36 



FARMERS' REGISTER— REAPING GREEN WHEAT. 



state, except in those years, when the pressure 

 of other larm business made it necessary to let the 

 wheat wait some days longer. ItJ therefore, 

 this opinion is held by me improperly, it is not for 

 want of experience, but for want of judgment. 



The universal practice in my neighborjiood be- 

 fore 1821, was to wait for the grain to be hard; 

 and if there was any doubt of the straw being 

 perfectly sapless and dry, the wheat was left on 

 the ground, without binding, for one or two days, 

 to be dry enough to stack." My green reaping, 

 when first commenced, was fully nine days earlier 

 than was usual — and it was ])ronounced then that 

 I was destroying my crop, by reaping it so green. 

 My practice is" still condemned by many, who, 

 however, have gradually and perhaps unconscious- 

 ly, advanced the commencements of their har- 

 vests, until they are not more than two or three 

 days behind mine. 



The first year of my early reaping was most 

 fortunately chosen. Ai'ter weather generally fine 

 until the latter part of June, there began the long- 

 est spell of rainy weather that I ever knew at that 

 time of the year. The rain fell more or less for 

 eeven days in succession, without enough sun- 

 shine (if any) during the time to dry the wheat at 

 any one time. I did not keep a farm journal that 

 year, as was my general practice, but noted 

 these circumstances before the next harvest, while 

 they Avere fi-esh in my memory. I did not there 

 state, and do not remember, the date of the begin- 

 ning of my reaping in 1821; but the whole was 

 finished, and the last reaped was shocked, just be- 

 fore the long spell of rain began. It had rained 

 gently one day only during my harvest; and a 

 piece of thin wheat, of about 25 acres, had been 

 cut down on that da}-, and still remained open on 

 the ground. So much of this had sprouted before 

 the rains ceased, and so much on the tops of the 

 shocks throughout the crop, that I estimated my 

 loss at one-tenth of the whole. But that loss was 

 small indeed compared to that of my neighbors, 

 and of lower Virginia generally. Some liad not 

 begun to reap — but few had been as many as three 

 days in harvest, when the spell of rain com- 

 menced — and scarcely any wheat had been put up 

 in shocks, or secured otherwise. The wheat left 

 standing was so bent down, as not to be tolerably 

 saved, besides being greatly damaged in quality; 

 and what was on the ground was mostly sprouted. 

 My notes state as the supposed estimate of gene- 

 ral loss through our part of the country, from one- 

 half to two-thirds of the crop. Some good ma- 

 nagers, and many bad ones, did not make as much 

 wheat as they had sowed, and that of such bad 

 quality, as to be unfit to sow again. Indeed the 

 destruction of wheat Avas so general, and so little 

 was left good enough for seed, that it caused many 

 who were before hesitating about such a change 

 of crops on light soils, to abandon wheat entire!}'', 

 and take cotton instead, as their principal crop for 

 market. 



The saving made that year by early reaping 

 was enough to pay for all the loss to be incurred 

 by that plan in twenty years: and though such a 

 spell of weather may not occur in a long life, there 

 is scarcely any year in which more or less is not 

 lost by rain compelling wljfeat to stand (or to lie,) 

 too long in the field. When rain stops the reap- 

 ing of green wheat for three or four days, the 

 farmer is lef> just where he would have been with- 



out the rain, if he had waited to reap ripe. But 

 to him whose wheat was dead ripe, having his 

 reaping sus|)ended lor a few days is a most serious 

 damage. Even if no grain is actually sprouted, 

 every wetting and drymg after it is ripe, is inju- 

 rious to its (luality. Besides this, no field can be 

 reaped as easily, and as efiectually, after as before 

 rain. Heavy wheat is lodged, and sometimes lost 

 completely: and tlie stalks on the lightest and 

 poorest land bend in curves, and in every direction, 

 so as to render it impossible to be saved well when 

 reaped. 



Now to consider the objections to reaping green-. 

 I have admitted that there must be a loss, from 

 shrinking, in every grain having an}^ of the milk 

 remaining, and a general loss on the whole crop, 

 on the supposition that a proportion will be in the 

 milky state. But, (though it would be difficult to 

 test it by fair experiment,) I do not believe that 

 any thing is lost in either the weight or bulk of 

 grain cut in the dough state. There is loss of la- 

 bor however, (that is, if the weather continues 

 dry,) and there is risk of loss, from putting the 

 sheaves into shocks or stacks before their being 

 perfectly cured. Green wheat may be made up 

 into small sheaves, (the band being a single 

 length of the straw,)-as last as it is cut down: but 

 the straw will shrink so much on drying, that the 

 bands will be apt to become loose, and many of 

 the sheaves to fiiU to pieces. If the binders are 

 kept half a day behind the reapers, that objection 

 will be obviated: but others will be presented in 

 the loss of labor when the I'eapers and binders are 

 thus separated, and the exposure of a greater 

 quantity of wheat, after its being reaped, to rain. 

 But it should also be considered, that green wheat 

 is less hurt when caught by rain, than the perfect- 

 ly ripe would be. 



If the wheat is sheaved Avhen too green to put 

 into shocks, it should be put up in "stooks" . of 

 about six sheaves each, by setting the stubble ends 

 of the sheaves far enough apart to give sufficient 

 base, and letting the heads of aU the sheaves lean 

 together so as to form a point. These stooks are 

 easily made, will tlirow oft" a light rain, and will 

 dry as they stand, if made wet by heavy rain. I 

 have had such stooks to be wet and dry repeated- 

 ly before the wheat could be put into shocks — 

 v/ithout any more injury than would have been 

 sustained if the wheat had been standing. But 

 this was of the purple straw kind. Before I knew 

 the diflerence, I permitted some white wheat to go 

 through the same treatment, and found much of it 

 sprouted by rain in the stooks. 



As to the quality of the grain, for making flour, 

 I believe it is generally conceded that the wheat 

 reaped green is best. 



What is the extent of the gradual advancement 

 of the usual time of reaping, t cannot state, though 

 aided by written memoranda of my own farm bu- 

 siness for most of the years of the last twenty. Ma- 

 ny of those who have never noted such things, are 

 not aware that they now venture to reap in a state 

 of greenness which they would have thought very 

 hazardous formerly. I remember well that fifteen 

 years ago, our iestival of the 4th of July always 

 came in harvest, and that no one finished reaping 

 before that time, unless he had sowed early wheat, 

 and had a very small crop. In 1819, 1 began to reap 

 on June 23d, (golden chafl' wheat,) and the entry 

 on the journal of that day states that the grain was 



