FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 483 



rapidly from the atmosphere. He has noticed how much heavier the hay 

 handles when he takes in the last load in the evening in muggy weather. 

 The hay lying loose in the field or in the windrow is then taking up moisture 

 very rapidly. It would have been in first-class shape to have gone in the 

 barn at three or four o'clock, but may be altogether too damp even on an 

 apparently dry day if not taken in till sundown. 



Again, much depends on the way the hay is handled. If it is very heavy 

 and hence lies thick on the ground, in other words, in a heavy swath, and 

 the day has been hot and muggy, you will frequently find the underside 

 quite green, while the upper part of the swath may in fact be sunburned 

 and seriously damaged by excessive heat. Hence the necessity of keeping 

 hay in the field that is not intended to be cocked as loose as possible, so as 

 to allow the freest circulation of air. Every observant farmer will notice 

 that the hay lying on top of the swath on a wet day will be quite green and 

 sappy, while the leaf structure is dead. It is almost impossible to get the 

 water out of the stalk afterwards. 



Spontaneous combustion frequently occurs from putting hay in too green 

 or insufficiently cured, or if one man pitches and allows it to drop from the 

 fork into the middle of the mow. Itisjust at this point that the craters 

 form, from which hot air continually rises, and where the combustion 

 starts. 



It is well on general principles for the farmer to watch closely every 

 morning what is going on in his barn or hay shed. He should not trust 

 this to his boys or hired hands, but go and look at it himself. If he gets up 

 in the morning and goes out before breakfast and finds the hay on top of his 

 mow or shed quite wet, especially where the fork drops the hay, it is an in- 

 dication that he had better be a little careful. What is going on there? 

 The air in the morning is a little cool, and the moisture is being condensed. 

 This shows he has put in some hay too green. If he has straw handy, he 

 had better put on a load or two of that, so as to absorb this moisture before 

 he puts any more hay on. If he don't, this will again be driven up through. 

 In other words, it simply increases the moisture in the hay that he puts on 

 top, and becomes an element of danger. 



Two things can be done to advantage: Put a man in the barn, and 

 before the hay is dropped let him take a fork and pitch it to the farther side, 

 distributing it evenly over the barn and thus relieving the heavy pressure 

 along the center. If a load is put in in the evening, throw that to the out- 

 side. These two simple measures will do much to lessen the danger from 

 spontaneous combustion. We hesitate to say what should be done when 

 excessive heat sets up in the hay mow. 



If you keep an iron rod handy and shove it into the mow and on pulling 

 it out it is not too hot to hold comfortably in the hand there is not, ordina- 

 rily, much danger; but if it comes out so hot that you can scarcely hold it, 

 there is danger. If the danger is scented early enough it may be well to cut 

 down through the hay and thus give an opportunity for this surplus moist- 

 ure to escape; but if craters have been formed and hot air rises (or, we should 

 rather say, gas, and slightly different in color from common air), then to do 

 anything with it means that the whole thing may take fire. We have known 



