RED TOP. 163 



tumn it will serve as a mulch to protect and encourage 

 the growth of winter and early spring grazing. 



When the crop is cut with the binder, which is the 

 method usually adopted, it may be threshed at once. 

 As it will keep well in the mow or the properly made 

 stack, threshing may be deferred when desired until the 

 busy season for work is over. In threshing with the 

 ordinary threshing machine, the wind must be partly 

 shut off, as the seed and chaff are light. Special screens 

 must also be used in threshing. When the seed is be- 

 ing stripped care must be taken as with blue grass to 

 store it in a way that will prevent heating and the loss 

 in germinating power that would follow. (See pp. 102 

 and 103.) 



Ordinary winnowing mills well equipped with sieves 

 and' properly run may be used in separating the chaff 

 from the seed, but to do this work in the very best 

 form and with dispatch, special sieves are desirable. 

 For home use, and especially when the seed has been 

 stripped, no better plan can be adopted than to sow the 

 seed in the chaff. As red top seeds freely, the seed may 

 be cheaply secured by the farmer in this way and conse- 

 quently liberal quantities of the seed may be sown. 



The states that are said to furnish red top seed in the 

 largest quantities at the present time are those of Illi- 

 nois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Since how- 

 ever this grass is indigenous to the low lands of Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, it would seem probable 

 that in time much seed would also be grown in these 

 and in some other states. The production of seed may 

 ho set down at 8 to 20 bushels per acre. 



