131 



AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



Threshing is usually done among extensive farmers, with 

 some one of the large machines taken into the field, and 

 driven by horse power. The use of these enables the farmer 

 to raise some of the choicest kinds of grain, whose propaga- 

 tion before their introduction was limited, from the great 

 difficulty of separating the grain from the head. He can 

 also push his wheat into market .t once, if the price is high, 

 which is frequently the case immediately after harvest ; and 

 he saves all expense and trouble of moving, storing, loss 

 from shelling and vermin, interest and insurance. For the 

 moderate farmer, a small single or double horse machine, or 

 hand threshing in winter, where there is leisure for it, is 

 more economical than the six or eight horse-thresher. 



Mowing or Stacking- When stored in the straw, the 

 grain should be so placed as to prevent heating or moulding. 



FIG. 35. FIG. 36. 



Unless very dry, when carried into the barn, this can only 

 be avoided by laying it on scaffolds, where there is a free 

 circulation of air around and- partially through it. If placed 

 in a stack, it should be well elevated from the ground ; and 

 if the stack be large, a chimney of lattice or open work 

 should be left from the bottom, extending through the centre 

 to the top ; or a large bundle may be kept at the surface in 

 the middle, and drawn upwards as the stack rises, thus leav- 

 ing an opening for circulation, entirely through the centre of 

 the grain. Additional security would be afforded bysimilai 



