Hay stack

“ It has been known to chisel through the weather boarding of a dwelling house, barns, and other buildings, and to nest in the hollow space between this and the cross beams; its nests have also been found in gate posts, in church towers, and in burrows of Kingfishers and bank swallows, in perpendicular banks of streams. One of the most peculiar sites of his selection is described by William A. Bryant as follows: “On a small hill, a quarter of a mile distant from any home, stood a hay stack which had been placed there two years previously. ”

“ Have raised as much as 31⁄2 tons to the acre at one cutting, and my highest yield of seed per acre has been nine bushels. Hay is cut when the plant is in bloom, cured until it is dry to the touch of the hand. Stacking by hand makes the best hay, as machinery is likely to pack it in bunches, causing it to heat and become dusty. Hay in the stack costs about $1.50 per ton. Baling costs $2 per ton; 100-pound bales are well esteemed, but it is probable that large bales keep better than small, if properly cured. ”

“ In showery weather, when small areas are being harvested, hay caps can be used with profit. Where large areas are to be harvested and where there is no danger of rain, the crop when nicely wilted is drawn into winrows, and in these the curing is completed without further stirring or handling. From the winrows it is drawn usually on rakes of a certain make, and the rake loads thus slid over the ground are lifted bodily onto the stack by the use of the "rickers." ”

“ The hay, in such case, is divided among the separate households, and it is evident that no one has the right of taking hay from a neighbour's stack without his permission; but the limitation of this last rule among the Caucasian Ossetes is most noteworthy. When the cuckoo cries and announces that spring is coming, and that the meadows will soon be clothed again with grass, every one in need has the right of taking from a neighbour's stack the hay he wants for his cattle. ”

“ After the first season, there are three or four cuttings, averaging each from one to three tons to the acre. For hay, I cut as soon as it begins to bloom freely, ordinarily raking the next day, and cocking the third, in this dry atmosphere. The stack does not shed water well, and the best plan is to put in a good barn. The hay bales well, and the size of bale is simply a matter of opinion or convenience, there being no difference in the keeping quality. The second crop is the one for seed, as the first always contains more or less foul stuff, and the third will not mature seed. ”

“ Remembering that the hay after its drying has begun should be handled as little as possible, the cocks have been made small enough so that two men may lift them bodily onto a wagon, if a wagon is used in the stacking. From the wagon, the hay is lifted by a hayfork to the stack. Or, more careful still, the farmer will use three slings to each wagon, which are lifted by a hook to the stack or mow. A sling is a heavy sheet the size of the wagon hayrack. ”

“ Alfalfa hay should be cut when the very first blossoms commence to appear. At this point the plant contains the greatest amount of protein; from that time on until seed time, the protein diminishes and fiber increases. To make meal, hay should be well cured, have gone through the sweat, and should be dry, or as near dry as possible. It mills easier when dry and makes a finer product. It should be cured so as to retain the green color. To grind it, it is not necessary to cut it before grinding, it mills better if ground just as it comes from the stack. ”

“ They were just about to cut down some timber for the night, when they observed a stack of hay a few perches before them, and on their side of the river. The hay appeared to have been mowed on the flats, or shallows, where it grows spontaneously beneath the gloomy shades of the overhanging forest. This circumstance, when coupled with their recent discovery of the boat and canoe, convinced them that they were in the immediate neighbourhood of some settlement. ”

“ During the discussion it was brought to light that many of the flocks would die of hunger unless 'God Almighty vouchsafed a turn in the weather very soon', or Old Brandur could be induced to part with his old hay. That stack would help, if properly divided among those who were in greatest need. The quantity of hay it contained was estimated, and the general opinion expressed that, if it were divided, the flocks of every farmer in the district could be fed for at least two weeks, even if they could not in that time be put out to pasture. ”

“ Every one is so ignorant of hay making and I cannot tell them with authority because I know nothing myself except what common-sense dictates. The putting up and starting of the mowing machine was very difficult, but now it is working fairly well, and the weather is perfect for the purpose. The stacking I cannot get properly done—they are accustomed to pile straw in heaps and they will only pile the hay instead of making a compact stack. 119
October 11.
Digging potatoes at Cherokee, eight women with hoes; but they make slow progress. ”

“ Nor is this mistake in haymaking peculiar to the west coast, but much too common over all the country. Even in Morayshire and about Inverness the hay crop is, as a rule, allowed to ripen over-much. If it were cut ten days or a fortnight earlier it would weigh more, smell sweeter, be more nutritious, and better every way than under the present system, which allows it not merely to ripen, but to more than ripen, to wither up and lose most of its sap and seed before it is cut and secured. It may, perhaps, be laid down as an axiom that root crops cannot be allowed to ripen over-much ”

“ But you won't be able to take this great big haystack with you into the life eternal, said Jon. The time is coming when you will have to part with it. Then it will be used as the needs require. And what good will it do you? What are you going to do with it?
I am going to keep it, answered Brandur. I intend to keep it right here on the knoll, keep it in case the haying should be poor next summer. There may be a poor growth of grass and a small hay crop; there may be a volcanic eruption and the ashes may poison the grass, as they have done in former years. ”

“ And in haymaking, when he is "mowing away" far above the "purline beam" in the barn as fast as a man in the hayrack can toss the hay up to him, and the air is heated like a furnace by the hot haymaking sun on the shingles close above his head, and his shirt is full of timothy-seed, and he is almost dying with exhaustion, suddenly he hears the sound of rain pattering [Pg 313] on the roof. The hay in the meadow will be spoiled, but down he slides to enjoy an hour's rest in the cool lower world of the barn-floor. ”

