178 FEEDS AND FEEDING, ABRIDGED 



necessary to open the cocks the next morning to avoid molding, and 

 then recock the hay toward night, if not yet dry enough to store. 



By this system the curing grass is exposed but little to the bleaching 

 action of the sun and dew, and there is no marked loss of aroma, 

 which, tho unweighable, has real value in rendering hay palatable. 

 Before the partly dried plants are piled into cocks, the leaves will 

 have dried out more than the stems. As the leaves and stems remain 

 alive for some time after the grass has been cut, if the material is 

 cocked before the leaves are entirely dried out and thereby killed, they 

 will continue to draw water from the stems. Partially curing in the 

 cock is especially important with the legumes, which usually have 

 thick, succulent stems that dry slowly, while the leaves dry rapidly, 

 and become brittle and shatter badly. Partially cured grass cocked 

 in the afternoon entraps much warm air, which helps to continue the 

 giving off of moisture during the night. 



Hay put into the barn when so dry that it will not pack well, is not 

 in first class condition. It should be mowed away with just that 

 amount of moisture which allows it to settle compactly when trodden 

 down. Salt and lime scattered over damp hay when put into the mow 

 tend to prevent fermentation and check the growth of molds. Damp 

 hay may also be improved by placing it in alternate layers with dry 

 straw, which absorbs moisture as well as aroma from the hay, so that 

 cattle the more readily eat both straw and hay. New-made hay, which 

 is laxative and may cause colic in horses, should not be fed until the 

 sweat in the mow is over and it has cooled off. 



Making hay on a large scale. — Where large acreages of hay are 

 made, it is often unprofitable to cure the crop in cocks, owing to the 

 extra labor, even tho better hay is secured. Frequently the crop is 

 mown in the morning and by frequent tedding and turning it is 

 housed before the dew falls at night. In favorable weather even clover 

 and alfalfa, when dry on the surface of the swath, are often raked 

 directly into small windrows by a side-delivery or other rake, without 

 previous tedding. After curing here for a few hours, the hay is loaded 

 from the swath by the hay loader, or in the West is hauled to the 

 stack with a sweep rake. 



Another method is to cut the crop late in the afternoon so that the 

 dew will not materially affect the plants during the night, because they 

 are but little wilted. Even should rain come it will cause far less 

 injury than if the plants were partially cured. The following day, 

 by aid of tedder or rake the drying is hastened and the hay placed 

 under cover or stacked before night. 



When these methods are followed with the legumes, it is impossible 

 to avoid much loss of the leaves, by far the most valuable part of the 



