A correspondent of the _Ohio Farmer_ reports an experiment in curing
clover, showing how he just missed breeding fire in his barn, and
illustrating the importance of ventilating hay mows:
In 1861 I used a horse fork for the first time. The haying season was
not a bright one, and our clover was drawn a little greener than usual,
and went into the mow in large and compact forkfuls. The result was
intense heating, and consequently very rapid evaporation and sweating of
the mow. On a bay holding ordinarily twenty tons we put at least thirty
tons, as every load at the top seemed to make room for another. The barn
was rather open, which allowed quite free evaporation on all sides as
well as at the top. The result was that I had very bright and excellent
hay at the bottom, top, and sides of that mow, but severals tons in the
center were as completely charred as though burned in a coal pit. What
prevented combustion has always been a mystery to me. Since that escape
from a conflagration, I have not deemed it prudent to put clover in so
green as to cause intense heating, or to fill a mow too rapidly. If we
haul six loads per day to one mow, weighing thirty hundred each, which
will shrink during the sweating process to one ton each, we have three
tons of water to be thrown off by evaporation.
If we continue to put on six loads per day until the mow is full, the
principal part of that moisture must rise through the entire mass. To
relieve the hay of moisture, I deem it best to have several places of
storage, and change daily or semi-daily from one to the other, thus
giving time for a share of the moisture to pass off. To facilitate this
evaporation and prevent the hay from reabsorbing it and becoming musty,
the best of ventilation is necessary. Ventilation above a clover mow is
as necessary as it is above a sugar or fruit evaporator. If there is
not open space and draught sufficient to carry away the moisture, it is
returned to the mow, and mould is the inevitable result. No ordinary
amount of drying will prevent hay from becoming musty if ventilation is
shut off during the sweating process. If a hole is cut through the floor
at the bottom of the mow near the center and under a ventilator in the
roof and a barrel placed over it and drawn up as the hay is mowed in,
thus leaving a hole from bottom to top, evaporation will be facilitated
and the quality of the hay improved. Salt thrown on, as the clover is
put in, to the amount of two or three quarts to the ton, will make it a
relish with stock.
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