The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-29
METHODS FOR HARVESTING AL
FALFA.

IT must be said OF alfalfa that in cut
ting it for hay a good deal of skill
should be employed by the husband
man, or the result may he disappoint-
ing. Alfalfa contains six per cent less
water than does red clover, at the point
of blooming. but at the same time it
seems to require more thorough cur
ing process TO ft it for the stack or
NOW. The knack to be acquired is that
of curing the hay sufficiently to insure
IL keeping sweet in the stack without
becoming so dry as TO shed its leaves
in the handling. This cannot possibly
be accomplished by curing fully in
the swath. A method much practiced
is to rake alfalfa. while still green,
into windrows, where ii is allowed to
cure somewhat more, and finally to
rake it into modera te-sized cocks in
which it is allowed to stand until ready
for the stack
This process makes very nice hay,
hut where a. large acreage is 10 be TAX
en- care of it is too slow and expensive.
Alfalfa. may be cured in the windrow
with entire success, but it is important
when cured in this way that there be
ample facilities for putting it into stack
very rapidly when ready, otherwise 1t
will become too dry and much of il
will be lost in handling, especially if
1t has TO be carried from the fields on
wagons. Alfalfa should be cut on the
first appearance of bloom. The old
fashioned goodwill is now made in the
way Of an improved table rake, and
the Kicker which supplements it at the
stack forms a very satisfactory ar
rangement for gathering the hay crop.
BY means Of these rakes the hay is
taken from the windrow by horse pow
er, and conveyed TO the stacks in jagS
weighing two hundred to four hum
bred pounds, where it is delivered to
the Kicker, and by the latter is landed
into the middle of the stack.
The only hand work required is the
distribution of the hay after it IS
placed upon the stack. Five men and
i've horses with two rakeS and the
Kicker easily put thirty tons of hay a
day into a stack, at a cost of about
thirty-five cents ton. The great draw
back to these rakes is that they can
be used to advantage only on short
and level hauls. Colonel Lockhart, a
leading alfalfa grower of Otero county,
has simplified the gathering of cut
alfalfa in the field by throwing away
wagons, go-devils and all contrivances
except a drag arrangement of his own
invention.
This is composed of nine boards OF
Texas pine an inch thick, six inches
wide and sixteen feet long. These are
placed parallel, leaving six inches of
space between each, and all are fast
ened across the ends with a 2x4 laid
fiat and loosely bolted to the boards
To this is hitched a team of horses
and on it nearly a ton of hay can very
easily be hauled to the stack Two
men with pitchforks turn over the hay
onto the drag, which when loaded is
hauled to the stack and dumped onto
the sweep which carries it to the TOP
of the stack. The drag will run over
all bitches and obstacles and is the
best thing OF It's kind yet devised.
To facilitate the work of harvesting
alfalfa, it is well to have parallel roads
thirty rods apart running through the
fields. These roads may be protected
from irrigaIing waters by bitches or
either side, so that the roadway at nc
time is flooded. This arrangement al.
lows the alfalfa to be stacked at close
proximity, and the plan will be found
very convenient. In stacked alfalfa
more or less combustion takes place
and it is best 20 provide ventilators
which may be of headless barrels sci
on end in the center of the rick; or rails
and boards may be employed--Wil.
coX's Irrigation Farming