The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1913-08-01

etc, to be OF any value tnls year,
h,,t il will be the purpose OF this
article to point out some of the i'm
nortant things which should be con-
o;der.d in handling the hay from
the present time until it is marketed,
or fed out.
The first thing the grower cannot
afford to overlook is the matter of
having the ground well watered
before cutting is commenced. 1.-the
ground is dry when the cutting is
begun, the new growth will not
start until the cutting, raking and
stacking is all done and the water
gotten over the field again. This
seems a loss of ten days or two
weeks time during the best growing
mart of the season. And if the
ground is only partly dried out the
condition is even worse, for this
reason: There will be just enough
moisture in the ground to start the
new growth, then with the hot days
and the lack of any great amount
of shade on the ground it will dry
out very rapidly and the new growth
will suffer for water before the hay
can be gotten off and the water put
over the field. When the new
growth has once suffered for water
it will not entirely recover under
any succeeding conditions. If a
reader thinks this statement too rad
ical, take a section of alfalfa in your
field where the stand is even and the
soil the same and keep the water
out of the bitches until the new
growth gets dry Then put all the
water on you please and keep it on
as long as you please and see whether
you can get as much hay from those
five rows as from either of the five
adjoining rows which have had
enough moistureto grow steadily, and
cut when about one third in bloom.
Watering stunted growth of al
falfa is exactly like feeding stunted
pig. Get the water over the field
few days ahead of the mower so
that the new growth will start right
up and keep growing until the hay
can be gotten off and the water
back over the field.
The stage of ripening at which
hay should be cut will depend very
largely on what is going to be done
with it. If it is to be fed to dairy
COWS, stock, cattle, sheep or hogs,
it will make the best feed if cut
when about one tenth in bloom.
Cutting this early will mean some
loss in weight but the stalks will be
small and there will be a large pro-
portion of leaves. Consequently
there will be little waste when the
hay is fed to this class of live stock.
The prevention of any waste in feed
ing will more than make up for the
loss in weight.
If the hay is to be fed to beef
cattle or marketed it should be cut
when about one-third in bloom.
Beef cattle, especially steers, will
eat little coarser hay than will dairy
cows; and on more mature hay which
has heavier weight, they will fat
ten just as fat or little faster than
on the lighter, more washy hay,
and they will invariably weigh out
better. As the market does not
take into consideration what the
hay is to be used for, the point in
cutting hay for the market is to get
the most weight without a heavy
loss OF leaves or sacrifice of growth
on the next crop. Cutting the grass
when about one. third in bloom will
usually bring the best results when
the hay is to be baled. Some
seasons, especially when the weather
is cool, the new growth will start at
the bottom of the plant before bloom
ing is this far along and under such
circumstances it is advisable to cut
earlier.
For horses the hay would be bet
ter feed if it could become still ripper.
This is not usually practical, how
ever, because there will be too great
4 loss of leaves and where a crOp is