12 BULLETIN 97*7, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
A knowledge of the labor requirements in haymaking will be neces- 
sary in arriving at the market value of uncut hay, as it will enable 
both seller and buyer to calculate how much should be deducted from 
the market price for this labor. 
MARKETING WINDROW OR COCK HAY. 
Selling hay in the windrow or in the cock is seldom practiced in 
the tame-hay sections. Of the two methods, selling cocked hay occurs 
oftener than selling in the windrow. There is little time to find a 
buyer when selling windrow hay; and if this method is to be fol- 
lowed, the producer should make the sale before the hay is cut. Hay 
in the cock may safely remain in the field longer than that in the 
windrow, but hay in the cock seldom has a good color if left for 
more than a week. The logical market for hay sold in the windrow 
and cock is the local market. Feeders of loose hay often purchase 
enough during haymaking time to last for several months, and it is 
this class of feeders who furnish a market for the comparatively 
small percentage of the hay crop sold in the windrow or cock. In 
arriving at the actual market value of windrow or cock hay it will 
be necessary to estimate how much to allow for the extra water con- 
tained in the hay. 
The average of all available analyses shows that the maximum 
water content of timothy hay ready to be put into the barn or stack, 
which has been cut early to full bloom, is about 29 per cent, and for 
that cut late bloom to early seed about 22 per cent. Under average 
conditions timothy probably does not contain more than about 20 
per cent of water when put into the stack or barn. The average 
water content of alfalfa and clover is a trifle higher than of timothy 
when ready to be put into the stack or barn. 
MARKETING BARN AND STACK HAY. 
The general practice in the timothy and clover section is to sell 
hay loose in the barn or stack. That is, the terms regarding price 
per ton are made before the hay is baled. This practice results in a 
very material loss to thousands of producers every year, and causes 
country shippers to lose money in many instances. Sometimes the 
producer alone loses, sometimes the shipper alone loses by this rather 
crude method of marketing. 
The trouble with this method is that the shipper can not tell what 
kind of hay he is buying by merely looking at the hay in the top 
of a mow or on the outside of a stack. The producer ordinarily 
has a knowledge of the percentage of the different grasses, clovers, 
Aveecls, stubble, trash, etc.. in his hay, but he is not likely to say much 
about this knowledge when trying to sell his hay. 
