50 ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



Threshing facilities are not available for all at one time. A 

 modern outfit will thresh 1,000 to 3,000 bushels in a day. 

 Storing. — Wheat, if dry, may be stored wherever it can 

 be protected from rain or pests, if not in quantities so large 

 as to heat. After being stacked three or four weeks it is 

 not likely to heat. It loses only a small percentage by 

 shrinkage. Most grain is sold from the farm at threshing 

 time or soon afterwards. If wheat is held for a rise in price, 

 it may be that the shrinkage and loss of interest on money 

 invested will more than offset any possible gain. 



Questions: 



1. What can you say about the United States as a wheat-pro- 

 ducing country? 



2. What soil and preparation is best for wheat? 



3. How can the different food elements be supplied? 



4. How does it pay to select good seed? 



5. Explain how to make a good shock and stack. 

 Arithmetic: 



.1. What per cent of its crop does the United States export? 



2. If 2% of an average 40-acre crop is lost, what amount of 

 money would be lost if wheat is worth $2.00 a bushel? 



3. If the extra expense of stacking is 2c. a bushel, what would 

 it cost to stack 40 acres yielding 23 bushels an acre? 



4. If a man sows wheat with a drill 8 feet wide, how many miles 

 will he have to travel to sow 80 acres? 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 



Grades. — Market grades are determined by the Secretary 

 of Agriculture. There are six classes; namely, hard red 

 spring, durum, hard red winter, soft red winter, common 

 white, and white club. These are divided into subclasses 

 which are again subdivided. Weight, moisture, foreign 

 material, and damaged kernels are the chief basis for the 

 distinctions. The legal weight of a bushel is 60 pounds. 



Exports and Imports. — Russia, Argentina, Canada, the 

 United States, Roumania and Australia are the chief ex- 

 porters of wheat. For the five years from 1909 to 1913 in- 

 clusive Russia exported 155,000,000 bushels annually; 

 Argentina, 93,000,000; and the United States, 84,000,000. 

 The United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Holland and 

 Italy are the principal importing countries. Conditions 

 and figures have naturally been greatly disturbed during 

 the world war. 



