GRAIN AND ITS CULTIVATION. 135 



openings at suitable intervals, in a horizontal direction. 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 cut on the preceding page, Fig. 35, shows a frame 

 for stacking, combining the advantages of circulation through 

 the centre, and an elevation which secures the grain from 

 the depredations of vermin. Fig. 36, shows a stack com- 

 plete, which is better made and more neatly finished than is 

 too often done in this country. It is an important item of 

 husbandry, so to stack grain as to avoid loss from the ad- 

 mission of rain. No inconsiderable share of the stack, is 

 thus frequently destroyed. 



The straiv and chaff of wheat should never be wasted. 

 This is the most nutritious of the cereal straws. It yields 

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

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

 and particularly, when early harvested and well cured. 

 Turneps and straw are the only food of half the cattle, and 

 most of the sheep, throughout Great Britain, and no where 

 do they thrive more rapidly, or better remunerate their own- 

 ers, 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 threshed on the field and not wanted for cattle, it 

 should be scattered over the ground, and either plowed in or 

 suffered to decay on the surface. 



VARIETIES OF SEED. 



Much depends on the judicious selection of seed. Some 

 soils are peculiarly adapted to wheat growing, 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 hardier kinds should 

 be propagated. Careful and repeated trials with different 

 varieties of seeds, on each field or on those which are simi- 

 lar, 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, 



