Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1872-06-19
Help out The Hay Crop.

The rains have come and while they will
do immense good for an increased crop OF hay,
there ia still reason to believe that the crop
ON the whole will be less than the average.
The Massachusetts Ploughman advises farm
ers to help out their hay crop in one of the
following ways
There is every indication that hay and
feeding stuffs of all kinds are going to be
high next fall and winter. 1t is not too late
vet to make calculations for it. What can
you do now to meet this exigency2 One
thing is to cut the grass on the poorer part'
of the farm, those that have apparently sul-
fered the worst from the droughts Of the last
two or three summers, and from the open aud
severe winters that have injured the grass
roots in many places and plough them thor.
oughy, before the middle of May and
SOW them to millet aud Hungarian grass
We know of many judicious aud thoughtful
farmers who are going to do this very thing
And what can you do better2 1t is Just the
time to do that The first crop of grass may
seem light, but on many such knobs it will b,
light anyhow, no matter how long you let it
stand, and if you can get good crop Of Hun
garian grass in addition to the regular grass
crop it will be so much toward helping out the
winter supplies. Plough good depth, har.
row carefully, put on what little manure you
can scrape up in the yard or under the barn
and harrow it in. If that is not enough, get
little fertilizer for grass, aud apply evenly,
then SOW not less than half bushel Of Hun
garian grass seed to the acre. We think
this course worth trying. At any rate it j.
worth careful consideration and now is just
the time to think about it. Hungarian grass
ought to be cut for hay as soon as the seed is
fully formed and before it ripens.
There is another thing you can do. You
can still put in a large lot of Swedish turnps
or ruta bagas, as they are often called. They
will do as late as the twentieth of May
They will do very fairly on sod land, that j.
land ploughed up now, or after the FIRST crop
of grass has come off, if you cut it early.
They will do on light land but you want to
plough deep and mellow the surface. After
the sod is deeply turned, the harrow will mel
low the soil much, aud then a strong applica-
ton of good superphosphate will give the
plants good start. If you can get heavy
crop Of Swedes without too much cost per
bushel, they will help out the hay amazingly,
and we are quite sure that every COW would
vote for them, il you would give her chance.
They make the chief bulk of their growth in
the fall aud can remain in the ground till
November.
There is one other thing you can do that is
worth considering, and that is to put in Il
wide breadth of fodder corn to cut aud cure
in the early part of September. That is "A
pretty sure thing and everybody knows how
to cultivate it, in drills far enough to admit
Of frequent cultvatiug with a horse By
arranging to do the larger part of the heavy
work with the horse, the cost Of the crop il
not great. The main difficulty is in curing
it properly, but the first half of September
is usually hot and II taken then it can b,
done. Let the ears form on the plants be
fore cutting.