478 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



Shock Versus Stack Thrashing. Whether oats are to be 

 stacked or allowed to remain in the shock until they are thrashed 

 depends very largely on local conditions. If there is a reasonable 

 certainty that a thrashing outfit will be available after the grain has 

 had time to cure in the shock but before it is exposed unnecessarily 

 to weathering, the relative cost of shock and stack thrashing is the 

 point on which the decision must be made. According to inves- 

 tigations conducted by the Minnesota station in co-operation with 

 the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture, the labor 

 cost of thrashing from the shock in southern Minnesota was 4.3 

 cents to the bushel, while that of stack thrashing was 5.2 cents. In 

 northwestern Minnesota the relative labor cost of the two operations 

 was 3.6 cents and 4.9 cents. It is probably safe to assume that 

 stacking adds about 1 cent a bushel to the cost of producing oats. 



In the report of the investigations just mentioned the relative 

 merits of shock and stack thrashing are thus compared: 



The possibility of improving the grade of grain enough to pay 

 the additional cost of stacking and stack thrashing depends in any 

 locality upon the availability of machines, the availability of labor, 

 and the climatic conditions prevailing at harvest. The intelligent 

 stacking of grain during a majority of Minnesota harvests is cheap 

 insurance against bleached, sprouted, and bin-burnt grain. If the 

 weather is favorable and a machine can be put in the field as soon 

 as the grain is fit to thrash, a slight saving will be made as com- 

 pared with stacking and stack thrashing. On the other hand, if 

 the shocks must weather for several days or, in some cases, for 

 several weeks before a machine can be obtained, the loss in grade 

 is considerable and stacking the grain would have been profitable. 



In general, conditions during harvest in the greater portion of 

 the oat-growing sections are similar to those in Minnesota, and on 

 small farms stacking oats is generally to be recommended. On the 

 larger farms of the West where there is less danger from rains and 

 where a thrashing machine is available at the time the grain is 

 ready to thrash, shock thrashing will no doubt continue to be the 

 general practice. 



Thrashing. The grain should be thoroughly dry when it is 

 thrashed, as it not only thrashes better but there is danger that both 

 the grain and the straw will heat and mold if thrashed when 

 damp. It is important to see that the thrashing machine is thor- 

 oughly cleaned before thrashing is begun. This will not only 

 prevent mixing the grain with that from a neighboring farm, but 

 will also check the spread of weeds which may be carried from 

 place to place in the separator. The operation of the machine 

 should be carefully watched to see that all the grain is removed 

 from the straw and that the separation of the grain from the chaff 

 and dirt is as complete as possible. The concaves should be so set 

 that they will remove all the grain, but not so close that they will 

 hull it. The straw should be carefully stacked, so that it will be 

 injured as little as possible by rains. If there is available room, 

 running the straw into the barn is both economical and convenient. 



