The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-07-13
AGRICULTURAL.
Begin Haying Early.

Lule, Dub lucIO arc ROOu mhhJ VIM
lack the "snap," the push and energy
to bring about what they know ought
to be done. Then the season has a
good deal to do with time of beginning
haying. Some years, notably last year,
it is 80 cold in the spring that corn has
to be planted very late and when men
ought to be haying, they are in the
midst of hoeing. We have been in
this fix more than once, and have
found the weeder and the horse hoe
the best solution of the problem. 1t
will not do to let the weeds get ahead
of one, and if winter dairying is the
farmers business, it will not do to cut
the grass late. So we aimed to keep
ahead of the weeds right along by run
ming harrow over the corn and pota-
toes before they came up, then using
the Planet Jr. just after they came up,
going as deep as possible so as to loos-
en- up the soil far down, and this pays,
no matter how we'll the land has been
prepared. Then run the weeder twice
a week and go to haying when the time
comes. The only trouble with this
plan is the rains and wet weather
which sometimes keeps one off the
fields for days, and then how the weeds
do grow. "When the cats away the
mice will play" and after you have
been kept off from field for ten days
the weeder alone will do little good.
Then you must go twice in row with
the horse hoe, not going deep, but
throwing the dirt well up to the plants,
then follow in short time with the
weeder, and good work can be usually
done. But it takes good deal of
thought and judgment to know how to
take advantage of all opportunities to
kill weeds and help crops. There is a
time to weed and a time to refrain
from wedding,
Often the haying has to be begun be-
fore the corn and potatoes are ready to
lay by, in fact these should not be laid
by until they are too large to drive
through with safety to the plants. 1t
is beginning to be understood that
these crops can be profitably worked
up to the last moment, 80 to speak.
Continuous and late cultivating bring
much better crops than the old way of
cultivating few times and then drop.
ping that work for haying or anything
else. But for this late cultivation the
rows need to be three and half to
four feet apart for corn, so that the
horse can be driven through when the
corn is as high as the horse or higher.
Remember this working is not to be
deep, but very shallow, and we think
there is weeder offered this year
perhaps two of them-which can be
used in such corn. When crops are
thus worked the haying does not come
in so much as a hindrance as it does
under the old fashioned hand hoeing
way. The grass can be cut when it
ought to be, providing the weather is
right, and as a rule, the quicker the
cutting is done the better, that is, if a
man.has thirty or fifty acres to cut and
can get help enough to cut it in a week
it is better usually than to be two or
more weeks about it. But it depends
largely on the man who manages on
the land and on the kind of help he
can secure. Some men are able to
handle hired men so as to get much
more work out of them than others
can. Then the large level meadows
where all kinds of labor saving ma
chinery can be used to advantage are
80 much better to cut hay on then the
small, uneven, rocky fields that 30
many farmers have to cut. We ques-
ton whether it is not better to turn
such fields into some other use instead
of trying to NOW them year after year
as 30 many do.
We believe it is far better to use the
rocky fields for fruit trees, or perhaps
nut-bearing trees, or something of the
kind. Then use the land that is fit to
cultivate to grow corn and clover on,
putting the corn into the silo, and max
ing the clover into hay. We are COM
ing to think that timothy is the poorest
COW feed Vermont farmer can grow,
and that corn silage is the best. But
the horses must be thought Of, and
most men think they must have tim
othy for the teams, but T. B. Terry
has proved by years Of experience that
nice early-cut clover hay is one of the
very best foods for horses either at
work or at rest. Many others have
also tried it and report the best results.
But the clover must be cut early,
must be we'll cured, and il it is
all dusty, it should be sprinkled
with water with q common watering
pot or some kind of sprinkling sppara-
tus. Jarvis hOrses keen fat and sjeek