THE NEW CLOVER SEED THRESHER.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7122, 19 July 1888, Page 3

THE NEW CLOVER SEED THRESHER.

|By Our Reporter.] Last season it became an established fact that, through the agency of the humble bee, clover seed, possessing all the germinating powers and as gooaa sample as the best English or American seed, could be grown in New Zealand. But the question of successfully threshing and saving this seed, at least in the Ellesmeredistrict, was not solved until this season. Of course we could have fallen back on the old primitive method of threshing by the flail, but although by this means a"farmer might save enough seed for his own use, it would be impossible to produce it in quantities, or at a price to put into the market against imported seed. Being convinced that a machine to thresh clover seed would be a grofitable investment and also a means of ringing in a good revenue to tlie farm ccouut, Mr H. S. Gardiner, of Puroa and Irwell, while on a visit to England last season, procured one of the latest and best machines he could buy for this purpose, bringing it out with tiim in time for his son, Mr H. Gardiner, to try and work this easou.

At this gentleman's request your reporter journeyed out to Mr Hight's farm at Brookside, to see the machine commence its work, and make clover seed a marketable and highly profitable farmer's production. Before describing the machine I will endeavour to give a slight idea of the best land and condition of crop to produce good seed. The land should be rich, sandy loam, laid down not less than two years, and fed off like ordinary pasture till the third season, when it is saved for hay and cut in December. It i 3 now that the crop for seed commences to grow, and everybody knows what a thick second growth of clover at once springs up, particularly if it be anything like a damp season. This crop is full of seed, and any farmer that lias taken a head of red clover and rubbed it out into his hand, will form a good estimate of the large quantity of seed per acre. The clover will be ready for cutting in March (Mr Hight cut his on March 20th), and is cut and harvested the same as ordinary hay, the only care necessary being to cut it when quite ripe, and before the heads commence to break offthe stalks. The hay is stacked in the usual manner—loose, and before being threshed with the clover-thresher must be put through the ordinary combine to break the heads off the straw. This preparation makes the clover pods similar to the line hay always found at the bottom and round any haystack after being cut down. The principal feature about the clover thresher is its drum, which has a tremendous grinding power on the pods holding the seed. This may be better understood from the circumstance that it takes as much power and steam to drive the machine as it does to thresh Tuscan wheat, and if the stuff is fed in too fast it brings the engine up standing. The trial of the threshing at Mr Hight's was most satisfactory. As before stated the clover was cut in March, from six acres of wet swamp land, and was estimated at six tons of clover hay, tho first cut of hay in December resulting in a stack of 18 tons. This crop is not by any means an extraordinary one, as the grass in a number of places was drowned out with the wet, and was full of Yorkshire fog, yet the yield of seed is a moat' profitable one, being 1 ton of good seed from six acresor 3731bs per acre; estimating this at sixpence per lb, it leaves the hanef some return of £9 ($s 6d. The cost of threshing with the clover thresher comes to 14s an hour, during which time the machine puts through 240 lbs, at a cost of a fraction under three farthings a pound. This includes all labor connected with handling, bagging, &c, The seed used by Mr Hight was American red clover and was sown in November 1880. There is a very strong blast working over the screens and riddle, and any clover that is too large to pass through the first riddle is shaken down through a slanting table or shoot into the drum the second time or until e v ery portion is thoroughly ground up, so that there is absolutely" no waste. Several of the principal farmers in the Ellesmcre district inspected the machine at work and expressed themselves highly satisfied with the work done and tho sample of seed. There is not the slightest doubt that iv a few years instead of importing, we shall be large exporters, besides supplying our own market.