go THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



hours if the weather is drying, and in two or three hours 

 more put into cocks and let stand for twenty-four to 

 forty-eight hours, as the weather may justify. It should, 

 however, be well cured and thoroughly dry when put in 

 the stack, or there is danger of heating, and stack- 

 heating seriously injures the vitality of the seed. It is 

 not uncommon, if extremely ripe, to leave the cutting in 

 the swath only an hour or a half-hour, then stack, and let 

 stand for autumn or later threshing. If allowed to 

 stand in the stack for about thirty days, the entire mass 

 goes through a sweating and curing process which makes 

 the threshing easier, while less of the seed is left in the 

 straw than would be if it had not stack-cured. In western 

 Kansas many seed raisers cut their seed crop with a self- 

 binder, put the sheaves in shocks the same day and thresh 

 in about ten days, or put it into a stack to await a con- 

 venient threshing time. They claim to secure 20 per 

 cent n,or. of Jseed in this way than if they cut with 

 the ordinary mower. Others cut with a mower having 

 a dropper attachment which leaves the alfalfa in small 

 bunches at the will of the driver, in the center of the 

 swath, and these are ^'straddled'* by the team and the 

 wheels of the mower in the subsequent rounds. These 

 bunches are left for two or three days and then stacked. 

 There is little, if an)^, danger from mold or spontaneous 

 combustion in stacks of alfalfa cut for seed, but there is 

 danger of the seed heating in the stack if stacked when 

 damp. If bright, clean seed is expected, the stacks must 

 be well topped with slough grass, or covered with tarpau- 

 lins or boards, or given other protection. It is better 

 still to put the alfalfa intended for seed into a bam. 



