SWEET CLOVER: HARVESTING AXD THRASHING SEED CROP. 19 



times with flails, sticks, or forks. After the plants have been struck 

 a few times they should be turned over and struck again. When the 

 seed is removed from the plants, the straw may be pitched to one 

 side, the canvas placed beside another portion of the windrow or by 

 another pile, and the operation repeated. It is not necessary to re- 

 move the seed from the canvas until its weight or bulk interferes with 

 moving the canvas. 



It is the practice in some sections of the country to place a well- 

 braced frame, covered with wire netting, on a sled and to flail the 

 seed on this frame. The netting used for covering the frame should 

 have meshes 1 inch or less in diameter. The sled should be at least 

 7 feet wide and 10 feet long and should have sides and ends approxi- 

 mately 12 inches high. Smaller sleds sometimes are used, but a larger 

 one is to be preferred if two or more persons are to flail on it at one 

 time. If the floor of the sled is not perfectly tight, it should be cov- 

 ered with canvas and the edges of the canvas thrown over the sides 

 and ends of the sled, so as to avoid losing any of the seed and to facili- 

 tate its removal. A sled so equipped may be drawn from pile to pile, 

 the plants pitched on it, the seed flailed from them, and the straw 

 returned to the land for soil improvement. 



Another method, very similar to that just described, is to place a 

 frame on a hayrack. The frame should be built sufficiently strong 

 and in such a manner that the person who is to do the flailing may 

 stand on it. It should be covered preferably with galvanized-wire 

 netting having half -inch meshes, and if this is stretched tightly it 

 will serve to strengthen the frame. If it is not practicable to make 

 the hayrack perfectly tight, it should be covered with a tarpaulin or 

 canvas. A wagon so equipped may be pulled from pile to pile or 

 along the windrows, where one person may pitch the plants upon the 

 frame, to be flailed by one or more persons standing on it. After the 

 seed is removed from the plants, the straw may be scattered easily 

 and quickly over the ground for soil improvement. 



Flailed seed should be cleaned thoroughly with sieves and fanning 

 mills to remove the inert matter and immature pods before it is sown 

 or offered for sale on the market. It is recommended that whenever 

 possible unhulled seed be run through a clover huller to hull the seed 

 or through an Ames hulling and scarifying machine to remove the 

 hulls and to scarify the seed. By this process the outer coat of the 

 seed is scratched or broken. The scarifying increases the percentage 

 of germination by facilitating the entrance of moisture. 



THE GRAIN SEPARATOR. 



A gram separator (fig. 13) is used more than any other machine 

 for thrashing sweet clover. This is because more grain separators 

 than clover hullers are found in localities where sweet clover is 



