15 



does not always net the largest returns. Compared with spring view - 

 wheat, winter wheat is the more profitable crop on tilled sum- 

 mer fallow. In sections where winterkilling is common, seed- 

 ing in standing cornstalks or in small grain stubble without 

 preparation is often resorted to as a means of winter pro- 

 tection. 



Winter wheat is commonly sown at the rate of 3 pecks and 

 spring wheat of about 4 or 5 pecks per acre. AH seed should 



be drilled. 



HARVESTING. 



The time of harvesting wheat is controlled mostly by the 

 latitude and the seasons. The world harvests wheat in every 

 month of the year. In general practice wheat is cut when 

 the heads have turned yeUow but while the stems are still 

 slightly green and the kernel in the hard-dough stage. In the 

 greater portion of the wheat-producing area of this country 

 harvesting must be done in from 8 to 10 days to prevent 

 losses from shattering. Varieties grown in some sections, 

 such as the club wheats in the Pacific Coast States, do not 

 shatter so readily as the varieties commonly grown in the 

 Mississippi Valley and Eastern States. The state of ripening 

 influences the composition of the plant. The dry matter 

 in the entire plant increases up to maturity and the kernel 

 increases in starch content as it develops. 



In most countries harvesting now is done largely by means 33 

 of the self-binder, although the header, self-made reaper, and 34 

 combined harvester and thrasher also are used. In sections 35 

 where labor is cheap and the machines costly, cutting with the 36 

 cradle and binding by hand are still practiced. Immediately 

 after cutting and binding, the sheaves are put up into shocks 

 to protect them against dew, rain, and the sun, and to facilitate 

 curing and ripening in the shock. Round shocks usually con- 

 tain from 12 to 16 sheaves, of which 2 are used as a cap or 

 cover. Long shocks are made by placing 12 or 14 sheaves as 

 pairs in a row, and are used when the sheaves are wet, to 

 facilitate rapid and thorough drying. 



The crop is either kept in the shock until thrashed or is 

 stacked when sufficiently dry and thrashed later on. Stacking 

 is a greater safeguard against injury to the crop through bad 

 weather. In a properly built stack there is a slant from any 

 point in the interior toward the outside. A few days after 

 stacking, a slight heating of the grain, commonly called sweat- 

 ing, sets in, and this may continue for one or two weeks. If 

 the wheat is not allowed to sweat in the stack the thrashed 

 grain will sweat in the bin. 



