HARVESTING 8/ 



ditions of the weather. The porosity of the cotton cloth 

 hinders dampness from collecting beneath it at the top of 

 the cock which it covers.'^ 



Curing alfalfa in dry regions where the problems and 

 dangers of rainfall do not need any large consideration, 

 is attended with few of the difficulties which confront 

 the grower in a region of much humidity. In Western 

 Kansas and Nebraska, and in Texas and other states 

 where summer rains are somewhat infrequent, the 

 mowers start at the beginning and do not stop until the 

 field or fields of alfalfa are all in the swath. The rakes 

 follow close behind, frequently the side-delivery rake, 

 and then the gathering implement, usually designated as 

 a "go-devil,'' keep only about a half-day behind, drag- 

 ging the cured hay to the stack or rick where the horse- 

 fork lifts and carries it to the center of the stack, to be 

 distributed and placed by men with pitchforks. The 

 market and feeding value of hay so cured and gathered, 

 is deemed by some authorities as not the highest. Curing 

 in the windrow alone is likely to be a mere drying (per- 

 haps too rapid drying) of one side of the exposed 

 portions. Alfalfa should cure successively in the swath, 

 windrow, cock and stack or mow, to develop its greatest 

 value. The man who has so many acres that he cannot 

 cure it in this way might do better with fewer acres for 

 hay, and pasture hogs on the remainder, or use the land 

 for other crops. Still it is true that alfalfa even poorly 

 cured has no inconsiderable feeding value. Many farmers 

 in the West and Middle West claim to secure very good 

 hay by early following the mower with the tedder, this 

 with the rake, and then the "buncher/' letting the hay 



