The Progress., 1894-10-13

matter was in not keeping my knives
sharp enough-he said a blade should
not be run over three hours without
sharpening. Since then I have had
two sharp blades taken to the field in
the morning, change at half way to
dinner, at dinner sharpen both again,
and so on, and up to date l have cnt
about 125 acres with two mowers,
without a single break.
Another necessity to my mind, is a
temporary cover of some sort. One
may have nice lot of hay almost
cured, but not ready to go in bulk, IN
a barn, for it may heat and have to be
taken out at great deal of expense.
Or it may be that it is just ready for
putting away, when rain threatens,
and it is too far to haul to barn, and
not time enough to shock or stack as
carefully rs should be: or again one
may not have barn room, and must
leave hay in the field for some weeks,
or perhaps months-indeed there
come times i'll every hsylng season
when portable sheds or covers are
necessary. And l want to say here
that [ have very rarely seen anyone
who could stack Or rick hay so rs to
make it water proof. [ have bought
hay covers, sent for circulars all over
the country, but never yet found any
thing good, durable, and cheap, SO,
this year, after losing $50 or $75 worth
Of hay IN stacks, last Winter, 1 evolv-
ed what l col slider first rate porta-
be hay shed. This shed weighs
about $50 pounds, can be folded aud
carried in wagons anywhere, and if
onl y short distance is to be gone
over, six men can raise it by the posts
and set it over any pile of hay, not
over II feet square and l6 feet high;
Its cost is about 81 SO, and its capac-
lty from five to ten tons OF dry hay.
When we know that tho value of
the hay crop is greater annually than
that of our pet cotton crop; when we
realize that we pay So to $50 per ton
for hay, and great deal of it very
inferior article; when we think that
It's net value per acre can easily be
made more than that from an acre Of
cotton, that week o., two to prepare
land and plant the crop, and an equal
ly short time for harvesting it is all
that is necessary, it does seem to me,
we exhibit little forethought in not
raising our own Lay-if indeed we
don't raise Il surplus to sell in the
shape Of fat cattle and mule colt or
two every year. I was foroibly struck
by a remark Of E man in Shreveport,
who buys and feeds more hay than
any other one man there; said he
''We have for a long time realized
the value Of hay as a roughnsss and
appetizer for stock, but have not ye,
awakened to the fact that hay can bt
so raised, cut and cured as to make
an almost complete feed in itself anG
snstainer of stock" There thinl
is the secret of our willingness to pay
, IS to $40 per ton for sedge grass sne
! similar hays" when we can raise I
far better article for not more thar
half the cost.
Such condition of affairs has givel
rise to the saying that we spend nin'
3 months i'll the year killing grass ant
, then spend all we make in the niu'
5 months buying grass to feed on tn
other three months. Isn't it strang'
that here in the South, where some
kid Of grass can be grown all tb,
, year, and where the great effort fo
$ half the year is to keep down tb'
t grass, we shouli be large buyers o
i, grass from those parts Of the country
} that are frozen up half the year anil
have only short seasons of crop grow
\ ing weather?
3 l am coming to the opinion tina
7 our disinclination to enter new line!
3 Of agriculture is largely due to lszi
l ness. born of long extended system
Of bossipg and depending on ignoran
. labor The negro population under
! stands the cultivation of cotton, ant
r if the boss goes into anything new
5 he must first learn new tricks himself
snd then try to teach 1t to them
Coupled with this there seems to b,