Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1880 — HOUSE AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOUSE AND GARDEN.

K"* • pi* « ■toek;£the whotobotl up for a quartei ofaafomr, then tti rin very riowly two tablespoontale of cream, simmer five minutes; pat in the egxs and let them heat slowly for four or five minutes, and serve in the sauce with boiled rice. Tu Cow Pma.— “ln the Northern and Middle states,** says the Prairie Farmer, “the cow pea in agriculture is but little known. It has no place among our commonly grown crops, and no adequate estimate of its value or utility in northern husbudry is, therefore entertained. At the south it has been grown for a tong time, and there occupies about the same relation to the agricultural pursuits of the people that clover does in the northern states. One of the mint important recommendations of this crop is its adapt ability to poor or worn out land. The idants grow well where nearly everything else fails, giving either forage or seed in fair quantities, and affording, as we have before indicated, ready means for bringing such land to a fertile condition. Com par stive analysis show that they are richer in albuminoids than green corn fodder, and while they are not quite equal to red clover, they are well worth cultivating as a change food, for of these crops we h ave not enough. They grow very rapidly making a dense massot foliage in ninety aayt* killing out other growths, and com* pletaly shading the ground from the sun.”

Hat Maxing.— From an article on hay making in the Rural New Yorker the following advice is condensed: • “When the clover is in full blossom, and here and there one may see a brown head, it it the time to cut If timothy has been sown with the clovei that is hardly yet in blossom, then one hatHobson’s choice—either to spoil the clover by delay or lose something by cutting the timothy too early. But the latter is preferable; the lose is one of the disadvantages of mixing this grass with clover. I prefer orchard grass to timothy, because that and the clover are in prime order for cutting together The mower is started as soon as the dew is off, and if there is not help to turn the cut grass in three hours after it has been cut, the cutting should cease and all hands go to turning. If one has a hay tender so much time will be saved in the hay making as will go a great ways toward paying for the implement in one reason. As soon as the grass which has been cut—and which wifi have been about one acre per hour with a fast-walk-ing team and in good grass—has been turned (the time will depend somewhat on the weather), the horse-rake should be put to work, and as the hay is gathered into windrows it is put in cocks of about 200 pounds, which will be about four to five feet in diameter and five or six feet high. These should be put up carefully and the sides raked down to shed rain if a shower should come on. When clover alone is grown the cocks should be made some what smaller, about four feet wide and high, and they should be opened after two days, turned and put up again, or left longer in the windrows. Clover, being more succulent than grass, needs more careful drying, but it may be more easily spoiled by over-drying. Hay caps are very convenient to have, and cost about eighteen cents each. They are squares of brown cotton sheeting, 48 to 54 inches wide, with short twine loops at the corners and a hickory peg a foot long, tied to the loop with a piece of twine also a foot long. These will be completely waterproof if steeped in sugar of lead so lution and dried. Ten of these will cover a ton of hay and make it safe against a week’s rainy weather, if need be. The caps are thrown over the top of the cocks, and held down by thrusting the pegs through the loops into the hay. To be safe against a sudden thunder storm is to be happy 'in haying time, and one may rest easy when the thunder rolls at night if the hay is cocked and capped. “As soon as the hay is raked, or sooner if there is a spare horse, the mower Is started again ana cuts until night. This process is repeated until all the hay is made. The cocks will heat and sweat, and it isthe fermentation which improves the hay, and by which the cellular fibre is in part, changed to starch, or at least is , made mote digestible; the starch is changed in part to gum, and possibly in the ripening process which goes on some sugar may be formed. This may be; if it is so or not no one knows that I have been able to learn of, whatever may be thought or believed; and this is a point which should be investigated and set at rest by some competent person. The fact is that this curing and ripening in the cock is a very important part of hay making: some farmers have it done in a fashion in the barn by putting away the hay somewhat damp, but there it cannot be controlled as it can be in the cock. It will be wise to watch the cocks and perceive, by pushing i% the hand, if all is safe within them.

“When the hay is all made it should be Eut under cover at once* A roof of Rome Ind over it is indispensable. A hay shed can be put up for a very sm all sum, and if there is no room in the jbarn or over the stables it will be an economy to provide a long h«y shed 20 feet wide, made of posts 18 feet long, set 8 feet apart along the sides, joined at the top by plates and braced. A single roof of half-inch dry boards, set close together, will be sufficient to carry off the water; the little which may enter at the cracks will do no harm. Every two feet in length of sup\ a shed will bold a ton of new hay. When the hay is drawn one man or boy should go about half an hour ahead of the wagons and throw over the cocks and open them to give the hay a final airing and evaporate any excess of moisture. In reeding hay thus made one secures every good quality of the grass without loss, and adds somewhat in the process of curing.