THE WHEAT CKOP. 61 



These points, however, were set at rest by the experiments 

 made under the supervision of Mr. Pusey, in 1851, for the 

 purpose of determining the comparative cost of thrash- 

 ing and preparing grain for market, by the three modes 

 usually practised by the "flail," by "horse-power ma- 

 chines," and by the " combined steam thrashing machines." 

 The results of these trials, made with the same grain and 

 exactly under similar conditions, showed that the entire 

 cost, from the stack to the market sack, by the first 

 method (the flail) was 3s. 5d per quarter; by the second 

 (horse power} 2s. per quarter ; while by the application of 

 steam to the combined thrashing machine the cost was 

 reduced to 9d. per quarter thus giving to steam thrash- 

 ing an economy of 62 per cent, over horse power, and of 

 78 per cent, over manual labour. 



After thrashing, the amount of grain on the barn floor 

 or in the granary may be readily estimated by cubical 

 measurement. The imperial bushel contains 221 8 '192 cubic 

 inches ; therefore each square foot of the floor, covered 154 

 inches deep, carries 1 bushel of grain, consequently 10 '26 

 cubic feet contain 8 bushels, or 1 quarter. For ordinary 

 calculations 10 cubic feet are usually taken. 



In the market we are inclined to attach too much 

 value to the weight per bushel of the samples offered. 

 Some experiments by Reiset, 1 determining the relations 

 between the specific gravity of wheat, its weight per 

 bushel, and its real nutritive value, give us some impor- 

 tant and interesting information on this score. The rela- 

 tion of bulk to weight has long been an element in the 

 market determination of the value of wheat. This is 

 shown to depend more on the shape of the grains than 

 on their real weight (specific gravity). It has been deter- 



1 For details of these experiments, see paper by Dr. Anderson in Trans, of 

 High. Soc. for 1856, p. 174. Some comparative details also are given in the 

 Roy. Agri. Soc. Jour., vol. vii., p. 657. 



