104 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA' 



greater part of the product will be fed on the farm and 

 the surplus hauled direct to the local markets. Western 

 Kansas and Nebraska alfalfa raisers are having this 

 problem solved for them by the growing practice of 

 stockmen shipping cattle and sheep from the mountain 

 ranges to be fed or fattened where the hay is raised, and 

 hauled directly from the stack to the feed lots. 



POOR STUFF 



Hay dealers report that much of the baled alfalfa 

 shipped is poor stuff. They advise small bales, weighing 

 about sixty to eighty pounds ; about 27 to 36 inches long, 

 14 or 15 inches thick and 18 inches high when laid on 

 edge. They also recommend that in loading a car 

 the bales be placed on their edges instead of on the sides, 

 as they are less liable to heat. The problem of the city 

 hay dealer is to sell what he has received, with satisfac- 

 tion to the purchaser and profit to himself and to his 

 client. If he receives moldy, dead hay, with little protein 

 value, he is not able to please his customer, not able to 

 secure a good price, and hence, not able to please either 

 shipper or buyer. The farmer who raises and ships hay 

 and receives two dollars less per ton for it than his neigh- 

 bor, should learn by such money losses the necessity of 

 harvesting and storing his product properly. 



A. S. Hitchcock says in Farmers' Bulletin No. 215, of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, that the 

 baled hay for export to Alaska, Hawaii, and other trans- 

 oceanic points is compressed by the process known as 

 double compression, done with baling machines oper- 

 ated by electricity or hydraulic power. The hay obtained 



