126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ISTebraska, for that will be hardy, or else the Grim, which is 

 a Minnesota strain which has been grown a long time. 



Professor Wiieelek. Won't you speak about curing and 

 the danger of spontaneous combustion? 



Mr. Wing. Oh, yes. Well, the little leaves have in them 

 nearly all of the fat and the protein, actually more than is 

 in wheat bran or middlings. ISTow, what would you think 

 of having one of your hired men go out and cover an acre 

 with middlings or wheat bran ? You would say, " Heavens ! 

 What a waste," and yet there are men who do what amounts 

 to the same thing with their alfalfa. The lesson is to rake 

 it before the leaves drop off, while they are still tough enough 

 to hang on. You can't tell when that will be, but I was 

 going to say I would begin mowing in the afternoon and 

 make the hay the next afternoon, but I am not sure about 

 that. I would let it lie there long enough, then rake it in 

 small windrows. Our rakers have these instructions, to 

 make the windrows small, and then make the shocks not 

 wide and spread all over the ground, but narrow and tall, and 

 when they are put up in that way the stems have a drooping 

 tendency and a big rain can fall and hardly damage it, and 

 it may stay in the shocks a day or two. But you must not 

 leave it there very long, because the young alfalfa is going 

 to come right up and will be bleached under the shock. So, 

 if the next day is good and hot, about 10 or 11 o'clock come 

 out and open it about four or five forkfuls, and then it may 

 be turned over and be dry enough to be ready for the barn. 



Dr. Wheeler spoke about spontaneous combustion. A great 

 many barns are burned from putting in alfalfa hay that 

 wasn't dry enough. Get it as dry as you can, — not bone dry, 

 but it should never be wet enough for moisture to be wrung 

 out of it; that is our test. That should be the very outside 

 limit ; and get it as much dryer than that as you can. I have 

 seen it go into a barn holding 120 tons, and come out with- 

 out much damage. It has come out yellow or brown, but 

 never had damage from mold. However, in a barn where 

 you only put a few loads you must get it dry or you will have 

 some mold. 



