84 How THE FARM PAYS. 



snaps very easily when it is dry ; upon this account it is cut early in 

 the day, when the dew is on it. For these reasons, the newly har- 

 vested grain is moist and needs thorough drying. When it is cut it 

 is raked up in gavels, which are not bound in sheaves, but are set up 

 on end singly to dry. When the straw is dry, the crop is drawn in 

 and threshed directly from the field, and the grain must be at once 

 winnowed from the chaff, or, being quite moist, the chaff will heat and 

 spoil the grain. A dry, windy day is chosen for threshing. The 

 cleaned grain also requires close watching to avoid heating in the bin, 

 and it is usual to move it from one bin to another on a dry, windy 

 day, or shovel it over, for the purpose of airing and drying it. Buck- 

 wheat is a sort of special crop, and as the flour is used chiefly in the 

 winter, the grain is usually sold as soon as it is threshed. By doing 

 this a higher price is secured and all the dangers of keeping it are 

 avoided. There are four varieties of this grain : one is known in 

 northern New England as Indian Wheat or Merino Buckwheat, a 

 small, wrinkled, dark, inferior grain ; the others are the Black, the 

 Gray, and the newly introduced Silver Huh 1 , the Black being inferior 

 to the other two. 



