FIELD cnops. a» 



the several varieties grown, with a view to comparing their respective merits, 

 and selecting for another years crop those sorts which promist! beet returns. 

 When fertilizers have been used, it wiU also be weU to mark the results. It 

 is only by a carefal comparison of different plants under diflferent treatments 

 that a' farmer surely arrives at conclusions which best suit the special require- 

 ments of his land and his location. 



How to St«ck Straw. — We give an illustration showing how straw can 

 be stacked so that it will be preserved from spoiling, and at the same time 

 answer for a shelter to protect stock from the storms. The pen should be 

 two or three logs high (or higher, if the logs are smaU), and large enough to 

 correspond with the quantity of straw. Then set fence rails or poles all 

 around inside of the pen, as represented. It can be built at the taU end of 

 the threshing machine, so 

 that the straw can fall in it. 

 It will require less hands to 

 stack. 



Draining Wlieat 

 Fields. — If no other method 

 has been de>"i8ed for drain- 

 ing wheat fields, which are 

 sometimes too wet, it will 

 pay to plow farrows from 

 the lowest spot to some 

 lower point outside. Every 

 experienced wheat grower 

 knows that if water is al- 

 lowed to stand upon the 

 ground late in the fall, the 

 crop will not only be direct- 

 ly injured thereby, but will 

 also be liable to be severely 

 damaged by " winter kill- 

 ing," and it should be the 

 aim to prevent, as &r as 

 possible, both of these evils. 

 A heavy rain will do little damage to a wheat field if provision is made for 

 the prompt removal of the surplus water, while a moderate rainfall upon 

 undrained land which is already too wet will cause the destruction of many 

 of the plants, and largely reduce the possible yield of the crop. While thor- 

 ough drainage is much better than any makeshift which can be invented, it 

 is much better to adopt the very imperfect plan recommended above than it 

 is to make no provision for the protection of the crop from injury by an ex- 

 cess of moisture in the soil. 



■\Veevil in "Wlieat. — A correspondent of an agricultural paper says: 

 "Some years ago, hearing complaint of weevil in wheat about the close of 

 harvest, when I was ricking my wheat, I got fresh slaked lime and threw 

 over the rick in building it — laying two courses of sheaves, then lime suffi- 

 cient to whiten the stack. A neighbor who threshed his wheat from the 

 shock came to me a few days after, and said he should lose his wheat, for it 

 was alive with weevil. I told him to throw lime over it, and shovel it through 

 bis wheat, which he did. Two days later there was not a weevil seen in it." 



BOW TO STACK ffrRAW. 