“ Grass cut for hay may be kicked apart in the field early during the wilting process without shattering the leaves. If left too long, then the hay-tedder is a damage because it kicks the leaves loose from the stems and the most valuable feeding material is wasted. But it is a good implement if rightly used. In catchy weather it often means the difference between bright, valuable hay and black, musty stuff, that is hardly fit to feed. ”

“ The term "wild and woolly West" is said to have originated from the "prairie wool," or natural hay, which is specially luxuriant on dried-up sloughs. It is a grass with a fluffy, golden-brown plume. But this natural hay can only be cut every other year, hence many farmers are sowing hay seeds as well. The wagon which they use for carting hay and wheat has enormously high rack-like sides. On this farm, when carting hay, an immense canvas sheet with rings at the corners is put in the wagon and the hay piled up on it. ”

“ The high content of protein makes it exceptionally valuable for young animals and milk cows, and the manure contains a high percentage of nitrogen. The difficulty in making the hay is a drawback, but this is over-rated. While rain discolors the vines and makes them unattractive in appearance, the hay remains more palatable and nutritious than good timothy, if the leaves are not lost in curing. When the first pods turn yellow, the crop should be harvested. The vines can be left in the swath until the top leaves begin to burn and then be put into windrows with a sulky hay-rake. ”

“ Under these circumstances it will not surprise those who care for such matters to hear that our hay crop, about which we were in such anxiety, has been secured in splendid condition, in such condition, indeed, as we can rarely boast of in the West Highlands. Our meadow hay crop, too, is this year unusually heavy, and already, in obedience to the adage which teaches that it is well and wise to make one’s hay while the sun shines, we are all busy getting it cut down and secured, although the old, orthodox season is not yet for a fortnight to come—about old Lammastide. ”

“ Instead of shaking out the swaths slowly with a fork, with a single horse hitched to a hay tedder about two acres an hour can be shaken up and left in such shape that both sun and wind have perfect access to it and cause it to cure rapidly.
Instead of raking the hay laboriously by hand, a steel sulky rake does the work easily and quickly, doing more in an hour than was possible in a day with the hand rake. On farms where the acreage of hay is large, a self-loader attached to the rear of the wagon gathers the hay from the windrow and delivers it on the wagon. ”

“ Desperate attempts at Hay-making engross the thoughts and efforts of a good many men and women, though the skies are black, rain falls at intervals, and a chill, heavy mist makes itself disagreeably familiar, while a thin, drifting fog limits the vision to a square mile or so. Some of the half-made hay in the meadows looks as though it had been standing out to bleach for the last fortnight. Even the Grass-land is often ridged so as to shed the water quickly, while deep ditches or drains do duty for fences. Fruit-trees are rarely seen ”

“ The increase in the acreage of hay has been especially rapid since 1880, the area devoted to it having doubled between 1880 and 1900, the greatest part of this gain being made in the earlier of the two decades, corresponding to the period in which there was a decadence in wheat culture. The prairie region was easily adaptable to the raising of this crop. Moreover, the increased attention given to cattle and horses, and the need of putting the soil under grass to improve its productivity in the older States, have tended to develop this crop. ”

“ Some of the best stables in the country for this reason have no loft of any sort above the cattle, but if the ceiling is tight,—that is, made with tongue-and-groove boards and then painted,—there can be no objection to the storage of hay in the loft. Hay should not be taken from the loft or fed to the cows just before milking, because the very moving of a forkful of hay through the air of the stable stirs up so large a number of bacteria in the air that quantities of them will later fall into the milk-pail. ”

“ It should be remembered that the digestive organs of none other of our farm animals are so easily deranged as those of the horse. Musty, moldy hay is the moving cause of much disease. The man who can not provide a good mow should sell his horses to some farmer who can manage better.
Though blue grass is the best for pasture, timothy is the best for hay. Clover makes better hay than blue grass. Corn fodder has substance, and pound for pound contains about two-thirds as much nutriment as hay. ”

“ To this end, she invaded the upper meadow a good many times, during the next few days, took a turn on the hay-rake, now and then helped load and unload, riding down to the barn on a mound of high-piled fragrance, and came 97 to the conclusion that, as an activity, haymaking wasn’t to be compared with knocking a ball back and forth across a net. To try one’s hand at it might do well enough, now and then, to spice an otherwise luxurious life, but as a steady diet the thing was too unrelenting. ”

“ The stakes are connected by one or more battens nailed along them, or by wires. They are cut eight or nine feet in length, so as to allow of a good six feet above ground when set up. Red, black, and white birch are used, also red and white ti-tree, the last variety being most esteemed, as it is more durable. A stake-fence ought to be proof against both pigs and cattle, and is reckoned to be good for seven years; if of white ti-tree it will last ten or twelve years. It will cost, in labour, from eight shillings a chain and upwards, according to the distance the cut stakes have to be moved. ”

“ It is but one-third, or one-half the labor to do this, that the other mode requires, and the saving in this makes up, and perhaps more than makes up for the increased quantity of forage consumed. Again, climate may equally affect the mode of winter feeding the stock. The winters may be mild. The hay may be stacked in the fields, when gathered, or put into small barns built for hay storage alone; and the manure, scattered over the fields by the cattle, as they are fed from either of them, may be knocked to pieces with the dung-beetle, in the spring, or harrowed and bushed over the ground ”

“ The yield will depend upon the land and on the moisture supply, and cannot be prophesied. One grower reports three tons of hay per acre near Napa. If the land usually yields a good hay crop, it should yield a greater weight of vetch. In mowing for hay purposes it is desirable to raise the vetch off the ground to facilitate the action of the mower. Oats would be better than wheat, because rather quicker in winter growth. If the vetch is to be fed green, rye is a good grain, but not good for hay purposes because of the hardness of the stem. ”