Chapter 8
alsike seed than timothy; hence, when the former is grown for market, these plants should not be grown together. If, perchance, they should be so grown and the crop cut for seed, it would be well not to try to separate the seeds, but to sow them thus, as even when thus mixed the seed has a considerable market value.
The crop is ready for being harvested when nearly all the heads are fully matured. The bloom will then have left them and they will be characterized by a reddish cast. The earlier heads will have turned a dark color, almost black. Some bloom may yet linger on the later and smaller heads, but harvesting should not be delayed until these mature.
The seed crop can best be cut with the self-rake reaper, which throws off the sheaves unbound. If cut with the grain binder, the sheaves should not be bound. A sort of box attachment may be fastened to the cutter-bar of the mower, which will enable the workmen to leave the hay in sheaves, but to do this an additional hand is wanted to rake or pitch off the sheaves. The sheaves should be laid off in rows, and by system, rather than at random, for convenience in storing.
Usually, the sheaves are not disturbed until ready for being stored, but in case of very heavy rain it may be necessary to turn the sheaves, to prevent the seeds which come in contact with the ground from sprouting. The sheaves should be carefully lifted, otherwise many of the heads will break off and be lost. Because of this, it may be wise, frequently, to refrain from lifting the sheaves for loading in the middle of the day. Large forks, which may be run under the bunches, are more suitable than ordinary forks.
When absolutely necessary, the seed crop may be harvested with the field mower, as ordinarily used, but when it is thus harvested, the crop should be cut with all promptness as soon as it is ready. It must then be raked into winrows and lifted as hay is usually lifted. All the work of harvesting should be done in those portions of the day when the heads will break off less freely, and when at the same time the dew is not resting on the seed plants in any considerable degree. When, however, a crop of alsike is thus harvested for seed, many heads will break off, howsoever careful the workmen may be.
The seed may be threshed at once or stored. Storing under a roof is preferable to storing in the stack, but the latter method will suffice, if the tops of the stacks are well protected with a covering of marsh hay or of some other suitable material. When the seed is not threshed at once it is usual to defer threshing until cold weather, as with medium red clover, as then the seed is much more easily removed from the seed pod. Ordinarily, the work can best be done by clover hullers, the same as are used in threshing medium red and mammoth clover, but grain separators, with certain attachments, will now do this work in good form. Much care should be exercised in winnowing the seed. It ought to be so cleaned that it will grade as No. 1, and so bring the highest current price. Due care in this matter will make the major part of even ordinary seed bring the best price.
=Renewing.=--When the stand of the alsike is but partial, as, for instance, when young plants have failed, or partially so, on the high land, and are sufficiently plentiful on the lower land, a full stand may sometimes be secured by simply scattering seed where it is needed so late in the fall that it will not sprout before winter, covering with the harrow and then top dressing with farmyard manure well decomposed. But where the winters are so mild that the clover might be sprouted during some warm spell followed by severe weather, the seed should not be sown then.
On certain soils, as those naturally moist and porous, it may be possible so to renew alsike clover that it will produce hay or pasture crops almost indefinitely, by simply allowing some heads to seed every year and fall to the ground. In meadows, this may be done by not grazing after the hay has been harvested until other heads have formed and ripened. A limited number of these will thus form after the crop has been mown for hay. If the crop has been cut for seed, many heads will in any event be left upon the ground. The same result will follow when grazing the crop, if grazing is made to cease at the right time, and for a period long enough to allow a considerable number of heads to mature. This method of renewal will not prove a complete success on all soils, as, for instance, on those very stiff and very light.
Natural meadows that lie low may be changed in whole or in part into alsike meadows or pastures in some of the States, as has been previously intimated, by sowing seed on them in the early spring. (See page 202.) In some instances such change has been effected by sowing seed but once, and at the rate of from 3 to 4 pounds per acre. In other instances it has been found preferable to sow a less quantity for two successive seasons, lest one of the two should prove adverse to successful growth in the plants. But on some slough soils a stand cannot be secured by this method of sowing, more especially when they are composed of raw peat.