MOISTURE CONTENT AND SHRINKAGE OF FORAGE. 



21 



Table V. — Comparison of sun-dried and shade-dried samples of green material of alfalfa 

 and of a mixture of tall oat -grass and orchard grass. 



Place. 



Crop. 



Treatment. 



Moisture, 

 original 

 material. 



Moisture, 



air-dry 



material. 



Moisture 



lost in 

 air drying. 



Arlington Farm, Va 



Do 



Tall oat-grass and or- 

 chard grass. 

 do 



Cured in shade. . 



Cured in sun 



Cured in shade.. 

 Cured in sun 



Per cent. 

 71. 5± 0.268 



70. 8± .391 

 75. 9 ± .267 

 74. 0± .061 



Per cent. 

 17. 4±0. 145 



19. 8± .204 

 11. 6± .486 

 10. 7 ± .180 



Per cent. 

 65. 5 ±0.353 



63. 5± .558 



Chico, Cal i 



Alfalfa . 



72 7± 314 



Do.i 



do 



70. 8± .120 









1 The detailed record of these samples is given in Table XII. Samples 549, 550, 551, 554, 555, 556, and 557 

 ■were cured in the shade; Nos. 552, 553, 559, and 560 were cured in the sun. 



The differences indicated in Table V are too small to warrant any 

 conclusions, even if the results at the two stations agreed. It would 

 seem, therefore, that so far as the moisture content of the air-dry 

 material is concerned it makes little difference whether the samples 

 are dried in the sun or in the shade. The greater shrinkage in the 

 shade-dried samples was perhaps due to loss of dry material on 

 account of fermentation, which might well be greater in green ma- 

 terial dried in the shade than that dried in the sun on account of the 

 more favorable conditions for the development of fermentation 

 organisms. 



VALUE OF CORRECTING FIELD WEIGHTS BY THE SAMPLE METHOD. 



The work so far done in correcting forage yields by samples makes 

 it apparent that the method is of greatest importance with crops 

 that lose their moisture slowly, such as the sorghums and Sudan 

 grass. It is also valuable in comparative work where the treatment 

 accorded different plats of the same crop differs widely, or in a com- 

 parison of varieties that lose moisture at different rates. The use of 

 this method of correcting yields by samples, if it should become 

 general, would be of much value in standardizing agronomic data 

 obtained in different countries and different parts of the United 

 States, where conditions affecting a crop during the growing and 

 harvesting period differ greatly. 



The use of the sample method and the differences which may be 

 expected from corrections made in this way are well illustrated by 

 the following results obtained on the forage-crop field stations in 

 the regular plat work. 



Sorglium. — At Chico, Cal., the corrected weight of sorghum, as 

 determined by the use of air-dried samples, was 41.6 to 47 per cent 

 less than the weights taken in the field at the time of stacking the 

 crop. This fodder was not as dry at the time of taking the field 

 weights as is desirable, yet it may fairly have been called field cured 

 in the ordinary meaning of the term. At Hays, Kans., the corrected 

 weights, as computed from air-dried samples, average 20 to 30 per cent 



