Alfalfa in Kansas. 



USING GASOLINE ENGINE. 



251 



HAY SHEDS. 



By A. M. TEN EYCK, 



Formerly Professor of Agronomy and Farm Management at the Kansas State Agricultural 

 College, and Superintendent of the Fort Hays Branch Experiment Station. 



By carefully stacking hay and covering the stacks well it is possible 

 to preserve the hay in large stacks with comparatively little loss. How- 

 ever, haying time is a hard-working, busy time with the farmer, and he 

 may be careless and neglect to stack the hay well or cover the stacks 

 properly. Rains will come sometimes when they are not wanted and 

 least expected, and some stacks will blow over or wet in, so that on the 

 average stacking out of doors is expensive and wasteful. 



When alfalfa is put up in a large way with sweep rakes and stackers, 

 stacking in the field seems to be about the only practical method; but on 

 the average farm, where the hay is largely fed to live stock, the hay 

 shed becomes a hay-saver, a labor-saver, and a profitable investment. 

 Some farmers who have built sheds estimate that the saving of hay and 

 labor will pay for the shed in two years. This may be figuring the 

 value of shedding hay a little too high. 



From experiment station reports, and from the experiences of farm- 

 ers, the writer concludes that the ordinary loss on hay stored in a shed 

 will be, on the average, 10 per cent less than on hay stacked out of doors. 

 A shed large enough to store 70 tons of alfalfa will cost about $420. The 

 value of 10 per cent of 70 tons of alfalfa hay, valued at $10 per ton, is 

 $70. If the hay is stacked it must, as a rule, be handled twice in feeding 

 it, while if stored in the shed or barn one handling may get it to the 

 live stock. The extra handling of the hay will cost at least 50 cents per 

 ton, or $35. Again, many leaves are shattered by the extra handling, 

 which may easily reduce the feeding value of the hay 50 cents per ton, 

 which makes another loss of $35. The shed would save*$140 a year. At 

 this rate the original cost of the shed will have been paid for in three 

 years, and a good shed ought to last fifteen or twenty years. 



On a stock farm it will usually be advisable to build a combination hay 

 and feeding shed. This may consist simply of a main shed for hay 

 with lean-tos for the stock. Feeding mangers should surround the sides 

 of the hay shed, into which the hay may be thrown. The lean-tos may 

 be closed or open at the ends as desired. 



