The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-07-31
HAVING AGAIN.

1 lL4GG0S
good weather prevails there is moth
ing to do but cut, cure, and store the
hay. 1t is a simple operation.
But there is more in it than seems,
when the best quality of hay is to be
made. Some n must determine
when the grass is ready to be cut for
the best and the most hay other
work must be done, or subordinated
to the hay making, and the curing
must reach a certain stage in order
that the hay may keep well and
come out of NOW, or stack, bright
aud with that delightful new hay
smell which perfumers try to dupli-
cate. 1t must not be over cured
either, for then the leaves r broken
and lost and the hay is reduced in
amount and quality.
But it is when other work is press
ing and rains, or showery weather
interferes, that the farmers capacity
is taxed and he often has to change
plans and do quite different work
during a part of the day than he lays
out and starts on in the morning.
This latter was the condition follow
ing what we wrote about haying last
month There had been rain after
rain and hoeing crops was delayed
and early grasses were. cut over ripe
and sometimes wet before the hay
could be housed. The rains, how
ever, were very beneficial to later
grasses, and when other work was
finally caught up and late timothy
was ready to be made into hay the
weather became settled into bright
sunny days that rejoiced the hearts
of hay makers and those who had
grain curing.
For several years we have wished
to see hay making done on a scale to
use the side delivery rakes and hay
leaders as shown in N. @. Exp. Sta
ton Bulletin, Forage Grasses and
Hay Making" No. 125. Haying with
these implements is very fine, when
they all,wOrk we'll. Sometimes just
when one thinks things + moving
along perfectly a break occurs and
the dream that things ire perfect is
rude1y broken.
Here on Biltmore Dairy Farm this
year the nearest to perfectly smooth
working of these machines that we
have ever seen has been realized but
even here there is one lack yet-the
hay has to be put up into the shed
NOW by hand. The six-fOOt cutting
mowers go over the ground pretty
fast, but not so fast that the side
delivery rakes cannot keep pace with
them. With these in good weather
tedders are seldom needed and
scarcely ever would be used with the
right kind of a mower. The loader
takes the windrow up on the wagon
fast as the horses walk, and two
men are required to keep it placed or
the wagon so as to form a we'll
shaped load. By this method Of
loading the hay is not easily pulled
apart to be pitched off. The differ
ent makes of power forks comes in
here to advantage. Slings cannot be
used we'll because of disturbing the
loading. We suggest sings to take
off a whole load at one lift. This
will make all the operations auto
matte and only the scatterings will
need handling.
But with the implements in hand
and no sings or forks more powerful
than the four tined one man forks,
to forty loads per day of nice
timothy hay was successfully stored.
Farmer Brandley can tell some
manufacturers of implements in use
how and where certain little addi-
tions can be put in order to make the
perfect automatons under
harder conditions than they
seem to have been fitted for when
sent out. Plans are now laid to make
the work go even smoother and bet
ter next year than they have this,
and we turn to cleaning the late
corn, trimming up weeds, and
threshing out the grain as soon as
the latest can be cut stored and
cured in readiness so the round of
the farms with threshing machinery
may not be interrupted. F. E. E.
GOOD order prevails over all the
says Governor General