Oxford Democrat., 1906-02-20
Growing Hay for the Market.
KEEPING UP FERTILITY OF THE HAY
FARM-QUEsTION OF THE PRICE.

Have you succeeded in keeping mp
the fertility Of the farm while selling
hay for term of years? is an inquiry
by the editor of noteworthy impor-
tance. In the earlier days of my insti-
tute work in New Hampshire and New
England the opinion was universal in
the above sections that good farming
required the consumption on the farm
of its crop products, especially the hay
crop. This opinion is still generally
prevalent, but not to its former degree
Hay very largely was sold on my farm
during most of the active business man.
Iagement Of it by my father and heavily
during that portion of my ownership
prior to my return to the farm after an
absence of Is years. This is material
as it shows a long series of years of ex-
haustive hay sales.
During the past twelve years the farm
has been under my direct management; ;
hay sales have continued on large scale
and have become part of the fixed
policy of the farm. Notwithstanding
this the farm crops have increased
several fold, and are still rapidly moving
up, and are likely to so continue. The
fact that one field from which hay has
been sold for 2S years is yet cutting 2 to
2 l-2 tons per acre is an evidence that
the policy now pursued may succeed for
an indefinite period.
| desire to treat the question beyond
of unusual Importance. 1t is equivalent to
the inquiry whether New England farm
ing is virtually to remain cramped and
on low dead level whose horizon is
bounded by the plant food made by
home consumption of crops.
Conditions have so changed during
the last three decades that our farmers
may sell any crop that they choose to
sell. Each must determine for himself
what that crop shall be. The opinion
may be tentatively held that all of the
crops of the farm may be sold if a judi
cious system of crop rotation is main
tanned. Such system OF farming
would no doubt be an unwise one for
the vast majority of our farmers.
1t is not implied above that plant food
is not to be applied to the soil in some
form. II must be applied and far more
freely than it is now applied. The
sources may be tillage, rotation, muck,
irrigation, leguminous crops, the feed
ing of grain crops to hogs and cattle, or
chemical fertilization. l use all OF
these various plant foods, the latter
heavily.
The sale of hay is that of the least of
labor and the most of fertility for dollar
of returns Is is adapted to our scarcity
of labor, and this is what makes it a
popular sale but not to the state of our
soil fertility. A ton of hay at present
prices of chemical fertilizers takes away
of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid
value of 50. 20, while a ton of potatoes
removes but 81 81; and yet the ton Of
potatoes will sell for fully as much or
really more than the ton of hay. The
fertility value of hay prohibits its wise
sale in regions where it will not COM
mand $40 or more per ton at the barn,
unless in a wise rotation it appears that
SIP at the barn should be the minimum
price at which a New England farmer
should consent to sell hay.
Returning to the problem of the main
tenauce of fertility under hay sales it
may be said in answer to that school of
tuiuktEo WIZ uOiu thoN AVAui
ization fails to restore the organic mat
ter and the humus from it, that is carried
off in crop sales, that such loss is large
ly dependent upon wisdom of the system
of cropping or of crop rotation. In
round numbers 90 to 95 per cent of the
weight of farm crops is gathered from
the atmosphere either directly or In
directly. The roots and stubble of these
crops in weight are so to 100 per cent of
their tops. 1t follows that so far as the
crop is concerned it may leave the soil
more organic matter than 1t takes from
lit. A destructive tillage system might
result in oxidation and other losses to a
very heavy degree. This would not
occur under continuous grass crops as
shown for over half century of trial by
Sir John b. Lawes. His land under
chemicals increased its contents of or
ganic matter. Hay sales then are con-
sistent with increased soil fertility.
Whether they are consistent with the
farm treasury is dependent upon the
prices. 1t appears that those sections
of New England whose hay nets less
than $40 per ton, and the sections that
thus sell hay are extensive, are pursuing
an unwise course.-J. W. Sanborn in
Naw ENGLAND Farmer