8 BULLETIN 977, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
PRODUCTION OF UNDESIRABLE MIXTURES. 
The production of undesirable mixtures for the market will cause 
a loss to the producer as long as the market does not want such 
mixtures. In other words, certain mixtures are discriminated 
against regardless of their true nutritive or feeding value. The pro- 
ducer may know positively that certain mixtures are palatable and 
contain more total digestible nutrients than the kinds now in greatest 
demand, yet he is powerless to make feeders realize their value. 
The introduction and general use of a new kind or mixture of hay 
is a very slow, laborious undertaking. It has taken a long time to 
create a demand on the market for clover, even alsike clover, and it 
took even longer for alfalfa to find its proper place on the market 
as a feed for horses. 
At present " grassy " hay is discriminated against very severely 
and is often referred to as "trash," yet the producer, in many in- 
stances, prefers this kind of hay to straight timothy. If such hay 
as redtop, properly cut and cured, and timothy, containing appre- 
ciable amounts of fine grasses, properly cut and cured, are generally 
found to be equal to or better than straight timothy, then the dis- 
crimination against them will gradually disappear. But this will 
take time, and until the true worth of such mixed hays is determined 
by actual feeding test it is folly for producers to continue to expect 
to get top prices for this kind of ha}^. 
It is only when hay is very scarce and consequently high in price 
that certain kinds of " off-grade " hays are profitable to the pro- 
ducer. Good timothy with a mixture of perhaps 30 per cent of fine 
grasses having a natural green color, better than the timothy itself, 
has been graded as " sample " hay, which commands a very low price 
in comparison with that of timothy hay. 
An undesirable mixture often causes considerable trouble. This 
trouble begins when the producer undertakes to dispose of it to the 
country shipper or to ship it himself. In the first place, to the pro- 
ducer it is first class or No. 1 hay, and in his opinion should com- 
mand top prices. If he sells it to an experienced shipper, the price 
received will not be satisfactory to the producer, because he knows 
that it is perhaps excellent in color and is. to him. the best grade of 
hay. Under the circumstances he is likely not to believe the shipper 
when told that such hay is not No. 1, but is " sample " hay under 
present rules for grading. If the producer becomes suspicious, or is 
dissatisfied with the price offered by the shipper, and attempts to 
market it himself, he may think that the receiver is trying to deceive 
him when he claims that the hay is not of the grade called for in the 
contract. About the only way to avoid trouble with undesirable 
