Farm Field And Garden

A correspondent of The Country (Jten:leman who has had fifty years' experience in various modes of making hay advocates baling it as both economical and convenient. He considera that there a a vast amount of unnecessary labor nnd cost in making hay stacks twenty f eet high, as done with machine pitchers, horses, hoisting forks, rakes, carriers and pulleys, and also with hay loaders. He says: 1 am of the opinión that four ton stacks, the hay drawn around them with a horse rake and the stacks protected with waterproof caps, form an economical method of stacking hay for baling, as one man can make a three or four ton stack while a boy draws the loóse hay to it with a horse rake, leaving it on any side convenient for pitching on the stack. If the weather is threateiiiay, a small stack can be made in an hour or two without wagons or costly machinery, and if the hay is a little damp it will sweat in the small stacks without material damage and get ready for 'oaling. By stacking in small stacks with few men and little machinery except horse rakes much drawing and time are saved - as experience taught me long ago- and the baling machine can be moved from one small stack to another while a single load of hay could be drawn and pitched on a large stack. Aguin, if rain threatens, a small stack can be quickly made or rounded up and Sftcured with a waterproof cap without damage. Hay can probably be secured in the field as suggested at less than half the cost of putting in large stacka with costly machinery, and the barns or hay lofts will contain three or four times as rnuch hay in bales as could be put into them loose, making saving in storage space as well as drawing twice as nmch at a load in bales without any hay racks. Again, the conveuience of bales for feeding is worth considering. The hay is taken from the end of the bale with the hands, when the baling wire is cut, in a layer only a few inches thiek, the hay left in the bale remaining close as the press left it, and so on till the bale is all nsed, the wires being easily cut. Use from the bale a few pounds at a time; the hay retains its fresh color and quality far better than when loose. Furthermore, if other work is pressing, the hay can remain in small stacks till light frosts occur, when the baling can be done without hindering plowing of any other urgent work. Waterproof caps for small stacks or cocks can be obtained at little cost or made on the farm in a short time.