HAY

Ralph Naill made two trips from his Frederick County farm to the Westminster Livestock Auction yesterday: once to buy straw -- at 12 times the price he paid two weeks earlier -- and later to sell three or four head of beef cattle he can't afford to feed in the driest summer he's seen in his 53 years.Other farmers were crowding their cattle into the stockyard yesterday, hoping to cut their losses by selling animals that are eating away at their income."The market is going to be flooded with cattle in the next few weeks," said Naill's daughter, Tammy Naill-Waddell, who helped him load bales onto a flatbed trailer while her 6-month-old son, Timothy, shifted around in his stroller.

Ralph Naill made two trips from his Frederick County farm to the Westminster Livestock Auction yesterday: once to buy straw -- at 12 times the price he paid two weeks earlier -- and later to sell three or four head of beef cattle he can't afford to feed in the driest summer he's seen in his 53 years.Other farmers were crowding their cattle into the stockyard yesterday, hoping to cut their losses by selling beasts that are eating away at their income."The market is going to be flooded with cattle in the next few weeks," said Naill's daughter, Tammy Naill-Waddell, who helped him load bales onto a flatbed trailer while her 6-month-old son, Timothy, shifted around in his stroller.

Farmers in several Maryland counties have begun to get permission to mow hay from federal conservation land, but it might be too late: The cover grasses in fields have dried up to the point of losing nutritional value.Several Maryland counties are asking for a waiver for emergency haying and grazing of fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. The program pays landowners to maintain a grass cover on eroding or environmentally sensitive land.Carroll County's Farm Service Agency, a local arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was the first to ask its headquarters for the waiver, seeking relief from the effects of the region's worst drought in 70 years.

Carroll County farmers who have land in a federal conservation program may mow hay on up to half of their land for emergency feed, but several restrictions apply, and they will have to give up 35 percent of the rent the government pays them to keep the land out of production.However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture denied an emergency request to allow grazing on federal conservation land.The limits have left local agency workers for the USDA's Farm Service Agency perplexed and frustrated that the farmers they serve weren't given more freedom during such severe drought.

Farmers in several Maryland counties have begun to get permission to mow hay on federal conservation land, but it might be too late: The cover grasses in fields have dried up to the point of losing nutritional value.Several Maryland counties are asking for a waiver for emergency haying and grazing of fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. The program pays landowners to maintain a grass cover on eroding or environmentally sensitive land.Carroll County's Farm Service Agency, a local arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was the first to ask its headquarters for the waiver, seeking relief from the effects of the region's worst drought in 70 years.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has rejected a humanitarian effort by Eastern Shore farmers to donate thousands of bales of hay to feed starving livestock in drought-ridden, fire-ravaged Florida."

Central Maryland farmers who were bedeviled by drought and low yields last year are finding the opposite problem this summer: lots of hay to mow, but it's selling for half the price."

FireWinfield: Firefighters from Winfield, Mount Airy and Lisbon in Howard County responded at 6: 45 p.m. Monday to hay trucks on fire in the 7700 block of Morgan Road. Units were out three hours.Pub Date: 6/10/98

HAVRE DE GRACE -- So another summer solstice slips astern, and on the far horizon, if we squint, we can make out the faintest outlines of the oncoming winter. It's a long way off still, but after June 21 there's no use pretending it isn't on its way.The June 21 solstice officially marks the beginning of summer, but like so many other official occurrences, that's an example of a tiny factoid swathed in a lot of nonsense. Summer here isn't a three-month affair. It may or may not give way to fall on or around Septenber 21, as it's officially supposed to, but this year, as is the case most years, it had been under way for at least a month before the solstice showed up.And anyway, the solstice, astronomically, marks the moment when the days start getting shorter once again.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Darn kids. Don't want to do any work. Parents just as bad. Sit around waiting for government handouts. And as for the government . . . And so he harrumphed to himself, somewhat incoherently, as the tractor rumbled on and on through the diminishing afternoon.It was lovely clear weather, with a breeze stirring the windrows and helping the hay to dry, and the light had an almost Septembery feel to it. The surface of the pond sparkled, the cattle looked pretty against the green pastures, and the farm seemed a picture-book place.

