CHAPTER V. 

 HARVESTING 



EARLY CUSTOMS 



Risks and Customs of the Harvest Period. Man has a regu- 

 lative control that is sufficient to insure a crop over so few of 

 the essential conditions of wheat growing that there is always 

 a very large element of risk involved from the time the wheat 

 is sown until it is harvested. Increasing control due to ac- 

 cumulating knowledge acquired from past experience continu- 

 ally diminishes the risk. When a balance of all these things 

 has been struck, however, the fact remains that the modern 

 wheat grower is playing with many factors, anyone of which 

 may cause a partial or complete crop failure. Extremes of 

 heat and cold ; drought ; superabundance of rainfall ; destructive 

 hail or wind storms; floods; parasitic plants, such as smut and 

 rust; predatory insects, birds and rodents; fire; various dis- 

 eases and other unfavorable conditions may defeat all means 

 to success at the farmer's command. Thus wheat raising, like 

 most of the extractive industries, has a large aleatory element 

 which cannot be eliminated, though it may be reduced to a 

 constant factor by means of the insurance principle, to which 

 we will give subsequent attention. 



This risk which is involved reaches its maximum at the har- 

 vest period. In most regions wheat must be promptly har- 

 vested when it is ripe. If not then attended to, not only is 

 the period of risk prolonged when there is no possibility of 

 further gain, but an actual loss is sustained under the most 

 favorable conditions, and the grain is also more susceptible to 

 the destructive influences of its environment. The grain will 

 now be shelled or lodged by wind previously harmless, many 

 birds seek food in the ripened fields, and the rain causes the 

 seed to lose color and to sprout. The ripening grain must be 

 closely watched, for the determining change in the heads may 

 occur between one day and the next. The field must usuallyj) 

 be harvested within two weeks. 



In wheat raising the whole year's toil meets with no reward 

 before the harvest. If this is lost, the fruits of all previous 



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