The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1873-04-12
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
measurement of tiay.


Many farmers who are far from scales
sometimes have difficulty in estimating
hay. 1t is usual In the West to allow
four hundred cubic feet to the ton in the
stack In relation to the cultivated grasses
the Massachusetts Ploughman says:
Many farmers, particularly those who
have been building a new barn within the
last five years, have the advantage Of
good bay scales, and know, in conse-
quence, exactly how much English hay
the farm has yielded, but the great ma
iority have no such convenience, aud they
must get at it in some other way. In such
cases there is nothing left better thanthe
simple measurement, but that is sufficient
for all practical purposes. 1t can never,
in the nature of things, be depended up.
on the perfect accuracy, because so many
elements are involved, as the character of
the hay, whether timothy, red top, or
clover: the time during which it has been
stored, the depth or height of the NOW or
the "bly,n the time when IL was cut, &C.,
but, bearing the modifying circumstances
in mind, we can arrive ut very close
approximation to exactness, as we know
from experience, having sold hay by meas
urement, with the right to weigh at the
buyers option and expense, and the re-
suits almost invariably justified the esti-
mate
We allow for timothy, red top, and
similar grasses four hundred and fifty
cubic feet to a ton at the bottom or lower
half of ebay" that extends from the
floor to the barn beams, and five hundred
and fifty cubic feet for a ton 1t the top or
upper halt of such a bay, after it has
lain few weeks and settled. OF clover
hay On a scaffoid it will take about six
hundred cubic feet for Il ton after 1t has
lain say three months. 1t will be seen
that the average of the bay full of red
top and timothy will not be far from five
hundred cubic feet to the ton, varying, of
course somewhat by the circumstances
alluded to, that Is the season, tle time Of
cutting, the thoroughness with which it
was settled, etc.
A little testimony on this point may not
be uniuteresting 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 mum
Der OF feet ever estimated. He says: "In
q scaffold of hay eleven and half feet
square and nine feet high, making 1901
solid or cubic feet, there was by actual
weight 5,076 pounds OF hay;or,a little over
er two and half tons of hay. The hay was
upland interval, resembling red top This
gives fraction less than fourteen hun.
dred and sixty nine cubic feet to the ton
Under ordinary circumstances five hun
dred,solid cubic ftetweIl packed not very
Loose, hay, is considered with us to be u
very fair estimate for ton.
A farmer in WesJ Enosburg. Vt, says
"When there is large quantity together,
400 cubic feet Will make ton, but where
only small quantity like a scaffold is
stored, 1t Will take for ton net far from
500 cubic feet. 1t depends somewhat on
the quality, but | am speaking Il good
herdgrass hay. | saw Il scatfolu weighed
and measured a few days ago. 1t was
twenty-six feet long, eleven feet wide, and
nearly five feet high, making | ,430 cubic
feet. 1t weighed $500 pounds, so Won
must see II varied but fraction of 500 feet
to a TOM
a farmer in Freeport, Me, says: "For
NOW forty feet long, sixteen feet wide,
and fourteen feet deep, well settled, the
common estimate is 425 to 500 cubic feet
to the ton. For some fifteen successive
years hayo pressed hay in my own barn
Tor NOW less than The above, aud the
average number Of Get required ,iGcluding
tare, which i above five per cent, has
been about 425 feet per TOM
1t will appear from these statements
that as a general average rule a cube of
eight feet will make ton of timothy, and
we should allow about quarter more
for clover. If there is a considerable
mixture of clover, as there frequently is,
the proper aliUwarc e must he made for
1t, and twill require the exercise of some
Judgment and skill to get at it. So if the
hay is very fine and unusually solid, it
viii require It less number of feet to a
ton.
Now to make a calculation as to how
many head of cattle 1t will do to attempt
TO winter, farmers call it IN the rough
about two tons To a COW, and make al
lowance,o course, for other stock acc I'd
ing to age and size and for other leedin Q
substances, like roots, etc. As a general
rule it is well to stock pretty well up tC
your capacity, and il likely to come lit
tie short, buy grain.