Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-08-06

United Kingdom has 100000 acres
of meadows yielding about 100000
tons Of hay, estimated by the London
Times to be worth e4O,OOO,G0O, or
| SOC, 100000 gold in our coin. The
Times remarks that Eat time when
the best hay is worth nearly as much
as bread, it is an easy matter to
lose two or three pounds per ton
In quality; and the grower of so
or 100 tons Of hay could afford con-
siderable outlay to prevent sacrifice
of this" In the South very little at
tentiOn is paid to the quality of hay;
prairie sedge ard poor straw sell about
as high In our market as hay Of the
richest and best quality. A difference
of three pounds sterling (Sl6 tom is
common in London between good and
poor hay made from the same grass. 1t
would surprise two farmers if one got
S26 a ton for timothy in Nashville
while the other sold timothy appa-
rently as good for SO ton to the same
purchaser on the same day. Yet there
is often quite as great a difference in
nutritive value as ten to twenty-six.
Speaking of Mr.. Gibbs drying appa-
ratus, exhibited before the Royal Agri-
cultural Society, the Times makes the
following interesting statement:
We saw partly-made but wet hay
passed through the machine aud con-
Verted at once into a thoroughly dry
condition for the stack; we saw spoilt
and musty hay dried into hay of fair
apparent quality and pleasant fra
GRANGE; and we saw freshly cut grass,
saturated with rain from very heavy
thunder-shower which poured down at
the time, dried into hay of first class
color, and possessing the rich malt
odor peculiar to well-made hay. With
single tWenty-foot machinethe opera
ton is too slow to employ fully one
man feeding of a cart and another man
removing the dried product; but with
two such machines side by side, or with
one fixed machine of forty or fifty
feet length, probably one set of carriers
and stackers could be kept going.
From the experiments made under our
supervision, 1t appears that while fresh
and wet grass loses seventy to seventy !
five per cent. of its original weight in
being made into hay, the quantity of
moisture IN excess in partially made
hay, or hay caught by a heavy rain,
may be from ten to twenty per cent. |
To expel this water from partially-made |
hay requires a consumption of coke in |
the stove and of coal for the engine not |
exceeding a cost of Is Sd per ton of |
hay dried. Preserving fresh cut grass |
may cost in fuel six or seven times |
more. With outlay for labor and for |
wear and tear Of apparatus, the total |
expense, according to Mr., Gibbs cal |
culatiOns, does not exceed Is or SIS per
ton, which is, indeed, very moderate |
disbursement for saving a loss of per-
haps pounds per ton. To make fresh
cut grass into the finest hay at one
stroke costs about g per ton of the
dried hay.
AAAN1l year a. A4IlAlAttC uGCOLACo AucAC
Of a strictly mechanical operation,
worked on the principle that time is
money. In England and Scotland
peaches and other fruits are grown
under glass and on the south side Of
walls to increase solar heat, and now
fire made with coal or coke does the
work Of the sun in converting green
grass into dry hay. This is farming
under difficulties well calculated to
develop inventions and genius. Old
fogy husbandry which spOils wheat in
the field after the crop is grown, and
spoils frst-rate grass sometimes by too
late cutting, and often after it is cut
and before housing and stacking, can
not last always. Crops must be taken
care Of as well as raised. Our barns
are not generally what they ought to
be for first farm economy. We need
more storage room for hay, stable room
for cattle and other stock, and shelter
for manure and young growing ami
mails.