Alfalfa in Kansas. 457 



Rules of the Kansas City Hay Dealers' Association for grading alfalfa 

 hay: 



Choice alfalfa shall be reasonably fine, leafy alfalfa of bright green 

 color, properly cured, sound, sweet, and well baled. 



No. 1 alfalfa shall be reasonably coarse alfalfa of a bright green color, 

 or reasonably fine, leafy alfalfa of a good color, and may contain 2 per 

 cent of foreign grasses; 5 per cent of air-bleached hay on outside of bale 

 allowed, but must be sound and well baled. 



Standard alfalfa may be of green color, of coarse or medium texture, 

 and may contain 5 per cent foreign matter; or it may be of green color, 

 of coarse or medium texture, 20 per cent bleached and 2 per cent foreign 

 matter; or it may be of greenish cast, of fine stem and clinging foliage, 

 and may contain 5 per cent foreign matter. All to be sound, sweet, and 

 well baled. 



No. 2 alfalfa shall be of any sound, sweet and well-baled alfalfa, not 

 good enough for standard, and may contain 10 per cent foreign matter. 



No. 3 alfalfa may contain 25 per cent stack-spotted hay, but must be 

 dry and not to contain more than 8 per cent of foreign matter ; or it may 

 be of a green color and may contain 50 per cent of foreign matter; or it 

 may be set alfalfa and may contain 5 per cent foreign matter. All to be 

 reasonably well baled. 



No grade alfalfa shall include all alfalfa not good enough for No. 3. 



(See "Marketing," in index.) 



MARKETING ALFALFA HAY, FROM THE SHIPPER'S 

 STANDPOINT. 



By A. B. HALL, Manager Lyon County Farmers' Produce Association, Emporia. 



No one realizes so much the loss by careless handling and poor judg- 

 ment in caring for alfalfa hay as the shipper. In Lyon county our first 

 crop is usually harvested about the 15th of May, if the weather is favor- 

 able and other work out of the way. This year (1915) some growers cut 

 as early as May 1, and others did not get through until about July 1 and 

 harvested two crops together, on account of the very wet season. On 

 account of the first crop coming on so early in the spring, when the days 

 are short and the nights cool, together with heavy dews, it is very dif- 

 ficult to get all well cured, keep the green color, and save the leaves. To 

 have high-grade alfalfa one must have the "clinging foliage" and the 

 color, and the man who has not the patience to wait until just the right 

 time, and who has not the judgment to know just the right time, will 

 never succeed in producing high-grade alfalfa hay. 



It is a fact that some farmers never have any first-grade alfalfa, for 

 the simple reason they do not care for it when it should be raked, and 

 often a good grade will be spoiled by sun-cured streaks through the bales 

 and depreciate the value as much as $2 per ton, when there is no other 

 reason than carelessness or lack of judgment. Any one can mow hay, 

 but the man who knows just when to rake it, and does it, to get the most 

 leaves and save the color, is the man to be patterned after. 



