14 KENTUCKY BLUEGKASS SEED. 



being damaged or entirely destroyed in proportion to the amount of 

 heating allowed. When cleaned such seed is very dark-colored and 

 always retains some of its mustiness. 



RELATIVE MERITS OF INDOOR AND OUTDOOR CURING. 



Whether indoor or outdoor curing is best depends mainly upon the 

 weather at the time of curing, and, also, somewhat upon the floor 

 space available for indoor work. The seed will unquestionably cure 

 much quicker when put outdoors and exposed to the free circulation 

 of air and the direct rays of the sun than when put in buildings in the 

 shade. This is only the case, however, when the weather is clear, for 

 whenever it rains the seed outdoors can not be stirred on account of 

 the wet ground and the layer of wet seed on the outside, and in the 

 meantime the center of the rick begins to ferment and heats very 

 rapidly. The injury does not come from the rain itself, but from the 

 heating, as seed is seldom if ever found wet more than one-half inch 

 deep, even after a hard rain. When the curing takes place under 

 cover the seed can be stirred constantly without reference to the 

 weather, and although the process is slower it can be kept in good 

 condition and free from injury by heating. The indoor curing is at 

 all times safer if there is floor space enough, but it requires more 

 labor and takes longer. Those curing indoors are, however, inde- 

 pendent of the weather and can stir the seed whenever necessary. The 

 greatest danger in connection with indoor curing is that, owing to 

 restricted floor space, the ricks will be made so large (PL VI, fig. 1) as 

 to develop a high temperature before they can be turned. 



Both systems have as advocates equalbr successful and careful han- 

 dlers, and under each good seed is made, the quality depending more 

 on the conscientious care given b} r the curer than upon the method 

 employed. 



In fair weather seed may be cured outdoors in a week or ten days, 

 while two or three weeks are required for indoor curing. 



CLEANING. 



The present development of the bluegrass-seed trade has been ren- 

 dered possible by means of improved cleaning machinery. Before the 

 civil war all bluegrass seed was cleaned by hand, negroes rubbing it 

 through wire screens, their hands being protected by old boot legs. In 

 the early years of the century lime and sand were used to assist in 

 cleaning the seed; thus, Nicholson, in -the Farmer's Assistant, pub- 

 lished in 1814, says of Poa pratensis: "It yields plenty of seed, but 

 this is difficult to sow on account of the filaments causing them to 

 adhere to one another. To remedy this it is recommended to put them 

 in newl} 7 slaked lime to separate them and then to be rubbed in dry 

 sand." 



