482 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



sooner it will make dusty hay, and if cut after too ripe it becomes too woody 

 and dry to get best results from feeding. Aft«r the grass is well cured the 

 best way to put up hay is by the use of a hay loader in the field and use of a 

 hayfork at the barn; or if stacked in field, a cable might be used, providing 

 you have men on the stack that understand their business. 



About the best way to get hay up though is to work while the sun shines 

 and work fast. 



SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OF CLOVER HAY. 



Wallaces^ Farmer. 



By the time this reaches our readers in the central part of our territory 

 many of them will be busily engaged in putting up clover hay. In the 

 southern part of our district they are at it now, and so are our alfalfa read- 

 ers in the western part of our territory. It is therefore timely to point out a 

 possible danger from neglect or haste and bad judgment in putting hay in 

 the stack, especially in large haysheds or big bays in barns. 



The fact that clover and alfalfa and sometimes sorghum or shredded fod- 

 der will take fire by spontaneous combustion is too well established to admit 

 of any possible doubt. Scientists for a long time hooted at the proposition, 

 but they have been obliged to yield to the stubborn, stern logic of actual 

 fact. The sight of a haystack on fire where no other means of taking fire are 

 present is convincing proof. Even more convincing proof is found in the 

 middle of a large bay or shed or stack, in the blackened and thoroughly 

 charred remains of what once was hay, in which combustion occurred with- 

 out flame. Cases of this kind are by no means infrequent. 



The cause of it is somewhat obscure. There can be no combustion, with 

 or without flame, until the moisture is completely exhausted, not merely the 

 moisture over twelve or fifteen per cent which thoroughly cured good hay 

 carriers even when quite dry, but all the moisture, called fixed because it 

 can not be removed without unnatural heat. The exhaustion of this moisture 

 is due to heating and fermentation, and that is due to fungus carried in on 

 the hay, and£particularly on clover. 



This extreme degree of heat does not arise unless the hay is stored in 

 large quantities. It arises more frequently in some years than others and 

 more in some sections in the same year than others, due to the greater 

 abundance of the fungus which is capable of developing this extreme degree 

 of heat. 



The remedy is proper curing before the hay is stored in these large 

 bays or stacks. Just how to determine what is proper curing is something 

 which can not very well be put on paper. Ordinarily when a farmer of 

 ordinary muscle takes a wisp of hay and twists it as hard as he can and finds 

 no moisture on the outside it is ready to go into the barn and can safely be 

 stored. There are, however, atmospheric conditions which warn a man to 

 be very cautious. Every farmer knows that clover takes up moisture very 



