132 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



less work and heedlessness will not be so indelibly stamped upon his 

 work. 



By lapping the disc harrow one-half and driving carefully, allowing 

 the outside disc to turn over the small strip left unturned in the center 

 of the preceding round, an even uniform surface is secured, and if the 

 seeding has been properly done there will not be a single streak in the 

 field. 



But it requires careful driving to hold the outside disc exactly in line 

 at all times, turning over the uncut center strip, for if the disc is 

 allowed to vary, even slightly, a depression or ridge is made, proving 

 at once the incompetency of the driver. 



The double discing should be followed by thorough harrowing and the 

 more of this the better, not one or two strokes, but four, five, or half a 

 dozen, crossing and crossing again until the ground is perfectly smooth 

 and also well packed. 



In dry weather it is advisable to follow the harrow with a crusher or 

 roller, and this is especially true if grass seed has been sown with the 

 cats. 



I have already referred to the careless manner of handling, or rather 

 the failure to handle promptly and in a proper manner the several levers 

 of the self-binder and I will add that with standing grain the reel as a 

 rule is allowed to hang too low and too far back to insure a square 

 butted sheaf. 



Long shocks containing a dozen sheaves are to be preferred to round 

 shocks, and in building the shock the sheaves, one in each hand, should 

 be grasped firmly by the hands, and placing one on each side of the knee, 

 the butts of the sheaves should be brought down with force upon the 

 stubble. With a hand on each side, the tops of the sheaves should be 

 brought closely together, the opening through the center of the shock be- 

 ing of suSicient size that a twelve year old boy could crawl through 

 without moving the sheaves. 



Shocks put up in this manner dry out quickly, even after a rain, thus 

 enabling the farmer to get his stacking done at the earliest possible 

 moment after cutting, and thus prevent loss by exposure to the weather. 



While threshing from the shock may save some labor, it is a pernicious 

 practice that has cost the farmers of Iowa millions of dollars, but not- 

 withstanding all this loss it seems that as with saving seed corn in a 

 proper manner, some people will not learn by experience, no matter how 

 dear it may be bought. But it is not only the loss sustained by unfa- 

 vorable weather, but the grain threshed from the shock is never so good 

 as when properly stacked and allowed to stand for six or eight weeks 

 before threshing, the sweating process taking place in the stack instead 

 of the bin. Grain well stacked and allowed to sweat and dry before 

 threshing is invariably brighter in color and plumper in appearance 

 than grain threshed from the shock and will keep much better in the bin, 

 being less liable to mold and keeping free from dust. 



But while j'^ou are not giving audible expression to your thoughts, I 

 know that you are agreeing with me in what I have said, but you are also 

 saying to yourself, this is all very well, but what about oats lodging, 

 which is the most serious condition with which we have to contend. 



