HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 167 
Mr. Scorr. Does not that depend upon the judgment of the measurer, 
when you come to estimate the weight of a cubic foot of hay? 
Mr. Spriuman. I do not get your point. 
Mr. Scorr. I do not iiderdtand just how you know how much a 
stack weighs when you ascertain the cubic feet. 
Mr. Srrtiman. To make any investigation at all I have got to 
measure a stack that is being baled and get the weight of it from 
the baler and the dimensions of it from the measurements. Now I 
want a small amount of money to make my experiments on that. 
The Cuarrman. I do not think you could do that with an ironclad 
rule. It has got to be an agreement between the buyer and seller. 
Mr. Scorr. Will it work with a hay stack that was stacked a year 
ago or two years ago? 
Mr. Sprutman. Yes, it will. I have to allow, of course, for the 
length of time the stack has been standing and the shape of the stack. 
Mr. Scorr. Is not that a matter of judgment? 
Mr. Spititman. No; of date and time, although there may be still 
some guesswork after the most accurate measurements. But if you 
decrease the guesses you benefit the farmer. In some parts of the 
country hay is sold a great deal by volume. I have made a collection 
of the rules used all over the United States, and I find that as a rule 
those rules get from 25 to 40 per cent too little hay in the stack. 
The Cuairman. There is very little hay sold now, except in the far 
West, that is not baled, and the baler’s weight is taken and that is 
near enough. 
Mr. Sprutman. Oh, there are millions of tons sold without weighing. 
Take, for instance, the great Yakima Valley in Washington, where 
they do nothing but grow hay and fruit. They do not weigh the hay. 
If we could convince the people—the farmers—that they are being 
cheated in the weighing of hay, they would put up those scales. 
The Cuarrman. The emergency appropriation for the extermination 
of the boll weevil will be taken up, gentlemen, when the House meets 
at 12 o’clock, and I would be glad to defer the rest of this hearing until 
2 o0’clock. If you will meet us then we shall be much obliged. 
Thereupon, at 12 o’clock m., the committee took a recess. 
AFTER RECESS. 
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM J. SPILLMAN—Continued. 
The Cuarrman. You may proceed with your narrative, Mr. Spillman. 
Mr. Srpruuman. I shall try to be as brief as I can, Mr. Chairman, 
because there are a number of men in the Agricultural Department who 
are doing more work than J am that want to talk to you. 
The next point I want to mention is the domestication of certain wild 
grasses. I have here a map showing the wild hay cut in this country. 
[Exhibiting map.] Each of the little dots on the map represent 1,000 
acres of wild grasses cut for hay. There are now something over 
15,000,000 acres of wild grasses cut for hay. 
The CHarrman. Prairie hay is wild grass? 
Mr. Sprniman. Yes; and swamp grass. There are about four or five 
million acres of that swamp grass in lowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. 
There are 40,000 acres of wild hay cut in Cook County, IIl., every year. 
The CuatrmMan. The value of the hay crop is greater than the value 
of the cotton crop? 
