THE WHEAT CULTUR1ST. 345 



moisture in the grain so rapidly, that its quality is 

 seriously injured, for making the best quality of flour. 

 Besides this, the grain shrinks far more than it would, 

 were the heads permitted to cure in the shade. If the 

 straw be bound in bundles, and the sheaves be set in 

 neat stooks and covered with caps of some kind, which 

 shade the grain, the soft kernels will cure gradually, be 

 more plump, and make more and better grain, or flour. 

 Mr. E. A. King, a practical farmer of King's Ferry, 

 Cayuga County, N. Y., penned the following instructive 

 suggestions for the " Cultivator and Country Gentle- 

 man " : "I believe it is a conceded fact that wheat, be- 

 fore it is perfectly ripe, gives more and a better quality 

 of flour. Still the yield is owing greatly to the manner 

 in which the grain is cured, after being cut. Every 

 intelligent wheat -grower knows that grain of any kind, 

 cut in a greenish state, and allowed to remain in swath 

 to cure, will cause the kernels to shrink and be of an 

 inferior quality ; while if bound almost immediately, 

 or before it gets dry, and put up in round shocks and 

 capped, the grain will receive the juices remaining in 

 the green straw, and become round and plump. To 

 prove the benefit derived from keeping the heads of 

 grain from being exposed to the air, let any one who 

 has practised round shocking examine the heads of the 

 top cap sheaf, and he will find the berries much less 

 plump and heavy than those taken from underneath. 

 Where wheat is struck with rust, early cutting, imme- 

 diate binding, and round shocking will often save the 

 crop, when if put up in long shocks, as many farmers 

 do, the damage would be great. This is especially the 

 case with spring wheat, as this variety is with us more 

 apt to rust than the winter variety, as the time of ripen - 



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