Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1901-10-28
Thoughts on the Harvesting of Forage.

/ houqhtS on the harvesting OF Forage.
Too much forage can not be saved by the
farmers. have never observed another
year in middle Georgia when as much hay
and other so-called rough feed could be
secured from the land as this season. If
sufficient barn room for the hay cannot
be found, stack it.
Hay producing countries like England
abound in stacks, and they are so care
fully made that the hay or grain in the
straw will keep perfectly for years. If
the farmer has no skilled stack builder,
it will pay him to hire one, if practicable,
who has had experience in this line.
Those who build the best hay stacks say
the art consists largely in keeping the
middle full and combing with pitchfork
the stalks Of hay so they will point to the
center of the stack, thereby forming a
natural thatch about the stack to shed
water like shingles on roof. Keeping
the middle fuller than the rest of the
stack, which middle Is also better packed
down by the mans weight as each fork
full is placed, gives all the grass in the
stack lean downward and outward from
the center.
The remark regarding the building Of
water shedding stacks is called for from
the writer's own experience, as well as
from observation. No ordinary negro Ia
borer can build a good stack that viii shed
rain. No stack eyer leaks water in Eu-
rope, where every laborer lives under a
tight matched roof of hay or straw. To-
day l nave noticed hay mown, cured and
hauled up to the stack in good order, that
will be rotten before spring If left in the
present stack, built by unskilled labor.
A well built stack insures about as good
hay as that in the barn, with the excep-
ton Of little on the outside necessarily
! exposed to the weather.
Let us all profit from the exceptional
grass crop. What has occurred this year
| cannot be undone. I mean the grass has
| taken possession of land heretofore bar
rem and the blessing of the exceptional
| rainfall of the summer of 1901 will abide
| as immortal as other good and evil things
| in life. Those to come after us will be, as
we have been, benefited by natures ex-
| traordinary growth of vegetation.
have seen this year tons and tons OF
| hay that has grown on land that hereto
| fore knew not the moving machine. While
| it may be true that the selling Of forage
| is like selling the soil from the land itself,
| but even this is not as rapid way OF inn
| poverishing ones holdings of land as the
barren clean culture that hastens the soil
| to the creeks and rivers by aid Of washing
tropic rains. The grass roots remain to
hold the soil from washing, and enough
| of the stems are left to aid nature in her
benificent laboratory work in mans be-
| half.
The ideal farming, however. includes the
outstanding of all possible forage crops,
and the feeding of all saved upon the farm
itself to the domestic animals on the place
where the forage is raised.
Every hay eating domestic animal is
benefited by being furnished with all the
| clean hay he will eat. This in a manger or
1 -, ala al ruhhigh 6qflV
This department is charged with many
inquiries regarding filth eating horses
| and mules Such habits 1 have never
known formed by copiously hay fed equine
animals.
1 emphasize this matter because in the
| cotton states under the old regime IL was
| customary to feed mules corn according
| to the work and corn blades in bundles
carefully and economically counted out TO
each animal. The bundles of fodder were
| eaten up clean with no debris. With hay
such clearing of the manger Is not prac-
| ticable, for much of the mass in the hay
| from natural meadows is unfit for horse
| food Hence there must remain much
/ waste to be daily removed from the man
ger to make room for the daily feed and to
| keep the horse in enjoyment Of his hay
/ ration.
Better ultimate results arise from the
| sale Of the animals or their products,
rather than from the sale OF raw ma
| terials. Such farming means future Tor
| the boys and girls who are to depend upon
| the ever increasing producing capacity OF
! the farm.
If Henry George and the French sa-
wants who before him formulated the
idea of state ownership of land, have any
| truth in their theory, the system Of farm
| ing which necessarily deteriorates the
| land is really an offense against the state.
1t also follows that he who benefits the
land under his care and keeping is bene-
| factor to the people.
I firmly am convinced that there is no
happiness worthy of the name In life, ex-
cent that feeling that wholly arises from
benifcent acts on the part Of the indi-
vidual. b. W. hON1'