THIRD DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 271 



too green. The nutritive juices that would otherwise go through 

 a natural chemical change, making sugar and gluten, evaporate, leav- 

 ing simply the shrunken form of the kernel without the life-giving 

 and sustaining properties which are necessary to make good flour- 

 producing wheat. On the other hand, if wheat be allowed to stand 

 in the field uncut until it has passed the proper stage of ripeness, the 

 effect in our dry climate is almost or quite as bad as that which 

 results from cutting it too soon. Every farmer has experienced how 

 detrimental it is to hay to allow it to stand uncut till over ripe. 

 The leaves part with their substance, while the stems become brittle, 

 and hard and woody, and lose nearly all the qualities that if cut at 

 the proper time would go to make it good feed for stock. 



The effect is precisely the same on wheat straw, while the berry 

 loses its sugar and gluten and leaves only the form — the dry woody 

 substance — with a material reduction in weight and milling value. 

 These statements are not founded on mere conjecture, or theory, but 

 have been substantiated by actual analyses and field experiments. It 

 has been ascertained in this way that wheat will lose about eight per 

 cent, of its highest weight by standing in the field beyond the proper 

 time of cutting, or until it has arrived at the dead-ripe stage. Besides 

 this, practical millers assert that it will lose about five per cent, in 

 quality from the same cause. Estimated by these standards the loss 

 to the wheat producers of this district has not been less this year than 

 ten per cent, of the whole product of the district, or one million six 

 hundred and fifty thousand bushels, at one dollar and twenty-five 

 cents per one hundred pounds, equal to one million two hundred and 

 thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars; and the State has lost 

 double that sum, or two million four hundred and seventy-five 

 thousand dollars. This from shrinkage in weight and in quality. 

 How much have we also lost by shelling out by winds and by 

 cutting and hauling, consequent upon allowing our wheat to stand 

 till over ripe? 



These are questions for the serious consideration of our wheat 

 growers, and we trust they will not dismiss them until they have 

 decided upon practical remedies within the reach of all. 



Farmers have been too negligent of late in cleaning their wheat; 

 and we may also say that shippers have been too neglectful of the 

 condition of wheat shipped. These things have had a very bad effect 

 upon the reputation of our wheat in the markets of Europe, and 

 have caused great damage to our local millers. The time was when 

 California wheat stood at the top of the list of prices of all the wheats 

 of the world. The carelessness of which we have spoken has had 

 the effect to drop the quotations and prices of California wheat in the 

 Liverpool market from the first to the third and fourth on the list, 

 thus resulting in great damage to the growers. Our former proud 

 position can only be regained by extra care in cleaning on "the part of 

 the farmers, and extra care in grading and mixing on the part of 

 shippers. 



The matter of storage, and time to sell, we will dismiss, with the 

 single remark, that the farmer who has a large crop of wheat on hand 

 without the means of covering it from the weather at this season of 

 the year, has already almost as good as lost half the profits of pro- 

 duction; he has given himself away to the wheat speculator, who 

 always stands ready to take advantage of his necessities. And the 

 farmer who has a large crop to sell, and has not, independent of the 



