HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 811 
the man who worked so late extra pay for his over- 
time. In raking such hay, which is of course very 
dry, it is best to make the windrows large. 
Usually small windrows are best. We follow 
about this practice: The mowers are run when 
there is leisure to run them, paying little attention 
to time of day. Usually several of them are started 
at one time, when teams can be spared from other 
work. It is well if the dew is off the alfalfa before 
it is mown, but convenience sometimes makes us 
disregard this practice. 
Cocking the Hay.—As soon as the hay is tough 
and the leaves as dry as it is safe to allow them, 
the rakes are started and small windrows made. 
At onee men follow with forks and cock the hay up 
in the old fashioned way. Care is taken to make 
the cocks small in diameter, and as high as they can 
be safely piled. The workmen are shown how to 
take the hay in small forkfuls and lay it up, one 
forkful squarely above another, till the cock is made. 
This with a little practice is rapidly done. It seems 
a costly thing to one not accustomed to this sort of 
handling of hay, yet a skillful and energetic man will 
easily cock up ten tons or more in a working day. 
So the added labor cost is hardly more than 20 cents 
per ton from cocking up. And when the hay is later 
taken up it is handled so rapidly that some credit 
must be allowed for that. 
Hay cocked thus green is tough so that the stems 
naturally droop from their own weight. The result 
