Green and Air‐Dry Weights for Determining Hay Yields of Varieties of Alfalfa 1

T most rapid and accurate methods in harvesting plots and in computing yields are desired in conducting experiments with alfalfa. The practice of computing the forage yield of alfalfa from green weights is rapid but is accurate only when there are no differences in the percentage dry matter between plots. Procedures in which it is assumed that all strains, treatments, replications, or plots contain the same percentage of dry matter decrease in precision with increases in differences between the above listed variables. At times it may seem expedient to report forage yields of alfalfa as air-dry hay. 3 The accuracy of this m~ethod is dependent largely upon the variability, if any, of the strains in dry matter content when air-dry. The experiments presented were designed to ascertain the differences of a number of strains and varieties of alfalfa in percentage dry matter of (a) the green forage and (b) the air-dry forage.