THRESHING 77 



The Time of Threshing. The time of thresh- 

 ing, like that of mode of harvesting, is directly 

 related to prevalent rainfall conditions of the 

 respective districts. In regions subject to fre- 

 quent rains during the harvest season, only a 

 small part of the wheat is threshed out of the 

 shock, most of it being stacked as soon as dry 

 enough and threshed at opportune times later in 



FIG. 48. A steam tractor threshing outfit pulling into a field. 



the autumn. Sometimes it is not threshed until 

 late in the winter. This method of threshing from 

 the stack rather than from the shock is the one 

 preferred because wheat can be stacked when it 

 is too damp to be threshed. Another reason is 

 that stack-cured wheat is not likely to suffer 

 injury in storage, while wheat threshed out of 

 shock must be very dry if it is to be safely kept. 

 Wheat goes into sweat from 3 to 7 days after 



