Louis Cairns hauling in turnips.

INLAND HAYING Judge Peters, a native Islander, published in 1851 a book entitled “Hints to Farmers on Prince Edward Islandf’ It was a manual of manuring and in it he had a method of turning practically everything around the farm and wood lot into something that could be spread on the land. In those days most of the land was devoted to producing cash crops for sale but Judge Peters saw a need for more hay and turnips. He believed that one acre of “swedes” as he called turnips could carry more animals than three acres of hay meadow.

It was customary in those days to grow hay year after year on the same ground. When the land gave out, the people moved out. But as the years went by more advanced farming techniques came into practice.

In another part of Peters’ book reference was made to the production of lime in lime kilns located in Freetown and South Freetown. This lime was spread on the fields and raised the calcium content necessary to produce good hay crops. Many farmers in the last century and early in this one also used mussell mud for manure. The shells in the mud augmented the supply of calcium in the soil. A common saying a century ago was: “It takes the mussell mud to make the hay growZ’ It was also good for other crops, but too much calcium in the soil often produced scabby potatoes.

The production of hay required the use of hay seed and when sowing grain it was also necessary to sow hay seed in order to have a hay crop the next year. A good hay seed mixture contained at least eight pounds oftimothy seed, three pounds of alsike and three pounds of early or late red clover seed or mixture of both late and early red clover seed. Many farmers also sowed alfalfa. Though it was generally more difficult to grow, once the land grew one crop the ground became inoculated and the alfalfa continued to grow year after year. Many farms produce alfalfa but on some land it was difficult to get it started. In the 19405 farmers

began using seeders with fertilizer attachments and sowed fertilizer with the grain and hayseed.

For a few years farmers used to sow 100 or more pounds of ammonium nitrate in the spring on a new meadow following the grain harvest, to produce more hay. This was a usual practice if there was a poor catch of clover and alsike in the spring. When lime and mussell mud gathered on the Island became exhausted and outdated, lime was imported from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to keep the supply of calcium in the soil at a productive level. All in all, quite a distance from the era when settlers had to rely on marsh hay

for their fodder.

Farmers in nineteeth century would start to cut hay early in July. At first, hay was cut by scythe, but as the land was cleared and the fields grew bigger, horse drawn mowers of four and a half foot width up to six or seven feet wide were used. The horsedrawn rakes of the early days, were eight feet and ten feet and for the most part were made of wood with iron teeth. After the hay was raked, it was all piled in coils by hand and was left in coil overnight to sweat. If the next day turned out to be a good drying day, the coils were spread out to dry in the late morning, and loaded by hand on wagons with hay racks to be taken to the barn in the afternoon. This method continued for many years until hay loaders came on the market. These loaders were fastened behind the wagon and would bring the hay up on the load from the rear. This meant that the coils had to be spread in windrows so that the loader could pick them up. If the weather was

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