Alfalfa in Kansas. 123 



depreciates the market value of seed, the usual loss from this source be- 

 ing estimated by some growers at 5 to 15 per cent or more. Hence the 

 wisdom of early threshing. 



THRESHING. 



Threshing is best done during dry weather, and while the crop is 

 perfectly dry. Eighty-six per cent of the growers reporting prefer to 

 thresh direct from the shocks in the field, if the weather permits and a 

 machine can be obtained. It is not wise to wait long for a machine after 

 the crop is dry, a week or ten days being the limit expressed by some. 

 Only fourteen per cent prefer to stack and thresh later. When threshed 

 direct from the field the seed is no longer subject to the weather, there 

 is less handling, and no danger from stack-burning or molding. On the 

 other hand, as claimed by some, if the crop is permitted to go through 

 the sweat in the stack more seed may be threshed out. However, the 

 gain of this additional seed may in a measure, if not wholly, be offset 

 by the loss in shattering caused by the extra handling. There are no 

 data as to the relative merits of seed threshed direct from the field as 

 compared with seed threshed from the stack. Bound alfalfa is gen- 

 erally threshed from the field. Where the seed crop is stacked it is al- 

 ways allowed to go through the sweat, and is threshed at some conven- 

 ient dry time in fall or winter, most often during October or November. 



FIG. 117. Threshing alfalfa seed from the stack. 



Reports indicate that fully 75 per cent of the growers consider the 

 regular alfalfa or clover huller the best machine to thresh alfalfa seed 

 with. Most of the later models of grain-threshing machines may be 

 equipped with special alfalfa attachments, and as many as 25 per cent 

 of the growers reporting think it the best machine to use. The old- 

 fashioned thresher is generally too wasteful for economical use. One 

 grower, from Trego county, states that he can get only about one-half the 

 seed when using one of these machines. A properly adjusted grain 

 separator, with attachments, will do pretty good work, however, if rightly 

 used. 



