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 w r eather 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 farm 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 



