Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-03-25
farm aud Annsehnld.
N-
The Hay Crop.

The best paying crop the farmer can
raise is hay; this is general rule A
good grass farm admits of much and good
stock, hence large amount Of manure
and good crops aofgrain. corn and pota-
toes. tits an oft repeated maxim that
the farmer had better buy than sell hay,
meaning that selling hay from the farm
impov erishes it. So it does, and in SELL
ing grain and potatoes, twice as rapidly.
As ageneral rule, it is better to sell hay
than to use it upon the farm and then
sell the crop it nourishes. One Of the
paying crops this year is hay, especially
for the farmer living near the city The
demand for hay in our cities and the
substitution Of dairying and stock rails
ing for other branches of farming in the
best hay producing localities, has caused
hay to maintain higher proportionate
price than many other farm products.
Hence. hay is the best crop farmers can
raise under any circumstances, and more
especially when the situation favors him,
as near a market and good grass land
In choosing farm, one of the chief re-
quisites should be a portion adapted to
the growing offs good quality of hay,
without the liability of soon running
out" and involving the necessity of re-
seeding every few years. A permanent
meadow on farm is a mine Of wealth
that will pay better dividends than some
that purport to yield the precious metals.
Much grass land that is not especially
moist, but dry enough to grow, when
plowed, good crops of corn and grass
may be made to yield increasing crops
for term of years by top dressing. Ex-
periments have shown that none of our
chief farm crops make better return for
the use of concentrated commercial fer
tilizers than hay. OF these, nitrate of
soda is among the best, as it has been
found that on application to grass land,
it usually much more than repays its
cost. Thetendency of salt is downward
and enricbes The ground deeply, causing
the grass to withstand the drought.
Chloride of sodium or common salt, plas-
ter, ashes, bone dust, etc., can be used
with profit, il judicioucly. Top Dress
ing grass lands with stable manure is be-
ing practiced by many farmers and with
good results, but it is mistake to ap-
ply coarse manure in the spring to your
lands. We lately saw field that had
just been moved and raked with horse
rake, where a top dressing of green ma
nure had been applied in the spring !;
there was considerable straw with the
manure, and the manure withal, was
somewhat limpy from not being suf-
fciently decomposed. aud the conse-
quenoe was, alarge part-of the manure
and straw was disturbed by the rake
teeth and mingled with the hay. The
effects efthe manure upon the growth
of the grass was very apparent, and had
the manure been allowed to lay in the
heap until fall, and the rapid decompo-
sition prevented by forking over occa-
sionally, the disagreeable result of mix
ing the manure with the hay would
have been avoided An adjoining field.
upon which the latter method was prac-
ticed gave very favorable results. An
other farmer | know of, has used most
OF his mature for several years upon his
grass land, cultivating but small area
in grain, and getting his revenue from
stock and bay; his testimony is that his
farm has increased in productivencss and
pays better than before. Cor. Le,ois,on
Journal