186 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



may of course be shocked up in the same field. The 

 residue of the grass uncut is then mowed with the mow- 

 er and made into hay. This method may be the best 

 to follow wdien the seed stems rise up thinly, which is 

 apt to be the case after the crop has been cut for two or 

 three successive seasons. 



A second method cuts the crop and cures it as though 

 it were being cured for hay. When thus managed, the 

 cutting and handling of the crop when being cured 

 should not be done in the driest and hottest part of the 

 day, to avoid undue shelling. This method should only 

 be resorted to, at least in climates where the harvest 

 weather is usually good, when the facilities for harvest- 

 ing by one or the other of the methods given are not 

 present. 



A third method uses a stripper. This method is prob- 

 ably a good one, but it has not as yet been much prac- 

 ticed. It should certainly prove an expeditious way of 

 getting the seed, as it would preclude the necessity of 

 threshing the crop, and there would seem to be no serious 

 objections to it. It is probable, however, that as with 

 blue grass seed, much care would have to be exercised 

 in drying the seed, lest its germinating power should be 

 injured through overmuch heating. After the seed had 

 been thus removed, the crop would still furnish fairly 

 good hay because of the abundance of the foliage below 

 the seed heads. 



A fourth method cuts the crop with the binder. The 

 sheaves are not tightly bound. They are cured in 

 shocks, preferabl}^ in those that are long rather than 

 round. When dry the crop is threshed at once or is 



