Sweet Clover: Harvesting and Thrashing the Seed CropCoe, H. S.
Science
Sweet Clover: Harvesting and Thrashing the Seed Crop
Coe, H. S.
Sweet clover -- Harvesting
The plants are carried into header wagons or barges in the same way
as grain. When a heavy crop is cut it will be necessary to have two
men in the barge to handle the plants. The floor of the header wagon
should be made perfectly tight, or it should be covered with a canvas
or tarpaulin, so as to save the seed pods which shatter.
When the crop is cut at the proper stage it may be placed directly in
stacks or ricks without danger of heating or molding, provided the
ricks are covered or topped with some material which will shed water
and are built upon a foundation, so that air may circulate under them.
Native grass or green sweet-clover plants of the first year's crop will
serve very nicely for topping the stacks.
It is the custom of some people to place the barge loads close together
in individual stacks so located that they may be hauled quickly and
easily to the thrashing machine. On other farms enough barge loads
are placed together to make a rick approximately 10 by 10 by 40 feet
in size. When each barge load is placed in a separate stack it is
necessary to load the plants again, so as to haul them to the thrashing
machine. The shattering of seed pods and the extra labor caused by
reloading and by hauling the plants may be avoided for the most part
by placing the crop in ricks large enough for a day's thrashing. It is
good practice to place such ricks in pairs sufficiently close together
for both to be pitched directly to the feeder of the machine. When this
method is employed two days' thrashing may be done without moving the
machine.
The header binder, consisting of an attachment placed upon the header
to bind the cut plants, has been used successfully in cutting the
sweet-clover seed crop.
THE CORN HARVESTER.
Corn harvesters are proving to be efficient machines for cutting sweet
clover which has made a growth too large to be cut with a grain binder.
Even when the field has been seeded broadcast a 3-foot swath may be cut
with the corn harvester, provided the gathering or divider points are
extended to collect the plants. This may be done by fastening to each
point a piece of wood or iron about 18 inches long. When a corn binder
is used no more seed is lost from shattering than when an ordinary
grain harvester is employed, unless the later is equipped with special
pans and extensions, for the reason, primarily, that the portions of
the plants which produce most of the seed extend above the gathering
or divider boards and are not crushed. When a 5-foot or larger growth
is cut with a corn binder, the plants are tied below the seed-bearing
branches.
In the semiarid sections of the country a limited quantity of sweet
clover is planted in rows for both forage and seed production. In such
a case the seed may be harvested with a corn binder. (Fig. 11.)
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Cutting sweet clover for seed with a corn
harvester. This field had been seeded in 30-inch rows.]
STACKING THE SWEET-CLOVER SEED CROP.
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