The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits: Its Uses as a Forage and FertilizerCoburn, F. D. (Foster Dwight)
History
The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits: Its Uses as a Forage and Fertilizer
Coburn, F. D. (Foster Dwight)
Alfalfa
“What it will do on other classes of soil, under excess of moisture, is
a matter of experiment; but where it is needed most--as above outlined,
there is nothing that has ever been tested under these adverse
conditions which can compare with alfilaria. This will be certified to
by every ranchman and cattleman in this section of Arizona.”
MEASURING HAY IN THE STACK
Some method of arriving at the quantity in a stack, rick, or mow without
weighing it, is, at one time and another, found desirable by everyone
who has to do with loose hay. There can be no absolute rule laid down
for this because of the varying compactness the hay attains under
differing conditions of coarseness or fineness, moisture, length of time
stacked or stored and the weight which has rested upon it.
For prairie hay stacked not less than thirty days a cube seven feet
square (343 cubic feet) is not uncommonly bought or sold as a ton; yet
seven-and-a-half feet square, or 422 cubic feet, are often made the
basis of estimating. The author is advised that in the alfalfa growing
districts of the Yellowstone valley it is the general custom to accept
as a ton 422 cubic feet of alfalfa hay if it has settled thirty days or
more. Also that hay-men find there is a noticeable variation between the
different cuttings. The first cutting will fall short of actual weight
more than the second, while the third cutting will hold up in weight,
and sometimes overrun. Prof. E. A. Burnett, of the Nebraska experiment
station, thinks an eight-foot cube, or 512 cubic feet, a fair figure.
Professor Ten Eyck says:
“The rules for measuring hay in the stack will vary according to the
length of time the hay has been stacked and the kind and quality of the
hay, and also according to the character of the stack. With alfalfa or
prairie hay which has been stacked for thirty days it is usual to
compute an eight-foot cube or 512 cubic feet as a ton. When the hay has
been stacked five or six months, usually a seven-and-a-half-foot cube or
422 cubic feet is calculated for a ton. In old stacks which have been
stacked a year or more a seven-foot cube or 343 cubic feet is allowed
for a ton.
“There are different methods of measuring a stack, depending upon its
shape and also its size. For a long stack or rick the usual method is to
throw a line over the stack measuring the distance (in two or three
places, and use the average) from the bottom on one side to the bottom
on the other; add to this the average width of the stack, divide this
sum by four (which equals one side of the square) and multiply the
quotient by itself and this product by the length of the stack; this
will give the number of cubic feet in the stack, which may be divided by
512, 422, or 343 in order to find the number of tons. For small, low
ricks the rule is to subtract the width from the ‘over,’ divide by 2,
multiply by the width and multiply the product by the length, dividing
the result by the number of cubic feet in a ton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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