WHEAT. 181 



If you do not use the self-binder and expect to glean the 

 field, or the wheat is to be divided in the shock, it will pay to 

 provide extra help, and carry the sheaves so as to shock in 

 straight rows, with a wide space between, as it is difficult to 

 glean, or to divide without making mistakes, if the shocks are 

 set up without order. If the farmer has not barn-room for his 

 grain, and can get the machine and necessary help, it is better, I 

 think, to thresh from the field than to stack. He saves labor, 

 waste, and risk by so doing. It is a serious matter to get a stack 

 wet either while building it or while taking it down. While, if 

 the wheat gets wet in the shock, a few hours of sun and wind 

 will dry it out. 



Where the size or location of the barn prevents using it for 

 the purpose of storing the crop, I would recommend the con- 

 struction of barracks for the purpose, and believe it would pay 

 the farmer to borrow money, if necessary, to put up a cheap 

 building of this kind. A light frame would do, or it could even 

 be made by setting rows of posts of lasting timber, such as oak 

 or locust, and bracing them to support the roof. If the roof 

 projected considerably, it is not absolutely necessary to board 

 up the sides; but I would recommend that they be boarded on 

 the north and west at least, and think it would pay in the long 

 run to board up the entire building. If the posts were sixteen 

 feet high, and the building twenty-five by fifty feet, it would 

 take less than three thousand feet of boards to inclose it, and 

 this would in most localities cost but little above fifty dollars. 

 A building for this purpose could be made with a light frame, 

 as all the weight of the grain would rest on the ground. It 

 could be used with an earth floor, or if a board floor was 

 wanted, it should be laid on mud sills resting on the ground. 

 This building should be made adjoining the barn-yard, so that 

 the machine would deliver the straw where it w r ould be wanted, 

 and after the wheat was threshed, the building could be filled 

 with corn fodder. It could also be used for curing beans, broom- 

 corn, or any special crop which ripened between threshing-time 

 and corn-gathering. A part of the building could be used for 

 wintering calves, then carefully cleaned out in the spring, and 



