4 BULLETIN 353, V. S. DEPAETMEl^T OF AGRICULTURE. 



or windrow and 500 pounds of green forage were taken immediately 

 after cutting and placed on a canvas to prevent loss of weight other 

 than moisture. When the forage on the canvas had become suffi- 

 ciently dry, these bulk lots were placed in burlap bags and kept in 

 an open shelter until they ceased to lose weight. 



Composite samples, 2, 4, 6, and 8 pounds in size, of field-cured 

 forage, part from the outside and part from the inside of shocks, were 

 secured at the same time and from the same material as the 100- 

 pound lot before mentioned. These samples were weighed at once 

 and put aside to become perfectly air dry. Samples, 4, 8, 12, and 

 16 pounds m size, of green forage were taken immediately after cutting 

 and were treated similarly. Samples were repHcated five or six 

 times to check the variation due to sampling. All samples were taken 

 at the stage of maturity generally recognized as the proper cutting 

 time for each crop. The samples were kept in a shelter and weighed 

 at intervals until they ceased to lose weight. They were then shipped 

 to Washington, D. C, for the purpose of reducing them to a moisture- 

 free state in the drying oven. The intention was to secure samples 

 of timothy at both New London, Ohio, and Arlington Farm, Va., so 

 that each crop would be handled at two stations, but an unfavorable 

 season caused a failure of the timothy crop at Arlington Farm, and 

 it was found necessary to substitute there the mixture of tall oat-grass 

 and orchard grass. 



In Table I an attempt has been made to arrange the data so as to 

 make the conclusions to be derived from them as clear as possible. 

 Colimin 1 contains the number imder which the identity of the sample 

 was preserved from the time it was prepared until it was finally 

 weighed from the drying oven. 



Colunm 2 gives the original weight of the sample, whether green 

 or field cured. 



Column 3 gives the weight of the sample at a date between the time 

 it was prepared and the date when it was considered air dry. This 

 column is intended to show about what time is required for each 

 sample to lose most of its moisture, that is, when it was drier than 

 field cured, but in most cases not yet air dry. This coliman is blank 

 in sections A and B because no weights were obtained between the 

 date of cutting and the date when the samples were completely air dry. 



Column 4 carries the air-dry weight of the sample. In some cases 

 this was the weight obtained just before the sample was placed in the 

 drying oven, but where an earUer weighing made at the field station 

 showed the sample to be practically as dry at that time, the earlier 

 weight is given. 



Column 5 gives the weight of the samples oven dry and represents 

 the dry matter contained in each sample as nearly as it can be deter- 

 mined in an ordinary oven. 



