10 BULLETIN 873, 1*. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Table II. — Water content of field-cured and well-cured barn and stack-cured hay. 



Field- 

 cured hay. 



Maximum. 



Well-cured barn or stack hav. 



Mi-nimiTm. 



Average. 



Difference 



between 

 minimum 



and 

 maximum 



water 

 "content." 



Timothy (all analyses) 



Timothy, early to full bloom 



Timothy, late bloom to early seed. 



Redtop"( all analyses) 



Redtop, in bloom 



Alsike clover 



Alfalfa fall analyses) 



Red clover (all analyses) 



Cowpea 



Soy bean 



Johnson grass 



Barley 



Oat 



Rye 



Wheat 



Prairie 



Per cent. 



28.9 



28.9 



21.6 



2 28.0 



30.0 

 31.3 



Per cent. 

 6.1 

 7.0 

 7.0 

 6.8 

 6.8 

 5.3 

 4.6 

 6.0 

 7.6 

 6.1 



15.0 

 26.5 



6.4 

 9.5 



17.1 



6.5 



Per cent. 



11.6 



12. S 



11.1 



9.8 



8.0 



12.3 



8.6 



13.0 



9.7 



8.6 



10.1 



10.0 



12.0 



8.1 



8.1 



10.0 



Per cent. 

 22.8 

 21.9 

 14.6 

 22.2 



25.4 

 25.3 



13.9 



8.6 

 17.0 



10.6 



1 Taken from U. S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin 22, 1901, Henry's Feeds and Feeding, 

 16th edition, and various experiment station reports. 

 8 Estimated. 



SECOND FACTOR— MAXIMUM WATER CONTENT WHEN STORED. 



Available experimental data and the experience of practical hay 

 makers establish the fact that there is a wide variation in the amount 

 of water in hay when put into the barn and stack. This is the second 

 important factor bearing upon the percentage of shrinkage in hay. 

 The highest recorded percentages of water in hay when put into the 

 barn and stack (see Table II) show that the average maximum for 

 timothy, alfalfa, and red clover is about 30 per cent, timothy 28.9 

 per cent, alfalfa 30 per cent, and red clover 31.3 per cent. It is not 

 known under what conditions hay with a 30 per cent water content 

 will cure out properly, or whether the safe maximum is higher or 

 lower than this amount, since here again there is a lack of definite 

 data that would be of utmost value to the haymaker. No syste- 

 matic experiments have been made to determine the maximum water 

 content that field-cured hay may have without subsequent injury 

 by heating. 



It is safe to assume that the three lots of clover used in experiment 

 1 (p. 4) contained considerably more than 30 per cent of water. 

 Their losses by shrinkage were 42.2, 44.2, and 25.7 per cent. If these 

 lots when cured contained the average amount of water found in 

 good barn-cured hay (13 per cent), it follows that they contained 

 49.7, 51.4 and 35.3 per cent of water, respectively, when put into the 

 barn. It is not known whether the hay in these experiments cured 

 out properly or was spoiled because of the high water content, but in 



