Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1878 — The Hay Crop. [ARTICLE]

The Hay Crop.

Compared with 1877, there is a larger surplus of hay for shipment in New England and New York this year. Except in a few locations the hay crop for 1878 has been unusually large, hence lower prices prevail in all the leading markets. In Boston the receipts of hay are not quite so large this week as during previous weeks this fall, and choice grades sell more readily, first quality coarse Eastern and Northern hay commanding at wholesale sl6 to sl7 per ton, though but little arrives that will fetch over sl6 per ton. There continues to be a large stock of poor and medium, with sales ranging from $8 to sl4 per ton. The extreme low prices of hay in many sections will induce the wintering of more stock, resulting in generous additions to the manure heap, and consequent enrichment of tillage' lands another year. The magnitude of the hay crop of the United States is scarcely realized by even the farmers of the country. • The hay crop of 1876 amounted to 31,000,000 tons, equaling, at the average market price of that year, sl2 per ton, a total valuation of $372,000,000. And yet the cured hay is but a small portion of the grass crop, for the pasturage alone, in a nation that contains 10,155.000 horses, 11,260,000 milch cows, 17,956,100 oxen and other cattle, and 35,000,000 sheep, must amount in value to a sum for beyond the crop itself. New York stands as the head of all the States in point of number of tons of hay annually produced, the total being 5,600,000 tons; Illinois stands second with 3,500,000; Pennsylvania, 2,900,000; Ohio and lowa each 1,950,000; Wisconsin, 1,533,000; Minnesota, 1,060,000 tons. Of the New England States, Maine harvests 1,264,000 tons annually; Vermont, 1,060,000; New Hampshire, 702,000; Massachusetts, 675,000; Connecticut, 575,000 and Rhode Island, 115,000 tons. Hay is the greatest, and most important, and most valuable crop of the world. —Boston Cultivator.