Golden Valley chronicle. (Beach, Billings County, N.D.) 1905-1916, 1910-08-19

College, North Dakota.)
Experiment stations have taken a.
great Seal of interest in this question
of hay making and have brought out a.
good many facts which help to SUBJ
stantiate the belief and experience of
practical hay makers and feeders mi
their views and practises. They find,
that the time to cut clover to get the.
greatest amount of digestible feeding
material Is at the full blossom stage.
Farmers have known for years, prob
ably centuries, that clover hay Is in
jured very badly by rains or even
by heavy dews. A German expert
menter has found that from one-fourth
to two.fifths of the entire digestible,
matter of clover hay can be dissolved:
out by cold water This fact, to-
gether with that of the greatly less
ened relish for 1t on the part of live
stock, explains very well why the
clover hay should be protected against
rain and exposure to heavy dew when
1t is in the swath and practically dry.
There is disposition on the part Of
western farmers to do things whole
sale as a matter of economy. Labor
is high in this part of the United
States and hay and other roughage is;
very cheap. believe that we are over
impressed, however, with the high
price of labor and the cheapness of
roughage, and that it will pay us bet.
ter to take more time and store away
more palatab!e lot of hay with a.
hi cf Z.
ter.
People who make high grade clover
hay follow three different practises.
| One is to cut the hay in the MORN
ing after the dew is off the grass, ted
it several times during the day, load
it on wagons and haul it to the barns
OR sheds before night. This plan
gives excellent hay generally, but re.
Guires considerable amount Of extra
work Occasionally the weather is I'M.
favorable during the day. and the plan
does not work out; that is, the hay is
not dry enough TO stack when night
comes, and at times the value of it is,
greatly reduced by rain falling upon it,
The second plan is to cut the hay
late in the afternoon, SO that it will
not be cured enough for the dew to-
cause it any harm. 1t will be fit to
store or stack in the NOW or stack in
the last half of the afternC IN of the
second day with very much less ted
ding than is the case with hay which
is to be moved the day it is cut.
The third plan is to rake the hay
and cook it after it has little more
than wilted The cocks are made
small and the hay is allowed to cure
and go through the sweat in the
field. Those who make hay in this
way commonly provide themselves
with shock covers, or caps, as they are
called, to prevent loss when rain
comes Unexpectedly.
When clover hay is allowed to go
completely dry before it is raken into
and finer stems are broken of, which
lodge in the stubble and are lost. This
leaves the woody, course fiber as the
part of the hay which is saved and
makes the product very much infe-
rior in every way TO hay which has
retained the clover leaves and the
lighter steps. Those parts of the
clover plant are almost wholly diges.
tible, and are very greatly relished by
live stock of all sorts, and in conse.
quence should be retained in the hay
whenever it is practicable to do so.
The dairy farmer who realizes that
. his COW must be catered to with ra
ton that suits her and one which will
induce her to eat large quantity Of
y feed, will find that he can afford
y to spend little more time in hay ma
king than is done when the stacker
and sweep rakes are used as mean:
of loading the hay from the swath tt
the stack The hay stacker and SWEEP
rake are quicker and cheaper ways 0
putting up hay, but we will do wei
y to determine where the loss Of valu'
in the hay becomes greater than tn
y saving in the expense of putting vi
$ the the crop This is a matter, be
lieve, that must be decided largely o.
r the individual farm. as what will pa
one farmer may prove losing pla
II to another. Giving more thought t
II the matter of hay making now whe
q clover and alfalfa are to be handled.
a is we'll nigh imperative.