APPLIANCES FOR STRIPPING. 



11 



Fig. 2. — Hand bluegrass stripper. 



METHODS — KINDS OF STRIPPERS. 



The bluegrass seed is Harvested both by hand and by horsepower 

 machines. When Kentucky bluegrass seed was first collected, it was 

 stripped off by hand and rubbed through sieves to clean it. At this 

 time there was scarcely any demand for the seed, and the amount 

 saved was consequently very small. The 

 first improvement was what is known as the 

 hard stripper (fig. 2), which soon became 

 generally used. This stripper consists of a 

 comb made of long, flat teeth set close to- 

 gether on the front edge of a small scoop- 

 like box. The stripper is held in one hand 

 and swung through the bluegrass (PL III, 

 fig. 1) and with a dexterous twist is brought 

 up again so that the seed stripped off falls 

 to the rear part of the scoop. It is still 

 used by colored men, women, and children 

 to gather seed along the roadsides, in waste 

 places, and in fields whose owners do not 

 themselves intend to harvest the seed. The 

 seed gathered b} r hand is brought to the 

 buyers in lots of 1 bushel or more and was formerly the best in the 

 market, but since the industry has been more fully developed the horse 

 machines gather all of the best of the crop and leave little of good 

 qualit}^ to be gathered by hand. 



The horsepower machines are of three kinds. The oldest and most 

 commonly used is the comb stripper (PL IV, fig. 1), 

 which consists of a platform hung on wheels and armed 

 in front with a heavy steel comb, similar to that used 

 in the hand stripper. The upper surface of this comb 

 is smooth, and when harvesting a laborer kneels on the 

 platform and cuts off the panicles as they are caught 

 by the comb. For this he uses a broad, flat knife 

 (fig. 3), which is passed back and forth over the comb. 

 The stripper, which takes a breadth of between 5 and 6 

 feet, is drawn b} r one mule and has arrangements for 

 raising and lowering the platform so as to accommo- 

 date it to the height of the grass. Since the culms are 

 not usually of uniform height, much seed is lost, even 

 with the best management. Where there are many 

 weeds, or when timothy is abundant, these strippers 

 can not be used to advantage. When the platform, which has raised 

 sides and back, is full, the seed, mixed with the grass, weeds, and sticks, 

 is put into large burlap sacks to be later hauled to the barn or grounds 

 where the seed is to be cured. As the seed comes from the stripper 



Fig. 3.— Knife used 

 with comb strip- 

 per. 



