84 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



Two or three hours behind the tedder start the rake 

 and keep it going regardless of the noon hour, and unless 

 the hay is very heavy it may be put into small cocks, this 

 to be completed before the dew forms. In humid regions, 

 hay is cured best and with greatest safety by the use of 

 hay-caps, and these should be put on the cocks also 

 before the dew forms, and removed each morning. The 

 hay may be left in these cocks for four or five days, as 

 found necessary, and then stacked or stored in the barn. 

 This may not follow, however, unless the weather is 

 favorable. Many prefer to leave the hay in the wind- 

 rows until the second morning, turning them by hand or 

 otherwise before noon and putting into cocks in the 

 afternoon, letting these stand for two or three days. If 

 it is left in the cocks over three days, they should be 

 moved or the plants under them will be smothered. All 

 agree that alfalfa should not lie in the swath over two or 

 three hours. Most who have ever used a tedder like it 

 if the alfalfa is less than half in bloom. If half or more 

 in bloom, the tedder may cause the breaking off and loss 

 of many leaves. Most experiment stations recommend 

 that the hay be put into small cocks on the day of the 

 cutting, if the weather is at all fair, not risking it in the 

 windrows over night. It is a fact that cocked green 

 alfalfa, even without caps, will shed much rain, while 

 when fairly well-cured it will not do so. 



A Colorado farmer reported that he started the mower 

 one morning as soon as the dew was off, followed it with 

 the tedder one hour later, and with the rake one hour 

 behind the tedder ; he kept a force of men only two hours 

 behind the rake putting the alfalfa, yet quite green, into 



