GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 439 
and best quality of seed may be secured by stacking or thrashing 
the crop as soon after cutting as it is in fit condition. 
Care should be taken not to stack or thrash when the straw is 
too green or tough and the seed not fully dry. It requires even 
more time to cure properly the seed crop of alfalfa than it does to 
cure the hay crop; the stems are largely stripped of leaves and 
cure slowly and pack closely in the stack. If stacked green, the 
alfalfa is sure to heat and thus injure or destroy the vitality of 
the seed. Also if thrashed green or damp much seed will be lost, 
since it will not hull properly, and if damp seed is stored in bulk 
it may heat and spoil. To cure the alfalfa fit to stack, from three 
to seven days of favorable weather are required, and a longer 
period if it is thrashed from the field. When bound and shocked 
the crop should have a couple of weeks of drying weather to cure 
before stacking or thrashing. It is safest to put into narrow 
stacks, and it is also a good plan to mix with layers of dry straw, 
especially if the alfalfa is bound and there is any indication that 
the straw is damp or green in the middle of the bundles. The 
straw improves the ventilation of the stack and absorbs the ex- 
cessive moisture. The practice of using straw in this way, how- 
ever, is seldom practicable—better stack only when fully cured. 
To prevent loss of seed in stacking or thrashing, racks are 
sometimes covered with canvas and canvas is spread under the 
machine or along the stack in order to catch the shattered seed 
and the bolls which break off; also care must be taken to handle 
the alfalfa carefully in pitching and loading. Large growers of 
alfalfa often stack the seed crop in the field with the sweep-rake 
and hay-stacker. Those who practice this method usually cut with 
the mower and leave in bunches or windrows, drying the alfalfa 
quickly and stacking as soon as possible. This is a rough way to 
handle the crop and occasions more or less loss of the seed, but 
where a large area is handled it may be more profitable to handle 
the crop in this way than by a slower method and run the risk 
of damage from wet weather. When the alfalfa is left in gavels 
or bundles, as thrown off by the harvester, it should be taken up 
with a barley fork. There will be less shattering of seed, how- 
ever, if the alfalfa is in small compact bunches, not toe heavy to 
be lifted in one forkful. 
When the alfalfa is stacked, unless thrashed within two or 
three days after stacking, it should be allowed to pass through 
the sweat before being thrashed, which requires several weeks or 
months. The best plan is to cover the stacks well to prevent dam- 
age by rain, and thrash late in the fall when the weather is dry 
and cool, In order to secure seed for fall sowing it is often desir: 