The conversation between the man called "Luse" and his imprisoned friend lasted 20 minutes, much of it in broken pig Latin. Federal authorities say "Luse" was describing a home invasion robbery and fatal shooting in Baltimore's Reservoir Hill neighborhood a day after it had occurred in December last year. Luce says the victim "ot-gay oot-hay in the ead-hay [got shot in the head]. He used three, I used two [reference to bullets]." The man told his friend that the victim, Antonio Coby, lied about where he had hidden his drug money, saying it was "up airs-stay" hidden in "ocks-say" when it was someplace else.

The full moon rises over Baltimore at 8:30 this evening. Some sources say the July full moon is the Hay Moon or Thunder Moon. But as the second full moon since the summer solstice, it should be considered the Grain Moon or Green Corn Moon. The confusion arises because we had two full moons in May. That gives us 13 for the calendar year, confounding those who would assign one traditional full-moon name per month. It happens fairly often, in seven years out of every 19.

As FPL Group's CEO was nearing a merger deal last week, Lewis Hay III and other top Florida Power & Light executives got pay raises for 2006. Hay, the chief executive, who announced the deal to merge with Baltimore-based Constellation Energy this week, will get $1.15 million in annual base salary in 2006, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's up from $1 million this year. Hay's base salary, as well as that of Florida Power & Light President Armando Olivera, is approved by FPL's compensation committee based on performance measures.

Baltimore schools Chief Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland said yesterday that she is convening a team to review the controversial Studio Course reading and writing curriculum implemented in city middle schools this fall. The team will include teachers, administrators and state managers overseeing special education, Copeland said. She said she has taken to heart the concerns she has heard about the program - including sharp criticism from the head of Baltimore's Senate delegation. Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden says his office has been flooded with calls from angry parents since an article in The Sun on Sunday outlined the program, which uses teen magazines and places grammar on the back burner.

On Monday, February 21, 2005, MILTON PEARCE MERRYMAN of Easton, MD; beloved husband of the late Helen M. Merryman (nee Upman); devoted father of Stephanie L. Hay of Annapolis, MD and Diane M. Marquette and her husband, James, of Denton, MD. Also survived by a brother, Donald C. Merryman of Clearwater, FL; and two grandchildren, Jessica Hay Mc Carthy and Michael Hay. Private services will be held at the Dualney Valley Memorial Gardens. Memorial donations may be made to the Memorial Hospital Foundation, P.O. box 1846, Easton, MD 21601 or to a favorite charity.

You might call thoroughbred-farm owner J. William Boniface a connoisseur of hay. He has to be because the 200 horses in his care depend on top-quality crops for their winter feed. But because of 2003's wet weather, which followed 2002's drought, good hay is as hard to come by in Maryland as some gourmet foods - and costs about as much. And that has many in the state's agriculture community concerned. "It's been terrible," said Boniface, whose Bonita Farm is in the Harford County town of Darlington.

You might call thoroughbred-farm owner J. William Boniface a connoisseur of hay. He has to be because the 200 horses in his care depend on top-quality crops for their winter feed. But because of 2003's wet weather, which followed 2002's drought, good hay is as hard to come by in Maryland as some gourmet foods - and costs about as much. And that has many in the state's agriculture community concerned. "It's been terrible," said Boniface, whose Bonita Farm is in the Harford County town of Darlington.

Hay and corn crops suffering under cold, wet weather The cornstalks in the soggy fields at Richard Holloway's farm just outside Darlington stand 3 to 4 inches tall. They should be twice that tall, said the Harford County grower who farms 900 acres. He blames the small plants on too much of a good thing - too much rain to give the corn the warm sunshine needed for healthy growth. It's not just his corn that is being affected by one of the wettest springs on record. "The thing that is hurting us the most is the hay crop," he said.

On May 4, 2003, NICHOLAS L., beloved husband of Patricia J. Scavello (nee Hay). Also survived by Joyce Watson, Terry Scavello, Ronald Hay and Gary Hay, and many other loving relatives and friends. Relatives and friends may call at the family owned Ambrose Funeral Home Inc. 1328 Sulphur Spring Road Arbutus on Monday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. where a funeral service will be held Tuesday at 1 P.M. Interment following at Loundon Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be made to American Parkinson's Association or The American Cancer Society.

Harry Hay, 90, a pioneering activist in the gay rights movement, died yesterday in San Francisco. He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. Mr. Hay, among the first to argue that gays represented a cultural minority, devoted his life to progressive politics and in 1950 founded the secret network of support groups for gays known as the Mattachine Society. His contribution to the American political landscape can be traced to his involvement in the Communist Party and the labor movement in the 1930s.