THE SHRINKAGE OF MARKET HAY. 



29 



Table III. — Terms variously used by growers to describe the condition of hay when put 



into the barn, stack, or bale. 



[Actual condition of the hay.] 



Undercured: Stems full 

 of sap but leaves dead 

 and dry. Spontaneous 

 combustion and heavy 

 shrinkage indicated. 



Fairly well cured: Even- 

 ly cured, but water 

 content too high. 

 High degree of fermen- 

 tation indicated, con- 

 siderable shrinkage, 

 destruction of dry 

 matter, and possibly 

 discoloration. 



Well cured: Entire 

 plant cured out evenly 

 and sufficiently. Will 

 have a normal shrink- 

 age and make "choice" 

 hay. 



Overcured: Stems brit- 

 tle. Leaves dead, dry, 

 and sunburnt. Will be 

 little or no shrinkage; 

 possibly a gain in wa- 

 ter in storage. Will 

 make medium to poor 

 quality of hay. 



















Toughl 



Tough 



Tough 





Damp 



Damp 

















Fairly well cured 



Fairly we'll cured 











Dry 



Drv 



Dry. 











In good condition 



Successfully cured 



Fit '. 



In good condition 



Successfully cured 



Fit 



In good condition. 

 Successfully cured. 

 Fit. 





Fit 









Ready to haul. 

































































Many of these terms are used interchangeably, and often it will 

 be found that a term which means one thing in one locality will mean 

 something else in another. Thus "tough" hay may be either hay 

 that is undercured or hay that has been thoroughly cured out but has 

 become dampened by dew or rain. The terms "successfully cured," 

 "ready to haul," "swath-cured," "bunch-cured" or "windrow- 

 cured," are all more or less confusing and are interpreted differently 

 by individual haymakers. To one, "dry" hay in the field is hay 

 that is ready to haul to the barn or stack but will be subject to a 

 normal amount of shrinkage. To another, "dry" hay is hay that 

 has been overcured, while those who bale from the field think of 

 "dry" hay as hay ready for baling without serious heating or loss 

 of moisture in the bale. 



It is only natural that hay producers should occasonally describe 

 conditions of field-cured hay in local terms that- are misleading to 

 farmers in other parts of the country. There is less excuse, how- 

 ever, for the spreading of the same confusion by official scientific 

 publications. 



A review of the literature on shrinkage experiments shows that 

 sometimes investigators themselves do not understand clearly what 

 constitutes hay, or at least they have not used terms that accurately 

 describe the material with which they were experimenting. 



In experiment 5, page 5, "well-cured" hay lost 22.6 per cent by 

 shrinkage, while in experiment 11, page 5, hay that was only "fairly 

 well cured" lost only one-half as much, or 11.2 per cent. 



