Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-07-09
Haying.


Haying.
Now comes the farmers driving time o.
all the year, when the singing of the NOW
ing machine comes family from the distan
meadows or rattles noisily from those
nearer home. Now has come the time
which the horizon is scanned most care
fully in the morning to see if it will dc
to now" when the weatherwise neigh
Dor is at premium, and signs of 4
shower" hurry up the carting. Yet hayine
is not what it was forty years ago, wher
the "swsh " of the scythe laid the gras.
in even heavy swaths which the boy had
to spread, thinking it a great hardship
that he couldn't NOW. Then, gallon o
new rum was thought as necessary fol
each days work as moving machine i.
now. Machinery has done much for tn,
farmer. As our hired man remarked
yesterday, " 1t makes heap o. difference
what kind Of stomach a man has fol-
pitching in the afternoon, whether he ha.
swung n scythe all the forenoon or not;
and now with improved implements hay
ing can scarcely be reckoned harder than
the majority of farmers work.
We have not much of advice or instruc
ton for our brother farmers concerning
haying. We have noticed in some agri
cultural journals such minute and particu
lar instructions that casual reader would
think f..mars hardly knew enough t,
plant II hill of beans properly, Or get in
load o hay, and vo Sc than ALL the WI it n.
is such that we are convinced that W,
don't know much about what they write o
or else they don't. Here is what one
writer says about keeping hay:
TIE fermentation Cheating, farmers cal
it, of a cock or NOW of hay is caused by
the oxygen of the air uniting with the
carbon of the hay, just as the oxygen
unites with the carbon of the wood in &
stove, and us there can be no fire in the
stove without the admission of air, sc
there can be no fermentation in NOW of
hay unless the air comes in contact with
1t Who ever saw any signs of fermenta.
ton in the center of II large NOW of hay
1t Is only within foot or two of the sur.
lace that fermentation occurs, as only
here does the air have access. The centre
IS etfectually canned. If these facts ant
principles are correct, some of our COM
mon practices are wrong, us, for instance
the practice of putting one load of hay in
one NOW and the next in another NOW, sc
they may cure the better by greater OK.
posture to the air. The true method is t.
put all the hay taken into the barn in one
lay IN as compact mass rs possible, and
tread it down harl SO the air cannot have
access to it. and if the hay is little wet
to cover the top of the NOW with some
dry straw, tread down tightly.
The old practice of having wide cracks
IN The siding of Il barn so Us to aerate and
cure NOW of hay WAS all wrong. The
hay contiguous to these cracks was sure to
be damaged.
Now we have seen barns with wide
cracks, but we never saw particle of
hay hurt near the cracks. but in the NOV,
in the "pitching hole," we have seen hay
hurt, and there is where we have seen
most heating in the NOW, or perhaps we
should say fermentation" Probably
most of our readers know just as much
about haying, how green to cut and get it
in, the best modes of handling and storing,
MS we do-many no doubt much more.
And we wish they would write and tell us
how they do it and the reasons why.
Notwithstanding that we are taught by
agricultural chemistry that the nutrition
in early and late cut hay differs very little
If any, we are cutting our hay earlier
year by year, and whereas it used to be Il
custom having almost the binding force of
" statute, not to begin .haying till the
Monday after the 4th," now we observe
many of our hest farmers well along in it
the last week in June, and now as we
write this Sd day of July, we have Two
days works more to finish up. And we
believe early cut hay is better, that stock
elt it more readily, that it is more digesti.
Bile, that it makes more and better colored
butter when fed to mich COWS
We have seen directions for getting in
hay without exposing it much to sun.
dews or rain. We presume if the farmers
could order the weather to suit, Or could
know just what was coming, they would
not probably get hay overdried or much
wet, and till they can, we see no way for
them but to 90 on and do according to
their best Judgment only remember there
will problbly be hay cut after we are
dead; that all flesh is grass, and such hot
weather as we have in haying time may,
if one works too hard and takes no care
for himself leave it TO be said of him.
" cut down and withered." Take it easy
Unless shower is coming up.