ALIv ABOUT AIvFAIvFA. 34 1 



as all this tends to rattle the .seed out of the legumes, 

 and much of it will be lost in this way. Stack in con- 

 venient piles, or into one great stack, as may be 

 preferred, after it is dried thoroughly, and let it go 

 through the sweat at least three weeks before thresh- 

 ing. If placed in large stacks care should be taken to 

 put in stack ventilators, so that the gases will escape 

 without danger of burning, which has a tendency to 

 injure the seed. If threshed in an ordinary machine 

 all the teeth on the cylinders must be used, and it often 

 pays to run it through twice. An alfalfa huller is very 

 necessary to get the best results, and seventy-five 

 bushels is a big day's work. Stock will generally eat 

 the haulm or leavings. The first crop is best calcu- 

 lated for seed, unless perchance it be too rank, when 

 the bolls will turn brown prematurely and the seed 

 itself may not be worth saving. Insedls may injure 

 the first crop, in which event the second will have to 

 be depended upon. If hay is hauled from the field on 

 a hay-rack place a wagon cover at the bottom to catch 

 all the loose and falling seed. We usually allow the 

 swaths to remain from three to five days before hauling 

 in the hay, but this is incident upon the almost constant 

 days of sunshine and cloudless skies that we enjoy here 

 in the far west. Seed alfalfa must never be raked, and 

 we deprecate even placing it in cocks. The less hand- 

 ling the better, in avoiding waste. An average yield 

 of seed is all the way from eight to thirteen bushels to 

 the acre when grown under irrigation. In very large 

 areas only half the first crop may be reserved for seed, 

 taking the other half from the second stand. When 

 alfalfa is grown for seed it needs but very little irriga- 



