Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1912-07-23
How to Have a Good Hay Crop In q
OrY Season.

A neighbor who moved into new
house and made a garden in another
place seeded the old one with grass seed
principally timothy and redtop). The
second year after seeding was remarkably
dry, and the best meadows in this region
cut very light swath. In striking con-
trast, the grass on that old garden spot
was as tall and thick as ever grew in this
country in wet season, and good enough
to satisfy any reasonable man. Why did
this old garden spot raise better grass
than the adjoining meadow? Why did
it not suffer for moisture the same as
other grass lands in the vicinity?
Chiefly because it was 80 much richer
to supply abundantly the necessary
means of growth, and was fuller Of
humus 10 absorb and retain more Of the
rain water for the use of the plants. A
large proportion of humus in the soil no
doubt facilitated the rise of the ground
water by capillary action. The garden
had been manured with stable manure
year after year for fifty years, until it was
as rich as guano island to the depth OF
eighteen inches or more.
OF course, seeding down old gardens to
raise big crops of hay would not be wise
so long as they produce good vegetables;
but the conditions that made this old
garden spot so productive in dry sea
son can be secured for whole meadows
by the employment of the same means.
The conditions are soil made rich and
deep with well rotted stable manure.
OF course it will cost considerable, but
no good thing can be obtained without
expenditure Of money or labor by some
body, and it will be worth more by the
increased crop of hay than its improve
ment cost. You may say: Manure is
all right for grass or grain, but we never
have enough of it, and We keep all the
stock our farms will carry" Try keep
ing more stock and the additional ma
nure will supply the grass and grain to
keep them.
Some farmer critics would say: "Rob-
biug Peter to pay Paul; put all your ma
uure on your meadows and have an
empty corn crib. Corn is worth more
than hay at any time" Maybe not.
Let us examine that matter little.
Take the following states: Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey and Pennsylvania. For the
10 wears from 1901 to 1911 Qnclusive) the
average production of hay per acre was
| 26 tons and the average farm price per
ton was s1S.l2. The average farm value
per acre for the ten years was Sl6.53.
The average value of corn per acre In
those same states for the same years was
S21 9S, only S545 more than an acre OF
hay. The corn ground had to be
ploughed, narrowed, planted and culti-
waited four or five times, and the corn
had to be cut up, husked and shelled.
Good seed adds something to the cost.
The only expense of raising an acre OF
hay after the meadow is seeded is in cut
ting and curing the hay. Does anybody
believe that So 45 will pay the difference
in cost between raising crop OF corn
and crop of hay?
II is said there are meadows in Eng
land that have not been ploughed in
thousand years and the owners would
consider it great injury to have them
ploughsd. They are manured regularly
with stable manure and dressed with
commercial fertilizers. II any weeds
appear they are Immediately spudded
out.
The climate of England is moister than
Americas. There are more rains there
and they are better distributed through
the growing season. With our droughty
summers we probably could not keep
our meadows seeded so long as those in
England if we tried ever so hard; but we
could keep them raising profitable crops
of grass much longer than We now do by
top dressing with manure, as do the Eng
lish farmers.
The late George NJ. Clark, OF Hig-
ganum, Conn, who raised such enor-
NOUS crops of grass per acre as to almost
stagger belief land in spite of severe
drouths), applied large quantities OF
stable manure to his meadows, besides
liberal amount of commercial fertilizers.
Professor w. F. Massey says: Farm
ing for hay does not differ from the farm
ing for grain in the need of keeping up
the productivity of the land through
fertilizers and good rotation; hay farm
ing may be the most profitable method
of farming one can adopt. w. Ing
ham, Tonawsnda, Penn, in Tribune
Farmer.