Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1905-10-31
The Shrinkage of Hay.
SOME STATION EXPERIMENTS.

Mr.. A. C.. Stiles asks whether Others
have weighed clover green, then dried il
and re-weighed to determine the shrink.
age. This has been done at the Michigan
Experiment Station where, in 1897, 1851
pounds of freshly-cut clover made 1860
pounds of dry hay, shrinkage of nearly
80 per cent. The hay was weighed again
the following November, when it weighed
$50 pounds less. A writer in the COun'
try Gentleman in 1896 reported similar
experiment wherein 1920 pounds OF
green clover dried down to $50 pounds
of cured hay, a shrinkage again of 81
per cent.
A more interesting matter is the
shriukage of hay between fall and spring.
A farmer ought to know what difference
to make in the price of the hay of these
two seasons, or rather how much more
he ought to ask for hay in the spring to
make the receipts equal to what they
would have been at a given price in the
autumn. Here are some data on that
point:
Naturally the skrinkage depends on
the condition of the hay when put into
the NOW and also on the climate. Five
tons of fairly dry timothy hay was stored
on the 9th of June. For time it was
covered with unthreshed grain. Six
months later, Jan. 20, it was weighed
and found to have lost 6S4 pounds, or Z
per cent. Again on the 9th of July, 5000
pounds of dry hay was drawn from the
field. 1t was reweighed after lying in
the NOW until Feb. Is following, when
it had lost I78 pounds, or 1871 per cent,
A farmer put 1905 tons of hay in the
barn in early summer, and pressed 1t
out the following January. He baled
1905 tons, and had ton and half of dirt
and chaff under the press. This hay
was too ripe when cut, and here shows a
shrinkage of PIT per cent.
At the Utah station stack was put
up July 20, 1892, weighing 4565 pounds.
1t was weighed again in the April fol-
lowing, when it had actually gained
per cent of the original weight. A stack
of clover hay gained in the same time 10
per cent of it's weight. These trials
were made in the climate of Utah, and
the results are no guide rs to what would
happen in the eastern states.
At the Missouri station, 561S pounds
of timothy hay was stacked as drawn
from the field. The next spring it had
shrunk l2.5 per cent. The hay drawn
from the same field and put in the barn
had shrunk the next spring but per
cent A stack of second-growth clover
hay shrank 80 per cent by the following
March. Hay hauled to the barn in July
rather too dry apparently, clover with
some timothy, was reweighed in Novem-
Der and had shrunk but 3.6 per cent
Mammoth clover hay, very dry when
raked, but allowed TO cure in the field
one day and one night, shrank by the
middle of the next February 1l.2 per
cent.
AS to the proper percentage of water
in cured hay, Prof. Atwater thinks that,
in Connecticut at least, timothy hay re-
tains as much as II per cent of moisture,
clover hay IA per cent and corn fodder
% per cent.
Some tests of the shrinkage of cord
wood may also be interesting. Quoting
from the Report of the Michigan Board
of Agriculture for 1901:
"On Feb. I, 1896, five cords of freshly
cut green beech lS-inch slab body wood
weighed 14,336 pounds, or 2S67 pounds
per cord. 1t was then piled one cord
high in a single rank, with free exposure
to the sun and air. On the 7th of July
following, it weighed 1872 pounds, a
shrinkage of nearly one-half. The pile
meantime had settled about l-2 inches.
After weighing, the wood was replied,
when it was found that the five cords
had shrunk one-third of cord in bulk.
1t was then allowed to stand undisturb-
ed until Oct. 10, when it weighed 7l4S
pounds, or little less than one-half its
weight when green. The season had
been an unusually wet one, although
there was no rain for several days pre-
ceding these weighings. Ten cords of
ls.inch beech and maple slab wood, cut
the preceding winter, was split and piled
in July. 1t then measured exactly eleven
cords. &C. ID. Smith in Country Gentle
man.