254 



SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



If 



late blossoms will have no seeds or will have poorly developed seeds 

 cut too late, the early blossoms will have shattered off. 



The old-fashioned self-rake reaper is best adapted to cutting the seed 

 crop. It leaves the cut clover in bunches of convenient size, sufficiently 

 far from the standing clover for the team and machine to pass for the next 

 swath. These bunches of cut clover do not need to be disturbed until they 

 are ready to be hauled to the threshing machine. In the absence of the 

 self-rake reaper, a mowing machine with a buncher may be substituted. 

 If the buncher leaves the clover in the path of the team and machine, a 

 man should follow the machine with a barley fork and move the bunches. 

 Serious shattering in the cutting process may be avoided by harvesting the 

 crop in the evening or early in the morning, or on damp days. ^ 



The clover is generally threshed with a clover huller. This machine 

 should contain two cylinders. Concaves must be set rather close in order 



to remove all of the 

 clover seed from the 

 hulls. The seed being- 

 valuable, it is advised 

 to spread canvas be- 

 neath the machine to 

 save the clover seed 

 which shatters out in 

 the threshing proem. 

 Where threshing is 

 done on a barn floor 

 canvas will not be 

 required. 



The seed should 

 be thoroughly cleaned before being placed upon the market or used for 

 seed purposes. Nearly all foreign matter and weed seeds can be 

 removed by use of a suitable fanning mill. Occasionally there are seeds 

 present of about the same size and weight as clover seeds, and these 

 will be difficult to remove. Buckhorn seed is difficult to remove in this 

 way. It is a very troublesome weed in meadows and the following process 

 of removing it from clover seed is recommended. Thoroughly wet the 

 clover seed with water at about room temperature, and allow to stand in 

 the water for five minutes, or as much as eight minutes if the temperature 

 of the water is low. The water is then drained off and the moist seed 

 thoroughly mixed with sawdust; about four parts of sawdust to one part 

 of seed by measure will be required. Two or three minutes of thorough 

 mixing will cause the sawdust to absorb the free surface moisture from the 

 seed. The buckhorn seeds become mucilaginous and the sawdust adheres 

 to them. The mixture is now run through two screens, preferably in a 

 fanning mill. The upper one should be perforated with round holes 



1 Courtesy of U. S. Dept. »f Agriculture. From Farmers' Bulletin 495. 



A Clover Buncher Attached to a Mowing Machine. 1 



