152 FIELD CHOPS 



According to recently published figures/ the average 

 cost of cutting an acre of wheat with the binder varies from 

 88 cents to SI. 17, according to the width of cut of the binder 

 used, the lower cost being for the 8-foot cut and the higher 

 for the 6-foot. The average cost of cutting with the binder 

 is $1.02, and of shocking, 21 cents per acre, making a total 

 of $1.23 for hai*vesting and shocking. To this must be 

 added the cost of stacking, about $1.00 to the acre. The 

 cost of heading and stacking, in sections where the header 

 can be used, ranges from $1.06 to $1..38, according to the 

 size of the outfit used. The total cost of cutting and thresh- 

 ing wheat with the combined harvester and thresher ranges 

 with outfits of various sizes from about $1.50 to $2.25 per 

 acre. As the cost of threshing must be added to the har- 

 vesting costs given above for the binder and the header, it 

 can readity be seen that the combine is the most economical 

 machine for harvesting wheat, but its use is of course limited 

 by climatic conditions to a comparatively small part of the 

 wheat acreage. 



RELATION TO OTHER CROPS 



192. Place in the Rotation. Wheat is one of the best 

 crops to use as a nurse crop for grasses and clover, because 

 it is sown early, at the tmie when grass seed starts best, 

 and because it does not shade the ground so much as oats 

 or barley. On this account, wheat commonly follows corn 

 and precedes a hay crop. In the main wheat-producing 

 sections, it is veiy commonly grown year after year on the 

 same land, without fertilization. Occasionally such land is 

 left without a crop for one year and summer fallowed: 

 that is, it is plowed once or twice, usuallj^ about midsummer. 

 This is a wasteful practice, unless it is followed for the purpose 

 of conserving moisture. Otherwise, it is usually discontinued 

 as a country develops and some system of crop rotation is 

 introduced. 



iDept. of Agr. Bui. G27, Cost of harvesting wheat by different methods. 



