The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1902-08-02
FARMER AND PLANTER.
MAKE Hay WHILE SUN SHINES.



We feel sure we can never say too
much in favor of saving hay. We
wish we could say so much, and say
it in such a way, that we could stop
the shipping in of so much hay from
the north and west. This is a great
drain upon our resources. We an
nually pay out thousands of dollars
which should go into southern pock-
cts. We can grow this hay cheaper
than the parties from whom we pur-
chase it can. We can do this be-
cause we have greater variety of
grasses to make it from and a longer
season In which to make it. All we
lack is the experience in hay-mak-
ing. We must get away from our
old habits and prejudices in this
matter.
This is question we need to study
All dead grass is not hay. No mature
grass makes good hay. In maturing
the seed the stems and leaves become
too woody to make first class hay.
Hay is grass cut before maturity and
producing plants. Many of them
should be cut just before they bloom,
others just as the seed begin to get
in the dough stage. Hay should new
er get wet after it is cut, if it can be
prevented. AS soon as the hay begins
to wilt, the little cells which con-
tain the sugar and starch shrink. If
the hay gets wet these swell and
burst and the sugar and starch are
washed out, and thus the hay is dam
aged. The dryer the hay the greater
the damage is likely to be. Heavy
dews do great damage in this way.
Hay should never take more than one
dew before it is raked up.
Many of the hay crops can be ia
ken up as soon as cut, and carried d.
rectly to the barn and cured with
out exposure to sunshine.
If hay was in as ready demand as
cotton there would be no trouble to
get our southern farmers to growing
it. But at present this is not the
case in many places, and with much
of the hay. Dealers do not know
where they can get sufficient guam
titles of any particular kind of hay
to authorize them to deal in it. Again
there is not sufficient uniformity in
the quality offered by different farm
ers. These are practical difficulties
that must and can be overcome by
the farmers themselves. AS soon as
this is done they will find that south
ern hay will find as ready and as
steady market as cotton now does.
Hay is not ready for market until it
is neatly baled, and it is never first
quality when cut too late, or when 1t
has been wet before baling.
Now is the time to begin to look
after the saving of the hay crop.
Much of the wheat will be worth
more for hay than for bread. Cut it
just as it reaches the dough stage. 1t
is easily cured and equal to corn and
fodder both. 1t is far superior to the
best timothy we ever get from the
north. Oats cut and saved in the
same way are nearly as good. Ger
man millet, cut before it is too far
advanced towards ripening, is very
good coarse hay. Crabgrass, if nice
ly handled after being cut just as it
begins to tassel out, is about the best
of all the grass hays. This is not
generally known, because It has been
the custom to let it get too old be-
fore cutting. But why try to emu
merate? There are about seventy
hay-making crops that can be grown
in the south to profit.-Southern Gull
fivafOr