Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1878 — About Hay. [ARTICLE]

About Hay.

A good supply of hay on every farm, adequate to the wants of the live stock which the farmer intends to keep, is indispensable, if it is expected that the stock is to prove profitable. There is no doubt that many valuable animals are annually sacrificed to a false economy in feeding innutritions or poor hay or straw. A man who follows such a policy stands in his own light, and if he does not change to a better course, the sooner he sells his stock and quits the business the better it will be for himself and his animals. He will do well to reflect that the loss of a horse, or a good cow, or a few sheep, and the “ rundown” condition of his entire stock, more than counterbalances any saving that can be effected by using inferior, badly cured, woody and musty hay. It is the poorest kind of economy; in fact, it cannot be called by that term. In converting the grasses and forage plants into hay. or curing them, the object is, of course, to so treat them “as" to expel the water they contain (which amounts to nearly two-thirds of their weight), with the least loss of their nutritive properties. To secure this object the grass must be cut at that stage when the greatest weight of produce with the maximum of nutrition can be obtained; and then it is necessary to so conduct the drying process that nutritive juices shall not be lost by the washing of rains. While newly cut grass is quite green a shower of rain may not materially injure it, but repeated rains and turnings will destroy much of its value. When ready to cut, grass and clover contain sugar, gum, mucilage, albuminous and other valuable compounds, which are liable to be washed away by heavy rains. On this point Prof Voelcker remarks that by repeated wettings and turnings the crop becomes more or less bruised, and not only are the sugar, and gum, and other soluble matters liable to be washed out, but the bruised state of tho plants permitting, at least, a portion of these various constituents to escape through the lacerated cell .vails, induces fermentation, which, if not checked at once, causes further Joss. During fermentation, soluble albumen and sugar are destroyed—two of tho most valuble elements of nutrition; hence in showery weather grass recently cut should not be turned over more than is absolutely necessary, and under all circumstances the crop should be handled as lightly as possible, so that it may not be injured by bruising and breaking the hay. With the appliances and facilities now within the reach of farmers for saving the hay crop, this work can bo accomplished speedily at the right time —provided always the weat her will permit—and the maximum of its nutritive value secured. —Western Rural.