348 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



MK. BLYHOLDER: The uext question is: 



"Will Dr. Thayer describe his method of curiug clover hay iu 

 air-tij;ht mows?" 



DK. THAYER : Very easily done. If you have an air-tight mow 

 put your hay iu and shut it up and I don't care how green it is 

 when you put it in. An ordinary mow will not do. I have put it in 

 a mow where I could close it up and I have put it in so wet that 

 my lielper said it would be manure in a short time, but I never had 

 better hay. But it must be practically air-tight. This hay was 

 cut in the evening from four to six o'clock and put into the mow the 

 next morning, and not ten pounds of it ever mildewed. 



A Member: Might we ask what the result would be if put in a 

 mow that was not air-tight? 



DR. THAYER: The result would be that it generates intense 

 heat, and as tlie cold air comes in contact with it you would get 

 mildewed hay. When you put j^our hay in, go away and stay away. 

 Once after three or four days I turned back a board and stuck my 

 head into tlie mow, and I might just as well stuck it into a bake 

 oven and I shut it down on tlie hay. There was just one little place 

 where the air had gotten through, perhaps a yard square, and there 

 the hay was mildewed. But aside from that there was not a mil- 

 dewed spot. 



A Member: I would like to ask tlie Doctor if that hay would not 

 have been bettor if he had waited until the dew was off it and then 

 put it away? 



DR. THAY^ER: I do uot think it would. 



A Member: 1 think it would. There might have been a little 

 fungus on it. I tried it. 



DR. THAYER: That is correct. 



MR. BLYHO]J)ER: The next question is addressed to no one 

 particularly: 



"How to feed alfalfa so that cattle do not become hoven?" 



The CHAIRMAN: Mr. Lighty, will you answer that? 



MR. L. W. LIGHTY: I never had any experience in feeding al- 

 falfa. In feeding clover I never had any trouble. The only thing 

 to be watched is to keep the cattle's digestive apparatus in proper 

 condition and you will not have hoven cattle. I presume it would 

 be the same with alfalfa. 



A Member: Perhaps Professor Cooke has had more experience in 

 feeding alfalfa and could give us some information on this question. 



PROF. COOKE: I feed alfalfa and never found anybody yet who 

 pretended to feed it without producing hoven cattle. It is always 



