2, BULLETIN 873, U. §. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
and protected stack if the same kind of hay (cured to the same degree) 
were placed in each. Theré are no experimental data showing that 
hay in the barn loses more by shrinkage than hay in the stack. In 
fact, the average loss of the hay stored in the barn, in the data cited 
on pages 4 to 7, amounted to 14.7 per cent, while the average loss in 
the stacked hay was 18.6 per cent. 
An earlier statement from the same investigator regarding the aver- 
age amount of shrmkage does not agree with the one just reviewed. 
In speaking of the shrinkage of alfalfa he says: ‘‘The average shrink- 
age of well-cured alfalfa hay put into the stack or mow by loss of 
moisture should not be greater than 10 per cent.” ?* Again: ‘‘Men 
experienced in the handling of hay usually figure on about 20 per 
cent loss in weight after the hay is put into the stack or until it is 
sold or baled.” 
In these instances the implication is that there will be the same 
amount of shrinkage in the mow as in the stack, and in either case it 
‘should not be greater than 10 per.cent.”’ This estimate is about 
half of the amount of shrinkage figured by men experienced in 
handling hay in Kansas. 
From hen and other data presented it will be seen that ar gen- 
eral rule for measuring shrinkage would have to allow for such wide 
variations that it would cease to be a rule, while a rule based on the 
average amount of shrinkage would be of no value to the individual 
hay grower. | 
The shrinkage of hay is influenced by such variable factors as the 
weather, stage of maturity when harvested, and different methods 
of curing, and the resulting product varies from half-cured forage to 
dry-sunburnt hay. What the individual haymaker wants to know is 
approximately how much hay shrinks when cured by a given method 
under given weather conditions. For example, the man who lives in 
a dry, irrigated section and cures his hay in the swath and windrow 
wants to know the average shrinkage of hay cured under such condi- 
tions. Again, those who put their hay into the cock and leave it 
standing until it is really well cured, want to know how much hay cured 
in this manner will shrink. The average shrinkage of hay from all 
hay-growing sections means nothing to the individual. The results 
of experiments already made show such a wide variation that they 
are of but little value, if any, to the haymaker in any specified hay- 
erowing section. (See p. 7.) 
This being true, how then can the haymaker, who so desires, 
estimate the shrinkage of his hay? There are two ways of determin- 
ing shrinkage. First, when the hay is cured in a more or less hap- 
hazard manner—that is, when no definite system is used—or when 
unfavorable weather interferes with the curing, average samples of 
29 Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Bull. 155, 1908, p. 258. 
