WHITE CLOVER 275 



heads may still be in full flower. Vigorous crops 

 may be cut with the self-rake reaper set to cut 

 low, otherwise many of the heads will not be gath- 

 ered. To facilitate this process, the ground should 

 be made quite smooth even before sowing the seed. 

 But the seed crop is more commonly cut with the 

 field mower, to the cutter bar of which a galvanized 

 platform is- bolted, the sides of which are about 



6 inches high. From this the clover is raked off 

 into bunches with a rake. These bunches should not 

 be large, and since nearly all the heads in them 

 will point upward, they should not be turned over 

 if rained on, but simply lifted up with a suitable 

 fork and moved on to other ground. 



The seed crop cures quickly. It may be drawn 

 and threshed at once, or it may be stacked and 

 threshed when convenient. If stacked, a goodly 

 supply of old hay or straw should be put next the 

 ground, and much care should be taken to protect 

 the clover by finishing off the stack carefully with 

 some kind of grass or hay that will shed the rain 

 easily. Since the heads are very small and numer- 

 ous, and since, as with all clovers, they break off 

 easily when ripe, much promptness and care should 

 be exercised in harvesting the seed crop. The best 

 machine for threshing a seed so small is the clover 

 huller. 



The yields of seed will run all the way from less 

 than 3 bushels per acre to 5 bushels, and some crops 

 have been harvested in Wisconsin which gave 



7 bushels per acre. Four bushels would probably 

 be about an average yield, As the price is usually 



