Ordinarily, it is not well to cut alfalfa immediately after a heavy rain, because the wet ground will operate against proper curing. Begin cutting in the morning, when the dew is well off. If the weather is fair, the tedder ought to follow about two hours behind the mower. It is a mistake to think that the sun is the great curing agent. Too long exposure to the sun makes the curing all the more unsatisfactory, besides drying the leaves in such a way that they crumble and drop off. As long as alfalfa remains “alive” water will be exhaled from the surface of the leaves and be pumped constantly from the stalks in a natural way much as though they were still standing. On the other hand, if newly cut alfalfa is spread too long in hot sunshine, the leaves are scorched to such an extent that transpiration of moisture from pores becomes impossible. Hence, that in the stalks can only escape by simple evaporation, which is very slow. By this means much undesirable, in fact harmful, moisture in the hay is brought to the barn or stack, although the leaves of the hay are dry and crisp. As J. E. Wing has well said in his bulletin (Bul. No. 129 prepared for the Pennsylvania department of agriculture), “there is a principle to be observed in making alfalfa hay that applies to making hay from all clovers. If it can be so managed that the leaves are not at once burned and dried to powder, the moisture from the stems is the more easily removed. Leaves are natural evaporators of sap; stems are not. Therefore, while the leaf has yet pliancy and some semblance of its natural condition, it is most efficiently carrying away the sap of the stem, but when it is dried up it no longer aids in drying the plant at all. Therefore, the best hay in all respects is made partly in the shade, in loosely turned windrows, or in narrow cocks.”