The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1872-12-12
VOLUME 43.
Measurement Of Hay.

Many farmers who are far from scales
sometimes have difficulty in estimating hav
IL Is usual in the West to allow four hun
dred cubic feet to the ton in the stack. In
relation to the cultivated grasses the Mas
sachusetts Ploughman saws:
MANY farmers, particularly those who
have been building a new barn within the
last five years, have the advantages of good
hay scales and know, in consequece, exact
ly how much English hay the farm has
yielded, but the great majority have no
such convenience, and they must get at it
some other way. In such cases there s
nothing left better than the simple meas
urement, but that is sufficient for all prac-
tical purposes. 1t can never, in the nature
OF things, be depended upon for perfect ac-
curacy, because so many elements are in
VOWED, as the character of the hay, whether
llmothy, red top or clover, the time during
winch 1t has been stored, the depth or
| height OF the NOW or the ebay" the time
when Ii was cut, etc. but bearing the mod
lylng circumstances in mind we can arrive
at very close approximation to exactness,
| as we know from experience, having sold
| hay by measurement. with the right to
weigh at the buyers option and expense,
and the results almost invariably justified
the estimate.
we allow for timothy, red top and SINH
lar grasses four hundred and fifty cubic
feet to ton at the bottom or lower half of
ebay" that extends from the floor to the
barn beams, and five hundred and ifty Gu
bic feet for ton at the top or upper half
OF such bay, after it has lain, few
weeks and settled OF clover hay on a
scstfold it will take about six hundred cubic
feet for ton after it has lain, say three
months. 1t will be seen that the average
of the bay full of red top and timothy viii
not be far from five hundred cubic feet
| to the ton, varying, of course, somewhat
by the circumstances alluded to, that is, the
season, the time of cutting, the thorough
ness with which it was cured, the time it
was settled, etc.
little testimony on this point NAV not
be uninteresting at this time. A farmer in
Uxbridge gives four hundred feet in a NOW
twenty feet high, twenty feet long and
twenty feet wide, as the lowest number of
feet he ever estimated He says: In
scaffold OF hay eleven and half feet square
and nine feet high, making 100 IA solid
or cubic feet, there was bv actual weight
5,076 pounds of hay; or a little over two
tons and half Of hay. The hay was up
land interval, resembling red top This
gives Il fraction less than four hundred
and sixty-nine cubic feet to the ton. I'm
der ordinary circumstances five hundred
solid feet of we'll packed, not very close,
hay is considered with US to be fair esti-
mate for ton
farmer in West Enosburg, Vt, says :
When there is a large quantity together,
400 cubic feet will make ton, but where
only A small quantity like scaffold is stor-
ed, it will take for ton not far from 500
cubic feet. 1t depends on the quality, but
L am speaking of good herdgrass hay. |
saw a scaftold measured and weighed Il
few days ago. 1t was twenty-six feet long,
eleven feet wide, and nearly five feet high,
making I,430 cubic feet. It weighed $500
pounds, so you see it varied but a fraction
of 500 feet to the ton
farmer in Freeport, Me, says: For
NOW forty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and
fourteen feet deep, we'll settled, the com
mon estimate Is 425 to 500 cubic feet to
the ton. For some fifteen successive years
| have pressed hay in my own barn from a
NOW less than the above, and the average
number Of feet required including tare,
which is above five per cent, has been
| about 425 feet per ton.
1t will appear from these statements
| that as general average rule a cube of
| eight feet will make ton of timothy and
we should allow about a quarter more for
| clover. If there is considerable mixture
OF clover as there frequently is, the proper
allowance must be made for it, and it will
| require the exercise of some Judgment and
| skill to get at it. SO if the hay is very fine
and unusually solid, it will require a less
| number of feet to the ton
| Now to make calculation as to how
many head of cattle it will do to attempt to
winter, farmers call it in the rough about
two tons to a COW, and make allowance, of
course for other stock according to age
ana size, and for other feeding substances.
| like roots, etc AS general rule It is we'll
TO stock pretty well up to your capacity,
grain 3"