146 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



and apertures for ventilation secured by fine gauze. Burn- 

 ing sulphur will kill the moths. Grain should be cut 

 early to anticipate the appearance of the moth." 



21. Unsoundness of Wheat Caused by Moisture. This 

 subject has not yet received the consideration which we 

 think it deserves ; comparatively few, indeed, know the 

 extent of the loss sustained every year through grain which 

 has been got in and stored up in a damp condition. Tak- 

 ing wheat as the most important of our cereal crops, let us 

 glance at the points involved in connection with the main- 

 tenance of or improvements in its quality. Wheat yields 

 the largest percentage of nutritive matter of all our cereals ; 

 while in grinding, oats lose about one half, barley a seventh, 

 wheat loses only a fourteenth. But this assumes that all 

 are in their best condition for grinding, a point too often 

 overlooked. The amount of water or moisture in wheat is 

 one of its important features ; it varies in the flour obtained 

 from it from 12 to 18 per cent. This is greatly dependent 

 upon the climate. Boussingault notices the interesting 

 fact, that the wheats grown in the north of France are ex- 

 ceedingly difficult to be kept in consequence of the high 

 percentage of moisture which they contain, as high as from 

 16 to 20 per cent. Experiments made by this eminent 

 agricultural chemist showed that unless these grains were 

 kept in hermetically sealed vessels they rapidly deteriorated 

 in value. But when the moisture was reduced one-half, 

 like the wheats of the south which contain 8 to 10 per 

 cent., the conditions were changed. Where much moisture 

 exists in wheat, decomposition rapidly sets in, and this con- 

 siderably lowers the flour-producing value ; and if allowed 

 to go on, so changes the nature of the grain that bread 

 flour cannot be made from it at all. Flour obtained from 

 dry grain gives a higher yield of bread, although the quantity 

 of flour may be less than from plumper and moister grain. 

 Age has no deteriorating effect on sound grain. In Poland 

 grain has been kept sound for half a century, and in Dant- 

 zic grain is kept in warehouse for seven years without any 

 deterioration. The pecuniary loss sustained by sending in 



