SO CLOVER CUI/TURE. 



for cutting, 75.90. The total moisture in sample of well 

 cured hay, 16.62. Moisture in clover hay after being in the 

 barn twenty days, 12.22. From this it will be seen that the 

 amount evaporated in the process of curing was 58.28 per 

 cent.,andjthat an additional amount of 4.40 was lost in the barn 

 in twenty days. In other words, after losing in the process 

 of curing 58.28 per cent, of the original moisture, 26.48 per 

 cent, of what remains is lost after storage in the mow for 

 twenty days. On the basis which these figures furnish, 100 

 pounds of green clover cut at the proper season and cured in 

 its best estate, will make 41.72 pounds of hay ready for the 

 mow. Twenty days after storing it will weigh 37.32 pounds. 

 The shrinkage probably continues in a variable, but gradually 

 decreasing degree for a considerable time longer, the variation 

 depending on the season and the average humidity of the at- 

 mosphere which surrounds it. 



It will thus be seen that the problem before the farmer 

 in making hay is to get rid of about 60 per cent, of the weight 

 of the clover by evaporation in the sunshine and wind, and to 

 do this with the least possible expense, and least danger of 

 damage from scorching by the sun, from rainfall or dew. 

 The problem in the Eastern states, where the crop is small, 

 labor plenty and barn room abundant, and where there is 

 little necessity for the use of special machinery, is a compar- 

 atively easy one. Under these circumstances, the clover can 

 be taken in its ideal condition, that is, when about one-third 

 of the heads are turned brown and nearly every stalk in 

 bloom, and can be converted into ideal hay with but little 

 risk of exposure to sun, rain or dew. By the use of the 

 mower an hour or two in the afternoon or evening, a sufficient 

 amount of the crop for the next day's operations can be cut 

 down. By stirring it once or twice with the tedder in the 

 morning it will part with sufficient of its water to enable it to 

 be placed in cocks. These can then be covered with hay caps 

 made either from ducking, muslin or wood pulp, and allowed 

 to remain until they go through the sweating process, whether 

 that be two days or a week. A hay day can then be taken, 

 the caps removed and the crop stowed away in the barn. The 

 first crop treated in this way, a crop of seed in the fall from 

 the common red clover is reasonably certain. 



The conditions are widely different, however, in the 

 West. There the crop is usually large, running as a rule 

 from forty acres to several hundred on a farm, and machinery 

 specially adapted to the work becomes a necessity on account 



