12 KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS SEED. 



only 35 to 45 per cent will make fancy clean seed. Part of this loss 

 is accounted for by the loss of water in curing and part by the chaff 

 and straw taken out by the cleaners. 



An improved form of the comb stripper (PL IV, fig. 2) has been 

 designed, but only six of them have ever been built. This has an 

 automatic knife for cutting off the heads as they are caught by the 

 comb and an elevator which carries the rough seed awa} T from the 

 comb and drops it into a sack fastened at one side of the machine. 

 When this sack is full the operator takes it off and. leaves it in the 

 field to be gathered up b}^ the wagons that follow. The use of this 

 machine makes a great saving of time, as there is no delay required 

 to empty, and one man and one mule can operate it. It will doubtless 

 admit of some mechanical improvement, but seems to work well and 

 economically. 



The rotary cylinder form of machine (PI. V, fig. 1) is of more 

 recent introduction, and is built on very different lines from the comb 

 stripper. It consists of a wooden cylinder which is studded with large 

 iron nails set in spirals, and which is hung in front of a platform upon 

 which the seed is thrown. When in use the cylinder revolves rap- 

 idly, and the panicles of the bluegrass are struck by the nails, the 

 seed, together with some straw and weeds, being thrown back into 

 the receiving box. When the box is full the seed is put into sacks 

 and hauled to the barns or curing grounds. With this form of 

 machine it is possible to collect seed on sandy land where the grass 

 would be pulled up by the roots with a comb stripper. Two mules 

 and one man are required to operate it. 



All of the styles are in use in Kentucky, but the old comb stripper 

 is the only one at all common. 



CURING. 



Forty } T ears and more ago, when only small quantities of bluegrass 

 seed were collected, careful gatherers placed the piles of rough seed 

 on large canvas sheets for one or two days during fair weather and 

 finished th? curing in the barns. This method is not practicable at 

 present on account of the larg-e quantity of seed harvested. 



PRESENT METHODS. 



There are two general methods of curing now employed: One may 

 be called the indoor method (PI. V, fig. 2, PI. VI, fig. 1) and the other 

 the outdoor method (PI. Ill, fig. 2, PL VI, fig. 2). In either case the 

 seed, mixed as it is with grass and weeds, is piled in ricks or windrows. 

 These are preferably as low and narrow as possible and of any con- 

 venient length. When the curing is done in a building the leng-th of 

 the rick is limited by the size of the building, and consequently when 



