HAY MAKING IN RAINY 

 COUNTRIES. 



Probably most of the readers of this book will 

 dwell where showers come during hay harvest. I 

 remember what terror filled the hearts of haymakers 

 during my childhood, spent in Ohio. It was consid- 

 ered a calamity to have hay out when it rained and 

 every energy was put forth to get the last forkful 

 up before the storm came. Afterward when I began 

 the growing of alfalfa it came over me with a feeling 

 of dismay that with much alfalfa to harvest it would 

 be impossible to avoid getting a lot of it wet. Later 

 when my brothers and I had as much as 100 acres or 

 more to harvest I learned that they would have al- 

 falfa cut, in swath or in cock, during nearly every 

 storm that fell in the entire summer. From observa- 

 tion and habit we at last learned the secret of making 

 hay with no material damage in a land where rain 

 often falls. 



Not Hard to Cure. Alfalfa is not a hard stuff to 

 make into hay. It dries easier than red clover, for 

 example. There is a principle to be observed in 

 making alfalfa hay that applies to making hay from 

 all clovers. If it can be so managed that the leaves 

 are not at once burned and dried to powder the 

 moisture from the stems is the more easily removed. 

 Leaves are natural evaporators of sap; stems are 

 not. Therefore, while the leaf has yet pliancy and 



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