HAWTHORN. Cratavus oxyacanthfii. Prob ably every person who has thought about plants for hedging, has had a longing desire for the Eng lish Hawthorn, from the associations in his mind in reading about the beautiful hedges of England. Whatever it may do there, it is not adapted to hedging in the United States, especially in the West and South. Our common Buckthorn (Rhan7nus cathartiom) has also been tried exten gleaning, and the bundles are so evenly and tightly bound that there is little possibility of their losing straw or coming unbound. In the making of hay, in addition to machines that will cut at any desired height from the ground, the hay tedder aids in catching weather. The horse hay.rake first places it in windrows, and then into rough cocks. The hay sweep carries it, half a ton at a time, to where it is deposited on the stack by horse power. If the hay is to be carried long distances, the hay gatherer takes it from the windrow and carries it to the top of the load, and at the barn, the hay carrier conveys it from the wagon to any part of the mow. Thus, we have almost the perfection of econ omy in the making and harvesting of hay. Not only in the cheapness with which it is made but also, in the excellence of quality of the cured hay. It may be safely estimated that har vesting machinery has more than quadrupled the sively. Neither of these are of value ally, except as specimen plants in large collections.
HAY. The hay crop of the United States is one of the most valuable in the list of agricultural products. Hence the necessity of making and saving it in the best possible manner. So diffi cult is this in moist climates, as in England, that various expedients, as constant stirring, after it is cut, and even artificial drying is resorted to. Tedding by machines or by hand, is indeed quite common in the Atlantic States, and is not unknown even in the West. Throughout the whole prairie region, however, the dry, hot weather usually enables the farmers to get up their hay in good condition, and in a state of greenness, as to color, unknown further east, and impossible in the climate of Great Bi itain. The hay is usually cut in the morning and laid into windrows, or cocked in the afternoon, from whence it is often drawn immediately to the stack or to the barn. It is not generally known, but is nevertheless the fact, that hay can be put into a barn much greener than into a stack. The reason is that in a stack there is easier access of air, and air and moisture favors the heating and fire-fanging of vegetable substances. In a mow the moisture ultimately finds its way to the top, which will sometimes be quite wet, while the body of the mow remains intact. The putting of hay, however, into the stack or mow in a damp state, is both in theory and practice to be reprehended. -Under peculiar conditions of the atmosphere, hot, close weather, or con tinued moist weather, will cause the hay to heat unduly. sometimes to such a degree as to cause it to take fire. In England, this is not a very uncommon occurrence. The proper way is, if the hay shows signs of dampness in the cocks, and the weather is not such that it will become thoroughly dry in pitching on the wagon and into the stack, to spread the heaps, somewhat, an hour or two before hauling. If the weather is fine the hay will undergo a sweat in the heaps, and in two or three days come out perfectly cured. The same remarks will apply to grain. It should never be stacked until thoroughly dry. However dry either hay or grain is put into the stack or barn, it will always undergo a sweat. This usually lasts from one to two months, until the mass again becomes dry, when it will be found—if properly cured before putting away—to be perfectly sweet, with a pleasant odor, free from the dust of mold, and it will then keep intact indefinitely. During the pro gress of this sweat it should not be touched. Grain will thrash tough at this time, and hay is not fit for feeding until it has undergone this sweat. Thus, intelligent stablemen will not buy
new hay. preferring to feed old hay until about the first of September or October. During this sweat hay will lose weight, ranging all the way from ten to twenty per cent., losing the former amount if put into the mow in proper condition. The yield of hay made from the cultivated grasses and clover, on good land, should be from one and a half to two tons per acre. The average product North will be far below this. Rhode Island produces the small est average yield per acre, 80-100 of a ton ; Ore gon produces the largest average yield per acre, 1.45 tons; Iowa comes next with 1.42; then Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Minnesota with 1,40 ; Nevada, California and Missouri come next with 1.35 tons; and Michigan 1.30 tons per acre. All the other States fall below this, Even New York, with her superior cultivation, only reaches 1.15 tons per acre. Curiously enough, some of the Southern States present good .averages. Thus, Virginia and North Carolina give 1.25; Georgia, Alabama, and West Virginia give 1.30; Mississippi, 1.35; Tennessee, 1.36; Texas, 1.38; and Arkansas, 1.40 tons per acre. It raay be interesting to know that the hay crop of the -United States, was about 31,000,000 tons in 1876, worth about $370,000,000. In 1877 it was 31,629, 300 tons, worth $271, 934, 950. This was the product of 25,367,708 acres. The same year, the corn crop of the country aggregated 1,342,588,000 bushels, from 50,369,113 acres, worth $480,643, 400. In 1879, there were 35,493,000 tons of hay made in the -United States, froin 27,484,991 acres, valued at $330,804,494, an average yield for the whole country of 1.24 tons per acre, worth an average of $8.60 nearly per ton, or an average value -of $10.72 per acre. Thus, the reader will see that the hay crop of the country, acre for acre, exceeds considerably in value that of Indian corn. In 1878 the yield -of hay exceeded that of 1877 not so much in acreage as in average yield, bringing the hay crop of the United States, in 1878, up to about 38,000,000 tons. The cutting, curing, and stacking of hay cost, in the New England States in 1869, an average of $4.51; in the Middle States, $3.76; in the Southern States, $3.22; and in the Western States, $2.93 per acre. With improved machinery and implements, the cost of making hay in the Western States need not exceed seventy-five cents per ton. We have seen it put into the cock for forty-five cents per ton, including cost of wear and tear of imple ments, and we once put forty-eight tons in the stack at a total cost of sixty-three cents per ton; the average yield being 2.25 tons per acre, the pitching on and off the wagon being done entirely by hand, and the haul averaging one quarter of a mile. It is considered that the produce of per manent meadows is more nutritious, ton for ton, than that of temporary meadows, mown only for a year or two in the regular rotation. This is particularly true of pastures. So also it is known that hay made from young grass is more nutri tious than that made from grass nearly ripe. In practice, it has been found most economical to cut hay just after it has gone out of blossom, or, as it is termed, when in the second blossom, that is, just when the later heads are in blossom, This is from the fact that at this time the head and stalk contain its maximum of digestible mat ter, which decreases as the plant gets older, and accumulates more and more woody fiber. Below we give a table showing the composition of good pasture grass and meadow hay, and immediately following, a table showing the composition of clover and clover hay.
On comparing these results with those of the analysis of the grasses before quoted, we notice that while the general composition is much the same in both cases, the clover contains, on the whole, more water, and at the same time more albuminous or flesh-forming principles, than the natural grasses.