HAY MAKING IN RAINY 
COUNTRIES. 
Probably most of the readers of this book will 
dwell where showers come during hay harvest. I 
remember what terror filled the hearts of haymakers 
during my childhood, spent in Ohio. It was consid- 
ered a calamity to have hay out when it rained and 
every energy was put forth to get the last forkful 
up before the storm came. Afterward when I began 
the growing of alfalfa it came over me with a feeling 
of dismay that with much alfalfa to harvest it would 
be impossible to avoid getting a lot of it wet. Later 
when my brothers and I had as much as 100 acres or 
more to harvest I learned that they would have al- 
falfa cut, in swath or in cock, during nearly every 
storm that fell in the entire summer. From observa- 
tion and habit we at last learned the secret of making 
hay with no material damage in a land where rain 
often falls. 
Not Hard to Cure.—Alfalfa is not a hard stuff to 
make into hay. It dries easier than red clover, for 
example. There is a principle to be observed in 
making alfalfa hay that applies to making hay from 
all clovers. If it can be so managed that the leaves 
are not at once burned and dried to powder the 
moisture from the stems is the more easily removed. 
Leaves are natural evaporators of sap; stems are 
not. Therefore, while the leaf has yet pliancy and 
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