294 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



nure for your ground, than if it had yielded all its sweets 

 and much of its substance to the greedy elements above 

 mentioned. 



If your wheat or rye is much affected by blight or rust, it 

 should be cut even while still in the milk, and afterwards 

 exposed to the sun and air, till the straw is sufficiently dry 

 and the grain so much hardened that it will answer to de- 

 posit in the barn or stack. The heads, in such cases, should 

 be so placed by the reapers as not to touch the ground. This 

 may be done by laying the top ends of each handful on the 

 lower end of the preceding one. 



If your grain is encumbered with grass or weeds, you must 

 cut it pretty near the top, in order to avoid as much as pos- 

 sible those extraneous substances. It will also be necessary 

 to reap somewhat earlier than might be otherwise expedient, 

 that you may have time to dry the weeds without danger of 

 the grain's shelling out. If your grain is very ripe when 

 you harvest it, the bands should be made early in the morn- 

 ing while the straw is muist and pliable. And Dr. Deane 

 recommends, in such cases, to bind the sheaves when the air 

 begins to be damp towards evening, as the least degree of 

 moisture will toughen the straw. 



It has been recommended by several English writers to 

 bind wheat as well as rye with only one length of the straw. 

 If the straw is pretty long, and not very thoroughly dry, this 

 may be good economy. You save the trouble of making 

 bands ; your wheat will dry better in the sheaf; (as the 

 sheaves must of course be small;) and though it may take 

 some more time md trouble to pitch and handle it, we believe 

 the advantages, in many cases, will turn the scale in favor 

 of binding wheat with single lengths of straw. 



In stowing wheat or rye, some persons deposit the sheaves 

 on a mow of hay ; but this is a bad plan, as the grain presses 

 the hay so that it is apt to become musty, and communicate 

 a musty or mouldy taint to the superincumbent grain ; 

 which will be harder to thresh than if it had a more dry and 

 airy location. It may be placed on a scaffold of rails, laid 

 on the beams, and over the floor of a barn ; though it is not 

 so easy to procure it for threshing as if it were laid on a 

 scaffold of less elevation. But this disadvantage may be 

 more than compensated by its being in a situation favorable 

 for drying. If there is a deficiency of barn room, the sheaves 

 may be stored in stacks. In that case, ' care should be taken 

 that the grain may not draw moisture from the ground, by 



