HARVESTING 9I 



swath, and these are "straddled" by the team and the 

 wheels of the mower in the subsequent rounds. These 

 bunches are left for two or three days and then stacked. 

 There is little, if any, danger from mold or spontaneous 

 combustion in stacks of alfalfa cut for seed, but there is 

 danger of the seed heating in the stack if stacked when 

 damp. If bright, clean seed is expected, the stacks must 

 be well topped with slough grass, or covered with tarpau- 

 lins or boards, or given other protection. It is better 

 still to put the alfalfa intended for seed into a barn. 



One Kansas farmer in the western part of the state 

 reports that he used a self-binding harvester, shocked 

 the sheaves like those of grain, let them stand ten days 

 and then put in a mow, with no bad results. 



YIELDS OF SEED 



The yield of seed ranges all the way from two to thir- 

 teen bushels per acre, the normal yield in the seed regions 

 being four to eight bushels. It is threshed with ordinary 

 grain separators with seed attachments, although the 

 clover-huller is usually preferred. No threshing machine 

 cleans the seed satisfactorily or sufficiently, and a careful 

 recleaning is necessary. Fanning mills or seed-cleaners 

 are now made that will remove most weed seeds, seeds 

 of dodder, and all light-weight and probably infertile 

 alfalfa seeds. However, no raiser should by rights 

 thresh, to say nothing of marketing, the seeds of the 

 dodder or any other weed with his alfalfa; these should 

 be cut out of the field with scythe, sickle or knife a 

 month before the alfalfa is cut. 



The threshed alfalfa straw is worth only about half as 

 much as the hay, yet it makes excellent feed for horses. 



