244 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



off from their surfaces. If the leaves are burned they no longer draw 

 moisture from the stems, and they may be so dry as to drop off when 

 handled, while the stems are far too green to stack or mow. Such loss 

 of leaves may often be considerable. The average loss in harvesting 

 forty-one different lots of alfalfa on the agronomy farm at Manhattan 

 in 1914 was 12.43 per cent of the entire crop. In some cases as high as 

 48 per cent of the leaves were lost, which resulted in a loss of 27 per 

 cent of the entire crop. As little as 6 per cent loss of leaves and 3 per 

 cent loss of total crop was secured in several instances. 



There can be no certain rule made as to how much time should elapse 

 between cutting, raking, cocking, or hauling. Weather conditions vary 

 greatly. The first crop of the season is usually heavy and cut when 

 rains are apt to occur; succeeding crops are light and harvested in good 

 drying weather, while the last cutting is usually quite green and is 

 cut in cool weather and is frequently difficult to cure. In midsummer 

 alfalfa may usually be cut in the forenoon, raked in the afternoon or 

 succeeding morning, and stacked or placed in the mow at once. The 

 first cutting usually requires one or more full days' curing in the swath, 

 and as much or longer time in the windrow. The tedder may frequently 

 be used with profit in curing the first cutting when it is tall and heavy, 

 but is seldom used in succeeding cuttings. 



Alfalfa wet with rain immediately after cutting will suffer little 

 damage if the rainfall is not excessive. Where rain falls after partial 

 curing the loss is greater, but in few cases is it so great as to render the 

 crop a total loss. The hay, of course, is discolored and can not be readily 

 marketed, but it is yet a good feed when dried thoroughly before stack- 

 ing. Much injury is often done to the new growth in such cases because 

 the cut crop is lying on the ground and smothering it. Spots are easily 

 killed out unless the wet hay is turned and the crowns of the plants 

 covered by the hay exposed to air and sunlight. (See "Curing," in 

 index.) 



STORING. 



Stacking and Mowing. 



Good judgment is necessary in putting alfalfa hay in the stack or 

 mow. A mistake easily made is that of stacking as soon as the leaves 

 are dry but before the stems have thoroughly cured. It is very difficult 

 to say just when hay is dry enough to store. A slight excess of moisture 

 within the plant due to the incomplete loss of natural sap will result in 

 far less damage- in storage than will a like amount of moisture on the 

 outside of the hay, resulting from rain or dew. 



The green alfalfa plant contains about 75 per cent moisture in the bud 

 stage. The moisture content decreases as the plant matures, and may 

 be as low as 60 per cent when seeds are beginning to form. The average 

 moisture content of field-cured hay in the above forty-one cuttings in 

 1914 was 28.8 per cent. The lowest was 18.79 per cent; the highest was 

 39.82 per cent, and could not have been successfully stacked or mowed in 

 large quantities. 



The greater part of all hay stacked or mowed contains 25 to 30 per cent 

 of moisture, and there is danger of loss in storage if there is more than 



