WHEAT IN THE UNITED STATES 259 



The time of sowing is from September to April. 

 The latter date is true for the northern part of the 

 spring wheat district. The grain is sown either 

 by broadcast seeders located on wagon flats or by 

 disc drills. Broadcast sowing is more rapid than 

 drilling, but it does not result in an even covering 

 of the grain. 



Harvesting the Crop. - - Binders, headers, and 

 combined harvester-threshers are used for har- 

 vesting the wheat. The harvester-thresher, known 

 as the combine, is used only where the wheat 

 farms are very large. Elsewhere headers and 

 binders predominate. Since most of the farms of 

 the Sacramento valley have been subdivided into 

 smaller units and are given over to intensive, 

 diversified farming, eastern Oregon is now the 

 most important large-farm wheat district. In the 

 smaller farms of the Sacramento valley, wheat is 

 coming to have only a subordinate place among 

 the crops, and wheat production has decreased 

 since 1900 about 80 per cent. In the large-farm 

 district of Oregon, however, the average field 

 covers from 640 to 1000 acres, while farms ex- 

 ceeding 5000 acres are not uncommon. In some 

 counties more than half the farms exceed 1000 

 acres in size. There the combines are used almost 

 exclusively, and the common self-binder is seldom 

 seen. Since the successful use of the combined 

 harvester-thresher depends on large-sized farms 



