£a/try  h  0*4 
fcJMBTO 
NEW  YORK 
Entered  as  Second-Class  Matter,  June  26,  1879,  at  the  Post 
Office  at  New  York,  N.  Y.,  under  the  Act  of  March  3,  1879. 
Published  Weekly  by  The  Rural  Publishing  Co., 
333  W.  30th  St.,  New  Y’ork.  Price  One  Dollar  a  Year, 
AUGUST  4,  1923 
Dehydrated  Alfalfa;  A  New  Development 
lORMER  EXPERIMENTS. — For  some  time 
past  reports  have  reached  us  of  a  new 
process  for  quickly  curing  Alfalfa  and 
clover  hay ;  in  fact  all  forage  crops.  This 
device  was  said  to  he  patented,  after  the 
plan  for  dehydrating  vegetables  and  fruit 
by  passing  a  current  of  warm  air  rapidly  through 
the  green  plants.  Many  years  ago  we  read  of  a 
device  in  England  which  seemed  to  promise  some¬ 
thing  along  this  line.  In  that  experiment  a  long 
shed  of  iron  roofing  was  built  so  that  the  green 
grass  could  be  dumped  into  it  through  adjustable 
covers.  A  furnace  was  located  at  one  end  and  at 
the  other  an  engine  with  a  form  of  air-pump.  The 
heat  from  the  furnace  was  thus  forced  through  the 
green  grass  taking  a  large  portion  of  the  moisture 
with  it.  The  shed  or  cylinder  was  not  airtight  and 
the  whole  thing  was  rather  a  crude  performance,  yet 
it  proved  of  considerable  help  in  the  wet  climate 
of  England.  The  plan  did  not  seem  to  find  favor 
with  English  growers,  owing  to  the  cost  of  the  out¬ 
fit.  In  many  cases  they  seemed  to  prefer  to  stack 
the  wet  hay  in  the  open  air,  cover  it  with  thatch 
and  put  weights  at  the  top.  In  fact,  this  seems  to 
be  the  English  idea  of  a  silo  and  the  making  of 
silage. 
CONDITIONS  IMPROVED.— A.  J.  Mason,  an  en¬ 
gineer,  and  H.  W.  Helmer  of  Illinois,  seem  to  have 
adapted  this  plan  and  made  it  practical.  It  would 
be  a  long  story  to  try  to  tell  how  this  idea  grew.  In 
the  Middle  West  it  is  necessary  to  keep  rolling  soil 
constantly  covered  with  some  living  crop  in  order 
to  prevent  erosion  or  washing  of  the  land.  That  is 
a  great  problem  in  the  Middle  West,  and  farmers 
have  been  forced  to  study  it  carefully.  Another 
consideration  was  the  desire  to  increase  the  farm 
yield  per  acre  by  making  use  of  such  crops  as  Al¬ 
falfa,  Sweet  clover  or  the  common  forms  of  Red 
and  Alsike  clover.  There  are  many  parts  of  the 
country  where  these  crops  can  be  grown  success¬ 
fully,  yet  they  proved  partial  failures,  because  the 
weather  is  bad  when  the  crops  are  fit  to  cut,  so 
that  it  is  impossible  to  make  a  high  quality  of  hay. 
For  example,  this  is  particularly  true  of  many  parts 
of  the  Southern  States.  The  first  crop  of  Alfalfa 
is  frequently  lost  because  of  the  constant  rains 
which  occur  at  about  the  time  of  the  first  cutting. 
Thousands  of  tons  of  excellent  Alfalfa  are  wasted 
because  of  this  trouble.  It  is  evident  that  a  prac¬ 
tical  system  of  artificial  evaporation  would  not  only 
overcome  this  trouble,  but  make  a  higher  quality 
of  hay.  In  true  evaporation  nothing  is  removed 
from  the  product  except  the  moisture.  The  color 
is  retained  and  this,  of  course,  makes  a  quality  of 
Alfalfa  far  more  desirable  for  making  mixed  feed. 
As  compared  with  sun-cured  hay  a  product  /thor¬ 
oughly  evaporated  by  some  artificial  process  would 
show  a  higher  percentage  of  protein  and  fat  with 
probably  less  of  fiber.  All  shattering  of  leaves 
would  be  eliminated,  and  as  the  plants  never  touch 
Busy  With  the  Peach  Harvest.  Fig.  Jf  '/l 
