(52 GRAIN. 



o-rain is ripe, their quality fo: foe(i:ii,>- is groatly improve J compared 

 To what they would have been if cut when fully ripe. This, with the 

 quality and quantity of grain, show.^ a double advantage of early cut- 

 ting. 



Careful experiuients have shown, with regard to wheat, that when 

 cut twelve or fourteen days before fully rip?, the grain not only weighs 

 heavier, but actually measures more,— better in quality, producing a 

 larger proportion of fine flour per bushed. When the grain is in milk, 

 it has comparatively a small amount of woody fiber ; nearly the whole 

 is o-um, sugar and starch, with a large per cent, of water. If cut ten 

 or°twelve days before fully ripe, the proportion of woody fiber is still 

 small ; but as the grain ripens, the thickness of the skin rapidly in- 

 creases, at the expense of t&e sugar and gum ; these, of couse, must 

 diminish in a corresponding degree, and the quality of the grain is of 

 course injured ; and what is true of wheat, we may readily suppose is 

 the case with other grain. 



The remark is frequently made, that, to grow a good crop of any 

 (^rain, or root crop, the first work of importance is, good work done 

 with the plow. This, of course, is important, still, we believe another 

 branch of farmino- — yet. however, in its infancy — underlies it, and that 

 is, field drainrge. 



\Vc don't believe in the doctrine of the " old Scotch farmer," who 

 said, " verily, I believe the whole airth should be drained," neither 

 of beino- at the expense of following the views of some of our fancy 

 farmers'; that is, to undertake to drain dry land, for the sake of making 

 it- j^,(-,;st— which is really true. The question, then, comes, what lands 

 need drahiaoe'r Every observing, thoughtful, progressive farmer, how- 

 ever voun?, may have noticed in his mowing fields what is known by 

 the name of hand-pod, or five-finger ; or fine meadow-grass, instead of 

 our own good old Timothy. Eedtop, or, in fact, any of these aquatic, 

 water-lovino- grasses, indicates cold water at a short distance below the 

 surface , finally, if wo are suspicious of stagnant water near the surface, 

 a pretty safe rule is to make a few shafts in the field, three feet deep 

 or so, and note the rise and fall of water in the pools after a heavy rain 

 or thaw, and in ease the water leaves the pools in a day or so. it is evi- 

 dence that the roots of plants will not be injured by stagnant water. 

 But if water remains in the pools a foot or two deep till late in Spring, 

 or midsummer, rest assured the roots of plants will suffer, unless the 

 water bo remove<;l by underdralnlng ; ond what we mean by this is, a 

 drain Irora three to three and a half feet deep, and completely covered. 

 Drains left uncovered, aro nuisances; although they draw off the water 

 a few years, they become filled up from the falling down of earth on 

 citlier side and other rubbish, and are again required to be cleaned 

 out; otherwise they don't perform their office. Afide from this, either 

 sidc'of the ditch becomes a complete harbor for weeds, thistles, and 

 <.ther rubbish, thus losing the use of a strip of land at least half a rod 

 wide the whole length of'the drain. Another "kind of drain that ans- 

 wcr.q very well fof a few years \f^, to dump th^ .stone into the ditch at 

 ra'ndo-n and Kvcl off t!ie field. This kind or(lra!n was made by the 



