THE CULTURE AND USES OF BROME-GRASS. 59 



HARVESTING THE SEED. 



The seed is mature and ready to cut from July 10 to August 1, and 

 the stajre of maturity is commonly termed the " brown " to distin- 

 guish it from the " ])urple,'' or the stage when the grass is cut for hay. 

 Haryestinjr the seed is a comparatively easy matter and differs yery 

 little from the harvesting of ordinary cereals. The binder and the 

 header are both used, but the former is the most generally employed. 

 Allien the binder is used the grass is usually cut as high as possible 

 and the bundles ])ut in long shocks to facilitate curing. They are 

 allowed to remain in shocks until thrashed. When the grass can be 

 cut sufficiently high a crop of hay is obtained from the stubble as soon 

 as possible after the seed is removed. This hay is of very fair quality, 

 as it contains a larije quantity of ijreen leaves. 



While the binder is most commonly used in harvesting, heading 

 appears to be the best method. When it is used, almost all of the 

 grass is left for hay, which makes quite an additional yield fi'om the 

 meadow. After heading, the seed is put up in well-built shocks for 

 curing, and is usually left there from ten days to two weeks or even 

 longer. If conditions are exceptionally favorable, it is possible to 

 thrash directly from the header box. This is not frequently done, 

 since the thrashing machines are not usually ready at that time of 

 the year. The stubble is cut for hay as soon as possible after head- 

 ing, and yields on an average about a ton to the acre. 



Occasionally the grass is cut with a mowing machine and put in 

 ordinary stacks for thrashing. This method is not considered 

 desirable on account of the waste and difficulty in handling. 



THRASHING. 



Brome-grass is thrashed with the ordinary machine having special 

 riddles and with the wind shut off from the fan to prevent the seed 

 from blowing over. Difficulty is often met with in getting the 

 cleaned seed to elevate properly in the machine, and in many cases 

 the elevator is removed and the seed delivered from the spout at the 

 bottom of the separator. The seed is likely to contain a great 

 amount of chaff and broken pieces of straw after thrashing. This 

 trash is sometimes quite difficult to separate from the seed, and it is 

 necessary to run it through a fanning mill. By withdrawing the 

 bundles from the cylinder after the heads have been thrashed, the 

 seed is kept comparatively free from straw and chaff. This method 

 involves much work and is hardly practicable where a large quantity 

 is to be thrashed. 



Ill— V 



