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shrinkage will ‘‘run into dollars 
THE SHRINKAGE OF MARKET HAY, o7 
the price per ton is agreed on before it is baled. For these and other 
reasons it seems evident that if the hay grower takes advantage of 
what he considers a good offer for his hay he may safely forget about 
any so-called loss because of shrinkage. 
_ This view was also held by Failyer ** 30 years ago. Writing in 
1888, which was about the time that many of the earlier experiments 
were being made to determine the rate of shrinkage in hay, he said, 
in discussing the results of a number of shrinkage experiments, made 
with several kinds of hay: ‘‘The conclusion to be drawn from these 
results is that if the hay is not obviously green and ily cured, no 
great shrinkage need be feared.” 
Failyer did not favor advancing the price of hay as it cured out in 
the stack or barn to make up for the loss of water. Instead of using 
the price of hay at harvest time as a basis for computing the value 
of throughly cured hay in winter, he advocated the reverse. He 
fioured the value of newly made hay from that of hay after shrinkage 
had taken place. In discussing an experiment in which there was 
shown a loss of 10 per cent of water, and which he regards as an ex- 
ceptional case, he says: ; 
Even in these excepted cases the shrinkage is much less than many suppose. * * * 
This [referring to a 10 per cent loss] means that a ton of the hay as hauled in [field 
cured] would weigh only 1,800 pounds in the winter, and that if a ton of this hay 
weighed in midwinter is worth four dollars, the ton weighed at the time the sample 
was buried [when put into the barn] would have been worth three dollars and sixty 
cents. This would be worth considering; but in most cases the loss is much less than 
this. 
= LOSS TO SHIPPER AND COMMISSION MERCHANT. 
Shrinkage sometimes causes a loss of money to those who make a 
business of dealing in market hay. Such loss may be entailed when 
hay is held in storage, in the bale, waiting for a favorable market. 
The amount of shrinkage in hay that has passed through the sweat is 
not large, yet if large quantities of hay are held in storage the total 
” very quickly. 
Loss of this kind is most likely to be sustained in storing hay that 
has been baled from the windrow or cock and bought immediately. 
When those who handle this class of hay dispose of it quickly they 
suffer no serious loss of money through shrinkage. In other words, 
as long as the hay is kept moving from shipper to commission man, 
and from him to retailer or consumer, no one person who handles the 
» hay will lose very much on account of shrinkage, except possibly the 
consumer. If the hay is held in storage the loss may sometimes be 
made up by disposing of it on a good market. Those who make a 
business of speculating in hay count on the price advancing suffi- 
ciently to cover the loss from shrinkage and allow them a profit 
besides. : 
31 Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. First Annual Report, 1888, pp. 117-121. 
