HARVESTING 9I 



YIEIiBS OP SEED. 



The yield of seed ranges all the way from two to thir- 

 teen bushels per acre, the normal yield in the seed regions 

 being four to eight bushels. It is threshed with ordinary 

 grain separators with seed attachments, although the 

 clover-huller is usually preferred. No threshing machine 

 cleans the seed satisfactorily or sufficiently, and a careful 

 recleaning is necessary. Fanning mills or seed-cleanefs 

 are now made that will remove most weed seeds, seeds 

 of dodder, and all light-weight and probably infertile 

 alfalfa seeds. However, no raiser should by rights 

 thresh, to say nothing of marketing, the seeds of the 

 dodder or any other weed with his alfalfa; these should 

 be cut out of the field with scythe, sickle or knife a 

 month before the alfalfa is cut. 



The threshed alfalfa straw is worth only about half as 

 much as the hay, yet it makes excellent feed for horses, 

 colts and calves. Or, if put into stacks of alfalfa of the 

 third cutting, in alternate layers, it may be fed to any 

 stock to good advantage, as it is relished quite as well 

 as ordinary third cuttings, notwithstanding its lower 

 feeding value. 



THE THmi) CUTTING EOR SEED. 



Seed raisers in some instances, especially in Kansas, 

 use the third cutting for seed, claiming that the pods are 

 more uniformly filled and the seeds more generally fertile, 

 due to the assistance of the bees in poUenation. They 

 claim, too, that this cutting has fewer weeds and weed 

 seeds than its predecessors ; also that they are thus sure 

 of two good hay crops, while often if they use the second 



