26 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 
is heavy, tedding should be continued at intervals until the fodder 
is sufficiently cured to rake into coils and stack into small cocks. 
If at all possible, this should be done the day it is cut, or, if cut in 
the afternoon, the day after. Green fodder, when cut at the best 
stage for hay-making, usually contains about eighty per cent. of 
moisture. In good weather even a heavy crop of clover may be dried 
sufficiently in one day to be ready to put up in small cocks for further 
curing. The moisture in hay ready to store commonly ranges from 
twelve to fifteen per cent. A larger percentage would conduce to 
sweating and mow-burning. It is a good plan to cut until nine 
o'clock in the morning and then have one person ted and rake for 
the balance of the day; hauling and storing should proceed from 
nine o'clock until four or four-thirty in the afternoon, the remaining 
two hours or less to be devoted to putting up the freshly cured hay 
into cocks. Plans for hay-making are, however, often interrupted 
by showers, which add to the labour of curing and are often more 
disastrous to the quality of the hay than extreme dry heat. 
Even during continued rain it is advisable, by tedding or turning 
with a fork, to keep the partly cured hay loose and open to prevent . 
it from packing and becoming soaked. Its flavour and much of its 
nutritive matter are more liable to be lost if it lies in a sodden mass 
than if it is kept loose and open though wet. If the weather is dry 
and hot, it is important to cut and cure promptly. Hay dried by 
the burning heat of the sun is apt to lose much of its fine quality; 
it is best shaken out and dried by light winds. In dry, hot weather 
it is advisable to use the tedder immediately after cutting and at 
frequent intervals and to rake and cock while the fodder is still quite 
moist. Rapid ripening sometimes makes it expedient to defer hauling 
in favour of cutting and curing. It is then advisable to put it up 
in large cocks. 
Because of the scarcity and cost of faim labour, approved 
methods of curing and handling have to be modified, and such im- 
plements as hay loaders substituted for hand labour and cocking. 
If hauling can be done from the windrow, as soon as the hay is suf- 
ficiently cured, good results are obtained. 
Compared with the labour of hay-making by the early settlers, 
when cutting was done with a scythe, curing by turning with a fork 
raking with wooden rakes, and loading and unloading by hand, 
modern hay-making is not arduous. Ten acres of hay meant a fairly 
large undertaking for the pioneer farmer; his grandson, with less 
help but more machinery, can make light work of five times that 
area. When operating his machines he is not troubled with stumps 
