Of
Gardeh.
V
VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS, JUNE 18, 1910.
NO. 25
Written  for the   Indiana  Farmer
HANDLING THE HAY CROP.
Have all Things Ready.—Clover, Timothy and Alfalfa.
By W. H. Underwood.
Before haying-time arrives it Is a
good plan to go over the machinery to
be used in harvesting, and see if it is
in proper condition. When the mower
ls examined, in many instances it is
found to be unserviceable. Repairs
of all kinds are needed. It sometimes
happens that extras must take the
place of worn-out portions of the machine.       It seldom  happens  that  these
can   be  secured     without  ordering     ,	
them from the factory, and days
and sometimes weeks elapse before the extras are received and
become a part of the. machine.
The time to cut clover for hay
is when the plant is in full bloom;
or, in other words, when one-third
of the heads have turned brown.
At this stage it is about eighty per
cent water. It cannot be stored
safely If it contains over twenty-
five per cent, so the problem of
curing clover properly is simply
that of evaporating thr difference
between eighty per cent of water
and about twenty-five percent, or
reducing the water content to
twenty-five per cent or less.
In order to do this quickly or in
from    twenty-four       to    thirty-six
hours it must be done through the
leaves.    Before    the clover    ls cut
there is a constant stream of water
passing through the stem and out
at    the    leaves.        As        soon as
the    stem is    separated from    the
stubble  the  supply  from  below  ceases,
while  the evaporation     from     the leaf
continues as long as the leaf itself has
life in It.     In order to secure this quick
evaporation, air must have free access
to  the leaves.     Hence the problem of
curing clo%er is to keep  it in as loose
form as possible.
Where the crop is heavy and the sun
hot the leaf structure of the upper part
of the swath is often killed, as is shown
by the leaves becoming brown or black,'
while the leaves in the under part of
the swath are scarcely changed in
color. Hence the value of the tedder
in lifting the swath and allowing free
access of the air. Unless this is done,
the clover is sunburned; and if the leaf
structure is killed before the sap is out
of the stalk, it ls impossible to make
Eood hay, nor can the curing be done
in any reasonable time.
It is impossible to cure clover hay
during damp, muggy weather. It is,
however, an easy mater to cure it in
clear, sunshiny weather with a fresh
north or northwest wind. In fact, it
is easy to cure clover hay if the atmosphere is very dry, with sunshine and
any sort of a breeze. The problem,
therefore, ls to keep the clover so loose
that it is quickly converted into hay
hy the evaporation of the moisture
through the leaf and before the leaf
structure is destroyed by the hot sun.
With good weather, clover, in the
condition above described, can be cut
°ne evening, tedded or put in small
winrows before dinner the following
'lay, and hauled in during the afternoon.
Where one has only a few acres of
clover, probably the best method of
handling ia to cut and allow it to wilt,
put lt In cocks, then cover it with a
haycap and let it go through the sweating process in cock. This is not practical where there is a large acreage,
however.
A good many farmers, when rain
threatens, make the mistake of putting
their hay In winrows. It should be
remembered that clover will suffer less
injury from rain, even when dry. lying
in the swath than lt will lf put in win-
rows or even in small loosely built
cocks without covering. I have seen
many farmers hasten, when rain
threatened, to put their hay in cocks,
only to have it wet through to the bot-
I have found that there ls a good deal
in arranging machinery to work together. A tedder works better if it
takes Just two swaths of the mower,
and a rake is more satisfactory when
it is wide enough to gather in three
swaths. This of course, requires two
horses, but it pays, because hay must
be handled quickly.
The proper time to cut alfalfa rs
when it is from one-fourth to one-half
in bloom, provided there is good
weather for curing it. When the usual
time for harvesting the crop approaches, it begins to prepare for It, as
though it were a foreseen event, by
throwing out buds near the root, thus
forming   a   crown.      If   the   alfalfa   is
ever method is adopted, the great object in curing alfalfa ls to preserve the
leaves, and should not be allowed to
stand until after the leaves
begin to fall, which they will do shortly
alter the new shoots from the root are
an inch or so in length. The greater
part of the nutriment in alfalfa is contained In the leaves. These are worth
considerably more than their weight in
bran. The stalks have considerably
less nutriment.
Caring for hay so as to avoid as
much waste of its feeding value as possible is a matter of considerable importance. Every year there ls a large
amount of hay stacked outdoors and
allowed   to   take  all  kinds  of  weather.
