good corn or shorts. Let learned doctors denounce it as they will, good corn
 fodder cut and fed green, or we'll cured, and then cut and fed, is a very excellent substitute for grass and hay, and mean to have enough of it.. What I do not feed green, which will depend very much on the wetness of the fall, shall cure for win ter use, and expect it to be "much better than snow. balls" next winter. It is easily and cheaply raised as any fodder crops | English turnips. also, Imean to put in a 1 large field when my early potatoes are talk en out, and found them good food for sheep and young cattle and dry COWS last winter. have heard of oxen being fatted on them. but never tried it. My carrots, mangolds and sugar beets I fear will net make very great show, as the season has been more favorable for weeds than for them, and my other work has caused me to | surrender to the weeds in some places, in | spite of my good resolutions to to the con- trary. But mean to have enough of them | to help ont my hay, and reduce my grain | bill little. If I can get to it in season, | shall SOW piece of rye to cut green for | fodder, but I cannot feel very sure of it, as there is so much work of men and teams | called for in connection with the alterations | and repairs on farm buildings, on which | has bothered me badly this season; some | times have five or six men doing work | that might as well wait till next fall, while | work that am in hurry for, lies untouch- l cd because carpenters or stone masons are | using all my teams, and their drivers cart | ing lumber or stone for them It seems as ifthey called for help just when could least afford to furnish it. If I had had any idea of the way it would be, I should have advised planting no more than would have been used on the place, and have given all bur attention to the great improvements this year, excepting to take care of the root crops for cattle feeding. Farm work is sort of jealous mistress; if it does not receive all the attention it requires, that which you give it is not of any value.-I Boston Recorder. @~4 -7 < 8g% -----.