114 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



Mice and rats may be avoided by laying the foundation of the 

 stack on posts or stones elevated beyond their reach, and 

 covered at the top with projecting caps. Weevils sometimes 

 affect the grain after storing. These may be almost if not 

 wholly prevented by thorough cleanliness of the premises 

 where the grain is stored. 



The strait) and chaff of wheat should never be wasted. 

 This is the most nutritious of the cereal straws, and yields 

 good fodder to cattle in time of scarcity, and is always valu- 

 able for this object when cut and mixed with meal or roots ; 

 and particularly when early harvested and well cured. Tur- 

 neps and straw are the only food of half the cattle and most of 

 the sheep throughout Great Britain, and nowhere do they 

 thrive more or better remunerate their owners than in that 

 country. It is of great use also as bedding for cattle, and as 

 an absorbent of animal and liquid manures. It furnishes in 

 itself the best manure for succeding grain crops ; containing 

 large proportions of the salts or ash required. When thresh- 

 ed on the field, and not wanted for cattle, it should be scat- 

 tered over the ground and either plowed in or suffered to de- 

 cay on the surface. 



VARIETIES OF SEED. Much depends on the judicious selec- 

 tion of seed. Some soils are peculiarly adapted to wheat grow- 

 ing, and on these should be sown the finest varieties, which 

 are generally of a more delicate character. Wheat on other 

 soils, is liable to many casualties, and on such only the har- 

 dier kinds should be propagated. Careful and repeated expe- 

 riments with different varieties of seeds, on each field or on 

 those which are similar, will alone determine their adaptation 

 to the soil. There are several choice varieties of winter 

 wheat in cultivation in the United States, some of which 

 stand higher in one, and some in another section. Some in 

 high repute abroad, have been introduced into this country 

 and proved to be valuable acquisitions, while others have 

 a found on trial, decidedly inferior to many of the long 

 adopted varieties. Experiment alone will enable the farmer 

 to decide as to thehi value for his own grounds, however 

 high they may stand elsewhere. When of a fine quality and 

 found to produce well on any given soils, their place should 

 not be usurped by others till repeated trials have shown their 

 superiority either in yield or quality. But when the acclimar 

 ted grain is inferior, other seed from remote distances, even 

 if no better in quality, ma^ r properly be substituted for it, as a 

 decided benefit has been found to follow an exchange. 



