Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-08-06
The EARN DOG.

Uncle Solon Chase in a budget in the
Sunday Herald, pays the following trib-
ute to the farm dog:
The dog don't allow wOOdchuck to
live in the moving fields and gathers in
the woodchuck crop before haying.
| None of the CRITTERS on the farm are
afraid of the dog, but nevertheless the
dog is king. He keeps the hawks away
from the buildings and sees that the
small chickens are shut up in their coops
at night. II hen utters the least note
of danger the quick ear Of the dog takes
| in the situation.
In haying time the dog is never in the
way, but is always where he is wanted
without telling. If the driver stops the
moving machine to help open the hay,
the dog takes charge, unlike the dog in
the manger, the horses eat the new cut
hay, but don't stir out of their tracks.
When hauling in, the dog takes posi-
tion in front of the horses while the
driver is pitching on, and moves along
ahead of the team from bunch to bunch,
until the cart is loaded.
At the barn the dog drives the horse
to pitch off the load with the ''hoss"
pltchfork. The dog is so handy about
the work and SO playful with the chill
dren, that he cannot be spared on the
farm. The dog keeps all the farm work
in his mind from early spring until the
corn is in the shock and beans in the
stack.
The long teeth of the twO-horse cul-
tivator run close to the hills of corn, and
sometimes bury some of the hills. The
dog follows behind the cultivator and
brushes the dirt away from the corn
with his nose, where the corn is buried.
You don't have to tell dog what to do,
but he is kind of captain general of the
farm work. When he drives the cows
to the barn he don't hurry 'em-he fol-
lows along behind, and as the dog moves
up, the cows move along.
When the dog is harvesting the wood
chuck crop he keeps an eye to the condl-
ton of the grass, and his judgment is
good. When it is time. to begin haying
he will take hold of the pole of the mow-
ing machine with his teeth, as much as
to say, it is time to hitch the horses on.
Haying is now in full swing, and the
crop is abundant. The ridges and the
river valleys of Maine are natural to
grass, and hay is our main crop. When
the hay crop is cut off by drought, as it
has been for the last two years, it is hard
times on the farm. If the farmer has
more stock than hay, stock is low and
hay is high. Last fall many farmers sold
cows and young stock very low because
they were short of hay. This year it
looks as though many farmers would be
short of barn room.
The copious rains of this spring have !
changed the parched sod of last year
into a blooming clover field and the air !
is fragrant with the odor of clover bios |
SONS. New ground, where it looked
last year there was no catch of grass, is
now a heavy swath. Glover has come
into old fields where only little white
weed grew last year.
The cold, wet spring that has made
the hay crop, delayed the planting of
hoed crops, and much of the sweet corn
is now backward, and the witch grass in
the corn looks better than the corn, but
with hot August, seasonable rains,
good cultivation and late frost, corn will
come through all right, but there will be
needed work i'm the corn before haying
is done, to keep the witch grass down.
For good grass and fair weather, three
men and boy, span of horses, the old
mare to run the rake, and good, bright
dog will put eight or nine tons of hay
into the barn a day. The dog won't
leave the field until the last cat is hung,
and goes in with the last load.