MOISTURE CONTENT AND SHRINKAGE OF FORAGE. 3 
used to have each sample representative of the entire crop. Material 
from the outside as well as from the middle and bottom of the wind- 
rows or shocks was included. 
Samples of green material were taken by cutting the plants either 
by hand or with machinery, each sample including only that part of 
the plant that is used in making hay or fodder. The samples of 
different sizes in both the field-cured and green material were replicated 
five or six times, and each sample was marked with a tag bearing a 
number and other data necessary for identification. In taking 
samples, the work was done as quickly as possible, to avoid loss in 
weight by evaporation. Each sample as soon as prepared was 
weighed immediately. 
After the samples ' were placed in the containers and weighed, they 
were stored in a favorable place to facilitate further drying and at the 
same time were given protection from rain. 
In ascertaining the total water and dry-matter content of the 
various samples, determinations were made by the usual method of 
oven drying. For this purpose a special oven having a capacity of 
164 cubic feet was built. Steam heat under pressure was used and a 
temperature of 100° C., or a little above, was maintained. 
In the following account, the outline for each experiment is given as 
it was carried out at the various stations, and this outline is followed 
by a tabulated statement of the original data from which the sum- 
maries are prepared and conclusions drawn. 
USE OF SAMPLES IN CORRECTING FORAGE YIELDS. 
McKee, in the Journal of the American Society of Agronomy,? 
gives a general discussion of moisture as a factor of error in determin- 
ing forage yields, wherein it is suggested that forage-yield data can 
be made much more nearly comparable if small samples taken at the 
time of weighing field-cured or green material are used in determining 
the moisture content of the material and these data used in reducing 
the yield either to an air-dry or to a dry-matter basis. 
In the experiments described in the present bulletin, the efficiency 
of correcting ordinary green and field-cured forage weights with 2, 4, 
6, 8, 12, or 16 pound samples was determined with the following 
crops: At Arlington Farm, Va., alfalfa and a mixture of tall oat-grass 
and orchard grass; at Chico, Cal., alfalfa; at New London, Ohio, 
timothy; at Amarillo, Tex., sorghum; and at Hays, Kans., sorghum. 
To provide a basis for checking up the moisture loss in small samples, 
100 pounds of ordinary field-cured forage were taken from the shock 
1 The samples of tall oat-grass and orchard grass at Arlington Farm, Va., were prepared by H. N. Vinall 
and H. L. Westover; the alfalfa at Arlington Farm, Va., by W.J. Morse; the alfalfa at Chico, Cal., by Roland 
McKee; the timothy at New London, Ohio, by M. W. Evans; the sorghums at Amarillo, Tex., by A. B. 
Cron,and at Hays, Kans.,by R. E. Getty. 
2 McKee, Roland. Moisture asa factor of errorin determining forage yields. In Jour. Amer.Soc.Agron., 
v. 6, no. 3, p. 113-117, 1914. 
