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Show PAGE FIVE THE UINTAH BASIN FARMER Peppard Associated Beehive Seed Growers of the Uintah Basin. September 1, 1926. ARE YOU READY FOR HARVEST? that Seed Harvest Season is here. Are you prepared to take care of your crop?5 Are you going to be ready when the crop is? Are your fields clean? Are your sickles sharp, machines in running order, stack yards clean, etc. ? HAVE YOU GOT THE WEEDS AND CLOVER OUT? After last season seed buyers are going to think several times before they purchase Alfalfa Seed that contains sweet clover, large dodder, foxtail, millet nr any one of a large numbei: of other weeds mentioned in our letter of August 15. It is up to us as Seed Growers to produce a highly marketable produce. The farmers who plant alfalfa seed do not like to pay good money for weeds and clover in their alfalfa seed. We cant expect them to. We are working for than and if we expect to get their money we must give them what they want. The best start we can make is to see that our fields are clean and that our crops go into the stacks clean. WHEN IS A SEED CROP READY TO CUT? The stage of maturity at which' to harvest a seed crop presents a new problem every season and at different periods of the same season. In a general way OF THE BURRS SHOULD BE TURNING FROM RIPE and the other YELLOW TO BROWN at this time of year and up to the time when there is real danger of frost. Sometimes the earlier burrs contain very little seed and one should wait longer to give the later ones a better chance. On the other hand, the last fourth of the burrs are sometimes s get ripe. In this just setting on as. the first case there is probably very little use of waiting and taking the chance of losing seed already mature. Another condition the crop may have half-ripburrs, a fourth yellow and turning ripe and a fourth green and the season close to front. If one leaves such a crop stand and frost stays off he may have a fine big crop but if the frost t thoroughly ripe will be comes, all the seeds that brown. If, however, he goes as long as he dares and cuts his crop before frost, leaving it to cure in large piles a big percentage of the halLripened seed will mature with all the handling up to the hauling itself is done before the cut seed crop has time to dry and shatter. While the windrowing does roll the seed about some, the bunches are not dropped on the ground as with reaper or binder. Regardless of wlial machine the grower decides to use, he will nearly always find it advantageous to cut the patches as they ripen. This will keep, him abreast of his work with his seed cut ahead of frost and tacked out of the storms, and without any great lot to put up all at once at the last minute. Most successful growers cut and pile in the early morning while the alfalfa is tough and can be handled without shattering. . HAULING THE CROP When it comes to- hauling the crop the outfit must usually run all day. The farmer must figure to get ihiis crop hauled as cheaply as possible on the one hand, save the seed on the 'other. To save the seed, tight bottomed slips or wagon racks, or canvas covered ones out carefully. STACKING SEED TO STAND THE WEATHER e are-no- This same suggestion holds good for the binder, too. Binder enthusiasts point to the nice bundles to handle and the ease in threshing. They usually catch the scattered seeds in pans or boxes. Tie windrower on the mower is a favorite with Millard County Seed Growers. They bunch as they cut so DUCHESNE stack up you; eroip1 of seed you have two objects in Tp get your crop into shape so that it can be threshed rapidly and conveniently, and (2) to get it into such a shape that it will .not be seriously damaged by wet, stormy weather. Fortunately a stack that gives maximum protection from (weather dam-ag- e is alsoi a mighty nice stack to feed into the threshing machine as (well. Since threshing may be delayed time after tiimie it becomes mighty important to put the crop into gOCd stacks. As a preliminary, half an hours work with a Fresno to clean the stackyard will save a lot of time and seed when it comes to cleaning up after the stack is threshed. A plow furrow on the high side of the yard may save the bottom of the stack from getting wet in case of heavy storm or flood, too. " . If you build long stacks east and ,w)est there is a long side to the north that may be slow to dry after a rain or snowstorm. On tlTe other hand, ft the long way of the stack is north and south, the sun can shine on one long side in the morning and on the other one in the afternoon, thug getting bth sides dry at about the same tiim. The size of the stacks is quite important. They should not be as long ajsi a thresher drive belt or the exhaust of the tractor may be directly into .the stack, thus creating danger of fire. Neither should the stack be so wide that a man on thie side away from the feeder cannot pitch directly to the man who pitches intioi the feeder itself say not more than eighteen or twenty feet wide. But there is always room at the top and the higher the stack goes the more it will hold and in proportion the smaller the part of the crop required for a roc if. Naturally weather damage is greatest on the part of the stack exposed to the weather and the smaller that part, the smaller the damage. W)hether one used a derrick and slings or derrick and fork, or rolls his crop or pitches it, there are certain fundamentals which determine whether or not the stack will be good and give maximum protection freon the weather. Lay out the foundation of. the stack a little smaller than the finished stack is to be. Then starting about four feet from the ground build it gradually out until at about eight feet high, it is about the size you want, that, is put o,n the bulge. Keep the middle full and tramped at all times. The outside tiwo feet all rtqund should never be as high as the center and need not be tramped. Then when the stack settles the alfalfa will lie like shingles on a house or feathers on a duck and water will run off the stack and not into it. Carry the sides of your stacks up straight from the bulge level until you are ready to top out., Then draw in rapidly leaving a well tramped, rounded top something pp the order of a hip roof rather than a ridge. The tops do not blow off of stacks shaped this way and they do not settle with pockets to catdhi water or snow. Bear, in mind all the time, that if you make your stacks thirty feet high, your erf p will require only half as much top and take up1 only half as much ground as if you make them fifteen feet high. When you get to the bottom of the stack in threshing you will have only half as much ground to clean up, too. Wihen you view: three-fourth- cultivation. ' are just about absolutely necessary. For short haults and crossing H a good color and he wili be safe from frost damage to the crop as a whole. The time to cut the crop is a matter of judgment that may make a great deal of difference in the total yield and quality of the crop. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CUT YOUR CROP? Before you figure that ycir crop is ready to cut you should have your (plans made on how you are going to cut it. Most Uintah Basin Growers seem to be partial to mowreapers. A few use binders and a great many use ers and windrowers. If you have a reaper, you will find that it does the best work and leaves the bunches of seed in the best and keep shape if you run the guards close to the ground the platform as flat as the riature of your land will permit. Cutting close may cost a little more for threshing but it usually gets quite a lot of seed that would otherwise be run "over and leaves the field clean for the spring ' ditches slips are quick and cheap,, nor do they cost much. On the other hand a wagon will carry twice as much and not pull a bit harder so if you need to .move your stuff very far better figure it THREE-FOURTH- S ONE-FOURT- 2 ' (1) SAVE YOUR SEED CROP Your crop is practically grown now. It remains fler you to harvest it (1) to keep hffiee from weeds and clover, (2) to judge the proper stage of matiirily at which to cut it to save the most value in the seed, (3) to cut in such a way and at sch a time as to save the greatest percentage pf1 matured seed, (4) to haul in such a way as to save seed and expense, and (5) to stack the cflop in high round topped stacks, so that it iwill be convenient to thresh and so as to have the least possible loss from weather damage or in the cleanup. Call on us if we can help you. COMPANY SEED J. G. PEPPARD ROOSEVELT VERNAL t |