fifth of the tonnage harvested. If it- were true aes an eran: ‘Tos 
of nutrients takes place, there would be good reason for the hay — 
grower to become alarmed and seek information that will enable hin 
to prevent it. That the department 1 is often asked to furnish data = | 
regarding methods of curing and storing hay which will tend to pre- _ | 
vent shrinkage is evidence that many farmers believe that the — 
question of shrinkage is a serious one. 
Some farmers make a practice of weighing newly made hay just 
before it is put into the barn and wish to know the amount of shrink- 
age that will take place, under average conditions, in order to be able 
to estimate the amount of hay there will be after the shrinkage has 
ceased. This knowledge is desirable when estimating the quantity 
of hay that is needed on the farm or the quantity that can be sold at | 
some later date. Buyers and shippers of hay often buy hay baled ~ 2 
from the cock or windrow and then hold it for some time before 3 
selling it. A general knowledge of the question of shrinkage would <@) 
be of value to aac. 
it is the purpose of this bulletin (1) to give data on the average 
water content of several kinds of hay at harvest time, (2) on the loss 
of water and dry matter during the curing process, (38) on the loss 
during the time the hay is stored, and (4) to point out when shrinkage 
in hay is an actual loss and whom this loss affects, and when the 
apparent loss is not a real loss, but is simply a natural result of the 
normal curing process that all good hay must undergo. 
RESUME OF DATA ON SHRINKAGE. 
CUE ryt pr apeeea er 8 
men PCPs wean tr ao 
tM 
n 7, i 
ity ! ; J i 
Ne er ey. ait) based 
SMa ET Nee: ae CT 
During the past 30 years many experiment stations have con- 
ducted experiments to ascertain the loss occurring in hay when 
stored for varying lengths of time in the barn or stack. The follow- f — 
ing selected data, arranged in order of decreasing percentages of 
loss reported, a what has been accomplished in ae to ascer- 
tain the rate of shrinkage 1 in hay: 
(1) The largest loss due to shrinkage is reported by the Pennsyl- 
vania station.1 Two plots of clover, not adjoining, were cut at 
each of three periods of growth, (1) the clover heads in bloom, 2) 
partly dead, and (3) nearly all dead; the dates of cutting were June — a 
22, July 3, and July 19. The hay was weighed when put into  § ~— 
the barn, and then reweighed five or six months later, in order to 
determine the weight of the ‘‘dry” hay. The hay cut in bloom ~ a 
lost 42.2 per cent, that cut when partly dead lost 44.2 per cent, ~~ 
and that cut when heads were all dead lost 25.7 per cent. 
(2) At the Missouri station? a stack of second-growth clover, a 
weighing when put up in July 6,514 pounds, shrank in weight by 
the following March to 4,548 pounds, a loss of 30 per cent. 
_1 Pennsylvania State College, Report for i886, pp. 271-276. 
=& : 
* For report of experiment see Michigan, State Board {of Agriculture and Experiment Station, 1901, = 
p. 287. : = 
