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up in the most open and airy parts of the field. Of course these re- 

 marks apply to the management of wheat during an unfavorable sea- 

 son. It is always improper to commence reaping wheat, when there 

 are indications of approaching rain. 



The experience of this season will enable the farmer to perceive that 

 there are some kinds of wheat which resist moisture better than others, 

 and he will be warned by the injury received by tender kinds, to sow 

 in future those which are hardy, and well calculated to resist the efiects 

 of a wet season. 



Bearded wheat is liable to sprout, and is not able to withstand excess 

 of moisture so well as smooth or bald kinds. 



Farmers who have raised barley on rich land, know that it is some- 

 times very diflacult to harvest that crop properly. It is hable to heat in 

 the stack, or bam, and to be spoiled. The reason is, that the awn or 

 beard attracts the moisture and retains it for a considerable time. If 

 we wish to have wheat capable of resisting rain, we must entirely dis- 

 card every bearded kind and retain those smooth, hardy varieties which 

 have been proved capable of resisting moisture. 



Experience tells us that wheat should be reaped at least three or four 

 days before it becomes perfectly ripe, and whilst the grain is in that 

 middle state between softness and hardness which precedes maturity. 

 The results of various experiments tend to prove that wheat reaped in 

 this state makes better flour, and yields more than that which is allowed 

 to become perfectly ripe. Wheat intended for seed should be well 

 ripened. We hear a great deal about the wonderful predictions of 

 weather-prophets, and as a knowledge, or rather a fore-knowledge of 

 the changes in the weather is a matter of so much importance to the 

 farmer, we advise him to keep a weather prophet in his house and 

 to consult it every morning, with "silent eloquence" it will warn him 

 of approaching changes, and he will have an opportunity of securing 

 his hay, or stacking or housing his wheat before it is overtaken brj rain. 

 It will also caution him against commencing to mow down meadows or 

 reap wheat whilst rain is approaching. We need scarcely remark that 

 the prophet alluded to is a barometer. It is a humiliating fact, that 

 much more reliance can be placed on the indications of this useful 

 piece of mechanism than on the predictions of modern seers. Every 

 farmer should have a barometer. 



