The design and construction of a pneumatic harvester for crimson clover seed

The current problem in harvesting crimson clover seed is not new. As early as 1915, Mr. J. M. Westgate recognized the shattering tendency of the plant as the principal drawback in harvesting the seed crop. The problem is to reduce or to eliminate the possibility of an appreciable loss of seed caused by shattering both before and during the harvesting process.

The problem can be approached in two ways. First, a shatter resistant strain of crimson clover, which would be well adapted to direct combine harvesting, might be developed through plant breeding; this method of approach, however, would probably require several years of breeding and might even then not be successful. Secondly, as this study proposes to show, a satisfactory solution to the problem can be reached by making a change in the harvesting machinery.

The purpose of this study is to arrive at a design for an attachment to be used on a combine. The function of this attachment will be to recover shattered crimson clover seed during the direct combining process and to deliver the recovered seed to the threshing cylinder of the combine. In an effort to evaluate the design, an experimental attachment has been constructed and tested both in the laboratory and in the field.