THE PROPER TIME TO CUT WHEAT. 



Much difference of opinion exists between purely theoretical and purely practical farm- 

 ers, in regard to the proper time when wheat and other grain crops should be cut. The 

 theoretical farmer says it should be cut while quite green — say fourteen days before it 

 is ripe, — while most practical farmers think it should be quite ripe before cutting. The 

 early cutting advocates advance not only a very plausible scientific reason for their 

 opinion, but give numerous experiments which confirm the deductions of science. The 

 arguments in favor of early cutting may briefly be stated thus : The grain and straw of 

 wheat contain starch and sugar, a portion of which, if the grain is allowed to get quite 

 ripe, is converted into woody fibre, or bran ; while if cut green, these would remain 

 unchanged in the grain, and the wheat would yield more flour of a superior quality 

 with considerable less bran. Another reason is, that the straw when cut green is of 

 much more value as food for cattle, containing starch and saccharine matter which if 

 allowed to get fully ripe is changed into woody fibre, and its nutritive qualities greatly 

 reduced ; and then there is less loss by shelling when the crop is cut green than when 

 fully ripe. 



AVe think the true course lies between the two extremes ; for while we would by no 

 means cut wheat fourteen days before it is ripe, feeling satisfied from numerous practical 

 experiments that there would be much shrinkage and a loss, (not perhaps to the miller, 

 but to the farmer,) yet we would equally avoid letting the grain get fully ripe. As 

 good a practical test as any w^e know, of the right time to cut wheat, is to take a kernel 

 between the end of the finger and the thumb joint, squeeze it to a pulp, and if there is 

 no milk or sap at all in the grain, all circulation and growth have ceased, the wheat 

 derives no more nutriment from the soil, and will be better cut up than standing ; the 

 straw for an inch or two below the ear will be found to be white, and to have lost all its 

 sap. And now, as the world-renowned reapers give the farmer the control of the 

 harvest, he need not fear that a portion of it will get over-ripe before it can be har- 

 vested, and much be lost by shelling, as was formerly often the ca.se where there v-as a 

 large breadth of wheat to cut and cradlers could not be had at any price ; therefore it 

 is not necessary to commence operations till the grain is in a fit state for cutting. 



Woodman, Spare that Tree. — To those who live on the great prairies of the west, 

 where every tree is a friend reminding them of a once loved but forsaken eastern home 

 — a connecting link between the past and the present — I need not say spare the trees. 

 There the noble tree is prized for its beauty, its shade, and its timber, — it is sought by 

 the dweller on the prairie, like the " shadow of a great rock" by the way-worn eastern 

 traveler. But those who make a new home on timbered land, where the trees are to be 

 felled before they can raise the necessaries of life, get a passion for the destruction of 

 trees, looking upon them as their natural enemies, until they find, too late, that they 

 have carried the war a little further than was necessary — even further than either 

 profit or pleasure required. To those who are clearing land of timber I have a word to 

 say — and I wish to say it just at the present season of the year, when nature puts forth 

 all her beauty. After a few acres are cleared, requiring attention during summer, most 

 of the chopping is done in the winter season, when the trees are not seen in their 

 beauty, and scarcely one is spared. Let the farmer now look at the trees arrayed 

 in all their beauty, when the green leaves are so beautifully gi-een, their shade so 

 grateful to every living creature, and resolve hereafter to spare a few trees on the 

 road-side — a little grove in the corner of the field, and around his house, — and he 

 will receive the grateful acknowledgements of his flocks and his herds, the thanks 

 of his neighbors and all that pass by. 



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