THE SHRINKAGE OF MARKET HAY. 27 



I 



the price per ton is agreed on before it is baled. For these and other 

 reasons it seems evident that if the hay grower takes advantage of 

 what he considers a good offer for his hay he may safely forget about 

 any so-called loss because of shrinkage. 



This view was also held by Failyer 31 30 years ago. Writing in 

 1888, which was about the time that many of the earlier experiments 

 were being made to determine the rate of shrinkage in hay, he said, 

 in discussing the results of a number of shrinkage experiments, made 

 with several kinds of hay: "The conclusion to be drawn from these 

 results is that if the hay is not obviously green and illy cured, no 

 great shrinkage need be feared." 



Failyer did not favor advancing the price of hay as it cured out in 

 the stack or barn to make up for the loss of water. Instead of using 

 the price of hay at harvest time as a basis for computing the value 

 of throughly cured hay in winter, he advocated the reverse. He 

 figured the value of newly made hay from that of hay after shrinkage 

 had taken place. In discussing an experiment in which there was 

 shown a loss of 10 per cent of water, and which he regards as an ex- 

 ceptional case, he says : 



Even in these excepted cases the shrinkage is much less than many suppose. * * * 

 This [referring to a 10 per cent loss] means that a ton of the hay as hauled in [field 

 cured] would weigh only 1,800 pounds in the winter, and that if a ton of this hay 

 weighed in midwinter is worth four dollars, the ton weighed at the time the sample 

 was buried [when put into the barn] would have been worth three dollars and sixty 

 cents. This would be worth considering; but in most cases the loss is much less than 

 this. 



LOSS TO SHIPPER AND COMMISSION MERCHANT. 



Shrinkage, sometimes causes a loss of money to those who make a 

 business of dealing in market hay. Such loss may be entailed when 

 hay is held in storage, in the bale, waiting for a favorable market. 

 The amount of shrinkage in hay that has passed through the sweat is 

 not large, yet if large quantities of hay are held in storage the total 

 shrinkage will "run into dollars" very quickly. 



Loss of this kind is most likely to be sustained in storing hay that 

 has been baled from the windrow or cock and bought immediately. 

 When those who handle this class of hay dispose of it quickly they 

 suffer no serious loss of money through shrinkage. In other words, 

 as long as the hay is kept moving from shipper to commission man, 

 and from him to retailer or consumer, no one person who handles the 

 hay will lose very much on account of shrinkage, except possibly the 

 consumer. If the hay is held in storage the loss may sometimes be 

 made up by disposing of it on a good market. Those who make a 

 business of speculating in hay count on the price advancing suffi- 

 ciently to cover the loss from shrinkage and allow them a profit 

 besides. 



si Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. First Annual Report, 1888, pp. 117-121. 



