FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 157 



aud handsomest wheat in the field ; it was also lighter in color, showing that 

 it had a thin bran. 



This satisfies me that if you are reasonably sure of good weatlier, and 

 intend to let your wheat go through the sweating process in the stack, you can 

 cut your wheat from two to four days earlier than most farmers do. I am also 

 satisfied that there is certain elements in the straw, especially if cut green, 

 that will enter into the kernel, while going through the sweating process, 

 making a desirable quality of wheat for the miller; and that would be entirely 

 lost, had this same wlieat been threshed from the shock, as many do. 



There is such a variety of machinery for the harvesting of onr small grains, 

 that it will be impossible for me, in the limits of this paper, to more thau 

 mention them ; leaving the merits or demerits of each machine for the farm- 

 er's own consideration. The cradle is the oldest implement for the harvesting 

 of grain, within the memory of your essayist; this tool is not quite out of date, 

 but its usefulness is growing less aud less, each year. A few of the old ''man- 

 killers" yet remain in use, where the grain is delivered in gavels bv hand. 

 There is no end to the variety of droppers, and self rakes, also harvesters and 

 self-binding harvesters. As I have said before, the limits of this paper will 

 not allow me to discuss the merits or demerits of these machines, therefore I 

 leave the subject with this remark : the handsomest harvesting, the cleanest 

 harvesting, and the harvesting that was most satisfactory to men, women, and 

 children, was done with a self-binding harvester. 



Having followed our wheat crop from the fallow field to its harvesting, let 

 us consider some of the operations of threshing, stacking, etc., that do not 

 tend to make A No. 1 quality of wheat for market. 



First in regard to the practice of threshing from the field without stacking.. 

 This I consider a bad practice. It is said by good authority that wheat must 

 go through a sweating process, and nowhere can this be as well done as in the 

 stack. If wheat is threshed before it goes through this process, it will sweat 

 and heat in the bin ; and if it is ground before going through this process, it 

 will sweat in the flour, causing it to sour and spoil. Again in the time of 

 threshing, threshers are always in a hurry, and in case of rain they usually 

 want to begin threshing as soon as the sun conies out, and the result is that 

 the farmer has a quantity of wet wlieat on his hands that no amount of labor 

 will make into JSTo. 1 wheat. A large amount of wheat is sometimes injured 

 by improper stacking, and so far as I am at present informed, the most of this 

 has been in what the farmer calls ricks — a stack Avhose length equals twice its 

 width, perhaps more. These ricks are more difiicult to build than a round 

 stack ; this you will see if you give the subject a moment's attention. A sheaf 

 of wheat is larger at the buts of the sheaf than it is at the heads, therefore in 

 building a round stack, you lay your sheaves in a continuous circle, drawing- 

 the heads of each sheaf back sufficient to make tlie sheaves lay close together, 

 or even overlap the sheaf that precedes it. In building ricks it is different ; in 

 laying along the sides of a rick the sheaves are laid straight, instead of on a 

 circle, therefore, when the buts of the sheaves lay close together, there must 

 be a space between the heads of the sheaves, that allows the driving storm to 

 beat in, causing leaks and damaging more or less grain. I have seen many 

 ricks built lengthwise east and west. A moment's thought ought to tell any 

 one that the north side of a rick built in this way would not receive the neces- 

 sary sunshine to dry out the driving storm. Experienced stackers can build 

 ricks and insure tlie saving of the grain ; none other should attempt to do so. 

 Some build round stacks that wet from top to bottom. 



