HAYSAVING AND HAYMAKING 51 



moisture." There is, however, danger of overheating 

 on this system unless precautions are taken, and the 

 necessary precautions are to sprinkle salt through the 

 fairly green stuff when stacking. I use about 14 lb. of 

 common agricultural salt to every ton of stuff, 

 sprinkling the salt every time a fresh load is put on 

 the stack. 



Salt is an antiseptic, and therefore prevents the 

 bacteria from working too rapidly and the tempera- 

 ture rising too high. I might mention that whilst a 

 useful temperature to obtain in the stack is 120 deg. F. 

 there is no danger if the heat rises to 140 when salt 

 has been used, although if preventable the stack should 

 not pass 120 deg. F. 



If, however, during the process of hay-stacking the 

 heat shows a tendency to rise past 120 deg. F., the 

 ordinary farmer begins to get alarmed, and to pull the 

 stack to pieces and rebuild. This is a very wrong thing 

 to do, as it means allowing more air to enter the stack, 

 and will later cause greater heat. 



The right thing to do is to ram on more stuff at once, 

 which has the effect of crushing out the air, and thus 

 preventing the temperature from rising. In addition, 

 salt should, of course, be used perhaps a little more 

 liberally than one stone to the ton. 



When a stack is completed, and suppose the tem- 

 perature reaches, say, 140 deg. F. (which should not 

 happen if judgment and salt are used in the making 

 of the stack), it is, of course, impossible to lower the 

 temperature by putting on more stuff. The best thing 

 to do then is to make a strong brine of salt and water, 

 using as much salt as the water will dissolve, and 

 pouring the brine along the centre ridge of the stack. 



Made in the way indicated, carted slightly green, 

 with salt used in the stacking, vetch hay makes 

 excellent feeding. It comes out of the stack with a 



