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REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



estimates of yield are obtained by the Census and Statistics Office 

 of the Department of Agriculture from local correspondents and the 

 results are tabulated and published in the Census and Statistics 

 Monthly, which contains, in addition, a vast amount of most use- 

 ful information about other countries. When made by men of 

 such extensive experience and sound judgment as Mr Angus 

 Maekay of the Indian Head Experimental Farm, such estimates 

 are absolutely reliable guides. After being in the ground from 

 112 to 120 days, the grain is ready for the reaper, and the final 

 yield is obtained from the threshing mills, and is calculated on the 

 actual acreage threshed. All threshers, whether private or travelling 

 outfits, are licensed, and are bound to return the number of bushels 



TEN-FURROW PLOUGH 



threshed, and the acreage on which they were grown. This, again, 

 is checked by the railway and elevator traffic in wheat, and the 

 utmost accuracy is thereby attained. 



Harvest time is a busy time in Canada. The cutting is of course 

 all done by binders, generally from 7 to 8 feet in width, 

 drawn by four horses. The threshing is largely done in the field 

 off the " stook " and the threshing-mill owners have enough to do 

 fulfilling their orders. The threshing-machine has a self-feeding 

 web, which obviates the necessity of any person feeding in. Re- 

 volving knives cut the binder twine ; two waggons discharge their 

 load at a time, and the sheaves are rapidly drawn up by the feeding 

 web into the mill, where the grain is threshed out, and the straw, 

 cut by the knives, is blown by a strong blast out through a spout on 

 to a bing along with the chaff ; the wheat taken by elevators, is run 



