118 DRY LAND FARMING 



tered previous to or during the process of harvesting. If 

 grain, in some varieties at least, is not cut promptly when 

 ripe, a certain proportion of the kernels may shatter 

 through the swaying of the winds. The plump filling 

 of the grain in dry areas favors shattering. The volun- 

 teering of grain in dry areas may give the farmers 

 more trouble and labor than the noxious weeds. 



The season for such volunteering is of course the 

 season of the harvesting of the crop. In addition to the 

 shattering of the seed, heads are scattered during the 

 harvesting process. The weather subsequently is so dry 

 that these, in many instances, do not germinate in the 

 autumn. They are buried in the soil by the disc or plow, 

 and the next season they germinate and grow up amid 

 the crop that follows, providing such a crop is sown the 

 following year. If the crop is of a different species, there 

 is admixing in the same, as for instance wheat and oats. 

 If of the same species but differing in variety, the varie- 

 ties become badly mixed. If of the same variety, the 

 volunteer plants growing up amid the plants from the 

 seed sown so increases the number of the plants as to 

 frequently reduce the yields. To such an extent does 

 grain thus volunteer in some instances that a fair re- 

 turn in grain is sometimes reaped without sowing any 

 seed, and even without stirring the ground with any im- 

 plement. Such crops are more frequent in the case of 

 winter wheat and winter rye than in that of a spring 

 cereal. 



The evils that arise from this source will be readily 

 apparent. It greatly increases the tendency in grains 

 to mix, and therefore increases correspondingly the diffi- 

 culty of maintaining purity in grain. The loss resulting 

 may not be serious in grains that are to be fed to live 

 stock, at least in some instances. But it may not be so 

 with grains that are to be marketed. Suppose, for in- 

 stance, that winter rye or some soft variety of wheat 