    When  it Is thus cared for there is
a continuous waste, because of the
large amount of surface exposed in
the stack. This Is especially true
of clover hay, because it does not
turn water readily. Then, too,
there ls waste from having stacks
partially opened, and in the spring
especially waste from stack bottoms being wet. In order to prevent this waste It is very essential
that the hay be kept under cover
until  it  is  consumed.
A Group of Interurban Freight Depots, Indianapolis.
torn; and I have never seen any good
hay come out of these cocks after they
were shaken out.
Timothy is at the best stage for cutting when it is in first bloom. If I
have a large amount of grass of the
same grade to harvest, I begin a little
before the best stage for cutting, so as
not to lose from being overripe. If
the day is bright and breezy, I proceed
much as follows: I start the mowing-
machine about nine o'clock in the
morning, and stop the same as soon as
I think there is sufficient grass cut to
handle during the day. If, however, I
have any suspicion of foul weather, I
stop the machine before I think there
is half enough down, as I had rather
get in one or two loads of hay thoroughly well made than to have twice
the quantity spoiled with a rain shower. I start the tedder in about one
hour after starting the mower, following around the field the same direction
after mower. If the timothy is very
heavy4 It is given a second tedding,
going in the oposite direction. Then
about noon I start the rake, and about
an hour later I commence to haul to
the barn, and clean up the last swath
before seven o'clock in the evening.
After the hay is in the barn, the barn
i3 tightly closed at night. There Is no
danger of heating or molding in the
mow if the timothy Is cut when the
bloom is on the head and mowed away
without any rain or dew on it. The
hay will come out in the winter brigm
green in color, and it will be worth almost as much to feed, and tbo stock
will relish it almost as well as the
grass it was made from.
cut before it has prepared Itself by
throwing out these buds or new shoots
from the root, it will not do anything
in the way of growing until it has time
to   start   these   shoots. That     may
be a matter of a week or ten days.
Meanwhile weeds will fight for possession of the land, and therefore, if the
alfalfa Is cut too early, there will inevitably be a short crop following.
On the other hand, if It Is let go too
late, the plant will throw Its strength
to the shoots and the main stalk will
begin to crinkle down. It will go on
and produce seed, but a seed crop detracts very much from the crop that
is to follow.
There are two ways of handling this
crop. One Is to cut lt at the time
above specified, allow lt to wilt, put it
in cock, then cover with a cap and let
it stand a few days. Then on a clear
day remove the cap, open up the cock,
air it and sun it and then put it in the
mow.
The other method is to cut it in the
evening or early in the morning after
the dew has dried away, and put it in
small winrows. Then when by taking
a wisp of it and twisting it hard no
moisture can be seen on the outside, lt
is ready to be put in the barn.
The first is the safest way, so far as
the present crop is concerned, but the
objection is that if the cocks stand on
the ground more than a day or two
the alfalfa underneath will be killed
and the field will be badly spotted.
Alfalfa is no more difficult to cure
than clover, provided there is the same
amount of heat, wind and sunshine. In
fact, it is scarcely as difficult.     What-
HEAI/TH ON THE FARM.
According to statistics recently
compiled by the Government, it
would seem that life on the farm
is a little safer than life in the
city. It is shown that living next
to nature wards off disease and
death, although probably a little
more conducive to suicide than
living in cities.
The principal factor in favor of
the farmer is his freedom from tu-
==: berculosis, due undoubtedly to his
outdoor life. In 1908, for instance, in
the eighteen States, covered by the figures, the White plague was responsible
for 19.3 per cent of the total deaths,
while only 15.6 per cent of the farmers
who died that year were victims of the
disease.
Even more marked was the disparity in the case of Brights disease. Only
5 V_. per cent of the farmers' deaths resulted from it while it claimed some 8
per cent of the total deaths. In the
case of heart disease and pneumonia, there was also a difference in
the death rate favoring the farmer. On
the other hand, owing probably to unsanitary conditions on many farms, and
without a doubt in many cases due to
improper location of water supply, typhoid fever claimed more victims a-
mong the farmers than among city
folks. Cancer, too, made greater inroads among the farmers than among
the city residents, the figures being 5.-
825 per cent and 4.95 per cent, respectively.
The most startling fact arrived at,
however, by the compilation, is that
farmers seem to have been more prone
to suicide than other people, for 3.725
per cent of their deaths were self-inflicted, while 3.5 per cent of the complete mortality list comprised deaths
by suicide.
The condition of winter wheat as reported to the Bureau of Statistics at
Washington, is 80 per cent, spring
wheat 92.8, oats 91 per cent; hay 86
per cent; apples 53 per cent against
69.8 per cent the 10 year average;
peachjeg 62 per cent.