CEREALS. 



281 



modern iron plough suited to all soils and situations, and still more marvelous, the steam 

 plough, walking like a thing of life across the broad prairie, turning up its numerous furrows, 

 at once, and leaving behind it a broad wake like that of a majestic ship 1 Compare the old 

 scythe and sickle of our fathers, slowly and tediously gathering up their crops, with our 

 mowing and reaping machines, cutting down their ten to twenty acres per day !&quot; In climates 

 less favorable than California, where wheat cannot be immediately threshed in the field, the 

 bound sheaves are usually stacked until ready for threshing, or, where only small crops are 

 grown, the grain is put in a barn or shed. In some localities it is customary to put it in small 

 stacks or small collections of sheaves, which gives the grain a better opportunity of drying 

 where it is not fully ripened. 



When the season has been quite dry, it is common for our large grain growers to thresh 

 the wheat without stacking it, but when it has ripened in very warm and rainy weather, the 

 grain is usually stacked and goes through the &quot;sweating&quot; process, which is a dampness 

 accompanied with considerable heat to the straw and grain, but which passes off after a few 



FARQUHAR S THRESHER AND CLEANER. 



days when the grain and straw become dry and ready for threshing, which could not be done 

 when the grain was damp, as the kernels would adhere to the straw. The color of the 

 kernel is somewhat changed, being brightened by this process, and it is thought to improve 

 the quality of the flour. Grain should be sufficiently dry. when stacked to prevent moulding. 



Threshing. The common practice with extensive grain growers at present, is to 

 thresh the grain in the field with machines driven by either steam or horse power. Before 

 the use of machines, all the grain was threshed by hand, which was a laborious practice, but 

 since the introduction of the various agricultural implements in present use, the amount of 

 labor requisite for the cultivation of agricultural products has not only been greatly lessened) 

 but the amount of crops produced vastly increased, resulting in a proportionate increase of 

 wealth and prosperity to the country. 



By the use of the thresher the farmer is enabled to prepare his grain for market in a 

 short time if desirable, when prices favor an early sale, thus saving the expense and labor of 

 storing it, and the possible consequent loss, besides the trouble of insuring it, to say nothing 

 of the loss of interest and annoyance of vermin that often attend its storage. 



