The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-07-02
Cutting and Curing Hay.

THE manner of making hay varies &C.
cording to the climatic conditions where
the crop is grown. In the climate Of
England, where the farmer cannot be
sure of fair weather for twelve hours at
time; where the summer heat is low,
and where, from the constant manuring
and the application of commercial fertil-
izers, the earth is made to carry an i'm
mense burthen, every advantage is taken.
by spreading, stirring and careful cock
ing to ward against contingencies of
weather with which, in more sunny eli
mates, the husbandman has not to con-
tend. There it is unusual to see hay of
uniform green color as with us. 1t is
always dark, generally brown, but never
theless usually of excellent quality.
When, some years since, our bright
colored hay was shipped there it was un-
salable, except at prices far below that
grown by themselves, and we presume
this will be the case with that shipped
hence this season, which at best could
not have been laid down in Liverpool at
less than about $50 per ton of 1900
pounds. If the shipment of hay should
continue, the English farmers would find,
upon investigation, that our bright hay,
cut and thoroughly cured while young,
is really superior to theirs. But do they
really get our best quality of hay? We
opine that the principal part of the hay
shipped there is really hay Drowned and
musty from becoming damp and heating
in the stack. If SO, there is very suffi.
cient reason for their condemnation of
American hay.
Every country has its own peculiar
manner of making hay. Our system, as
is well known, is to cure it if possible in
a single day. Indeed, some farmers aim
to draw into the barn in the afternoon
what is cut in the morning. This can
only be done in exceptionally hot and
otherwise good weather, unless with the
use of the tedder or other stirring nipple
ment, and then only in good haying
weather. 1t is not at all certain that
carrying hay to the NOW without pre-
liminary sweat is the best way of making
and securing it; it may do well enough
for hay allowed to become ripe, or nearly
so, before cutting; as where it is intended
for the markets of large cities. What
ever the taste of the stable-keepers in
large cities, where hay is always the
highest priced feed in the market, may
have dictated, the plan would soon ruin
the feeder of stock on the farm, whose
aim is to consume all the nutriment
possible, and furnish the forage in the
most easily digestible state to the ami
mails under his care.
To enable him to do this, grass should
be cut when in blossom; or at least be-
fore the field is entirely out of blossom.
In order to enable him to cure the hay in
the best manner, the farmer who has
grass enough to warrant the purchase Of
moving machine should also have
tedder, an implement for tossing and
stirring the hay. If two mowers are run,
the necessity will be SO much greater,
since one tedder may be SO managed that
it will about toss and stir the hay moved
by two machines. It may thus in fair
weather be rendered not only dry enough
for raking and cooking before the dew
begins to fall, which often occurs ~ early
as four p. M, but the hay will be found
uniformly dry, of uniform color, and
nearly q valuable for food as the grass
itself. Hay should always be put into
cock 90 green that it will sweat; and
should be left there at least thirty-six
hours. Then, under ordinary circum-
stances, the superhuous moisture will be
passed of in the process of loading and
stacking, and if it undergoes another
slight fermentation in the stack or barn,
a. it should do, it win be all the better
for it. In this connection it Is proper to
remark that the more solid the stack or
NOW the slighter and more uniform the
fermentation will be; for it y the access
Of too much or IN loosely-mAde stacks
that renders The sweating sxcsssivs Al
destructive. 4 ~ -
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