HAIRY-VETCH SEED PRODUCTION. 21 
Very little trouble is experienced with the machine, and it seldom 
needs repairs. It can be set on a barn floor or in any convenient 
place and requires no adjustment except to see that the base is level. 
After three or four years’ service the insides of the spirals are some- 
times worn so smooth that the rye tends to slip over the edge along 
with the hairy vetch. This condition can be remedied by roughen- 
ing the insides of the spirals 
with emery cloth or sand- 
paper or by smearing a nar- 
row band of soap or hard 
grease along the inside of 
the outer edges. The soap 
retards the rye just as it is 
about to jump over, but does 
not hinder the hairy vetch. 
The same effect can be se- 
cured by slipping thin strips 
of wood over the edgesof the 
spiralis at intervals, so as to 
deflect the rye toward the 
center. 
The daily capacity of a 
single spiral separator va- 
ries from 25 to 80 bushels of 
mixed seed, depending upon 
the facilities available for 
feeding and discharging. On 
the farm, where the work 
must usually be done by 
hand, 50 bushels is consid- 
ered a good day’s work. 
One man usually handles a 
fanning mill and a spiral 
separator at the same time, 
thereby reducing somewhat 
the cost of both operations. 
In most of the larger ele- 
vators and seed houses the 
machine is arranged SO that Fic. 6.—A spiral vetch separator, the most efficient separator 
the grain is fed from a bin for removing rye or other small grain from vetch. 
above and discharged into three bins below. In this way the opera- 
tion becomes practically automatic. All that is necessary to start the 
machine is to open the slide at the top, when the grain starts down 
through the spirals and continues to run without interruption as long 
as there is any seed in the feed hopper. Often the machine is started 
in the fall and run for days or even weeks at a time without stopping, 
