OCR Text |
Show J Storing and Marketing the Seed. , A good method is to sack the seed I and st or in a' dry place, which may 1 he kept free from mice and .rats. It I is slntail by some growers, however, 1 that mice and rats will not touch JU alfalfa seed provided they have fnac til access to other grain. 9 The seed should he cleaned with a m good fanning mill before selling, and Jl all light seed, dirt and weed seed rc- I moved as far as possible. This extra im work is usually well paid for in the M better price received for clean seed. m If the alfalfa is green or damp when 9 threshed the seed had best be spread S twelve or cightccii inches deep on, a 9 tight floor in a dry place and shov- fl eled over once or twice to dry it bc- fl fore it is cleaned and sacked. Prime B alfalfa sccF should have a bright, B clear, light golden or slightly grccn- W ish color. Seed which has been wet W or bleached in the field will bo dark- ur in color, while healed seed will M have a brownish dead color, indicat- W ing its lack of vitality. lfrom the grower's standpoint, the best time to sell the seed is when the price is highest. Prime seed usually sells at a high price early in the fall, when there is apt to be a shortage of Seed for fall sowing, a lid again early in the spring about March I seed often brings the highest price, depending de-pending largely upon Hie supply and demand. Alfalfa seed retains its vitality vi-tality for several years if carefully stored and saved, and it may often be to the interest of the grower, when seed is plentiful ancV the price low, to hold the seed for a better market. Aside from its use for sowing, alfalfa al-falfa seed has -a standard market value in Europe for dyeing purposes, being used in the printing of cotton fabrics, and large quantities of seed have been exported from this country tp supply the foreign demand. For different years and in different parts Of the country the price ranges from 7 to 15 cents per pound. A buscl of alfalfa sed weighs sixty pounds. Three or four bushels of good seed per acre is a profitable crop. The average crop in the most favored alfalfa al-falfa regions ranges from five to seven sev-en bushels per acre", while yields as high as twelve bushels per acre have been ncporlcd. A yield of less than two bushels per at:rc is an unprofitable unprofit-able crop. |