THE CULTURE AND USES OF BROME-GRASS. 50 
HARVESTING THE SEED. 
The seed is mature and ready to cut from July 10 to August 1, and 
the stage of maturity is commonly termed the “ brown ” to distin- 
euish it from the “ purple,” or the stage when the grass is cut for hay. 
Harvesting the seed is a comparatively easy matter and differs very 
little or the harvesting of ordinary cereals. The binder and the 
header are both used, but the former is the most generally employed. 
When the binder is used the grass is usually cut as high as possible 
and the bundles put in long shocks to facilitate curing. They are 
allowed to remain in shocks until thrashed. When the grass can be 
cut sufficiently high a crop of hay is obtained from the stubble as soon 
as possible after the seed is removed. ‘This hay is of very fair quality, 
as it contains a large quantity of green leaves. 
While the binder is most commonly used in harvesting, heading 
appears to be the best method. When it is used, almost all of the 
grass is left for hay, which makes quite an additional yield from the 
meadow. After heading, the seed is put up in well-built shocks for 
curing, and is usually left there from ten days to two weeks or even 
longer. If conditions are exceptionally favorable, it is possible to 
thrash directly from the header box. This is not frequently done, 
since the thrashing machines are not usually ready at that time of 
the year. The stubble is cut for hay as soon as possible after head- 
ing, and yields on an average about a ton to the acre. 
Occasionally the grass is cut with a mowing machine and put in 
ordinary stacks for thrashing. This method is not considered 
desirable on account of the waste and difficulty in handling. 
THRASHING. 
Brome-grass is thrashed with the ordinary machine having special 
riddles and with the wind shut off from the fan to prevent the seed 
from blowing over. Difficulty is often met with in getting the 
cleaned seed to elevate properly in the machine, and in many cases 
the elevator is removed and the seed delivered from the spout at the 
bottom of the separator. The seed is likely to contain a great 
amount of chaff and broken pieces of straw after thrashing. This 
trash is sometimes quite difficult to separate from the seed, and it is 
necessary to run it through a fanning mill. By withdrawing the 
bundles from the cylinder after the heads have been thrashed, the 
seed is kept comparatively free from straw and chaff. This method 
involves much work and is hardly practicable where a large quantity 
is to be thrashed. 
111—yv 
