THE SHRINKAGE OE MARKET HAY. 23 



the hay may be taken and a water determination made, as is done 

 in determining the grade of shelled corn. By subtracting the average 

 normal water content of the kind of hay in question from the average 

 found by analysis a fairly accurate estimate may be made. This 

 elaborate process must be repeated every year, and for every field of 

 hay cured under new conditions. The taking of average samples will 

 be found to be no easy matter, and it is doubtful if it will pay, in 

 many instances, to have a water determination made. By the appli- 

 cation of the second method it will be possible to establish a definite 

 rule for the shrinkage of hay on a particular farm under given condi- 

 tions in regions where weather conditions are fairly constant. The 

 conditions under which it will be possible to work out such a rule 

 are: The acreage of hay cut must be comparatively large, so that 

 haymaking is one of the principal farm enterprises; a fully equipped 

 crew, well organized, must be used; and the weather must not be 

 subject to sudden changes. 



In the prairie and alfalfa section of the Middle West and West 

 haymaking is often conducted on a rather large scale, day after day, 

 during most of the summer. In a well-organized crew the rakes are 

 kept a certain length of time behind the mowers. The hay always 

 remains about the same length of time in the swath and windrow 

 and it is nearly always cured to about a standard degree when taken 

 from the field to barn, stack, or press. In other words, the hay- 

 making is done in a businesslike and systematic manner, and guess- 

 work is entirely eliminated, so that well-cured hay one day means 

 exactly the same thing as well-cured hay on any other day. Under 

 such conditions it is possible to work out "a definite and permanent 

 rule for shrinkage. This can be done by weighing the hay before and 

 after storing or by having water determinations made in a laboratory. 

 The average shrinkage as determined for one year will hold true for 

 following years as long as the system used and the conditions remain 

 the same. 



The weather in the East and South is sometimes very changeable, 

 which makes it impossible always to cure hay as desired in the field, 

 so that no shrinkage rule could be worked out that would apply 

 uniformly to hay cured in these regions. 



MONEY LOSS CAUSED BY SHRINKAGE. 



The grower, feeder, and shipper naturally wish to know whether or 

 not shrinkage causes a direct money loss, and, if so, under what con- 

 ditions, and whom such loss affects. From a practical or economic 

 standpoint it may be said that shrinkage becomes of importance only 

 when it affects the feeding value or tonnage of hay. In considering 

 such loss shrinkage will here be considered as loss of water only, since 



