CHAPTER XV. 

 THE WASTE IN THRESHING. 



, HERE is not a machine built at the present 

 time that will save every kernel in all kinds 

 and conditions of grain. The Case will sep- 

 arate the grain from the straw as well as 

 any machine made, but to accomplish the best 

 results it must be properly operated. When 

 one detects a machine wasting grain he 

 usually imagines that the quantity wasted amounts to many 

 times more than it actually does. If a stream of wheat as 

 large as that which runs out of a grain-drill tooth were dis- 

 covered going into the straw the farmer would probably say 

 that the machine was wasting half the grain. Yet he knows 

 that he must drive very fast to get a bushel and a half of 

 wheat through each grain drill tooth in a day. Roughly 

 speaking, there are 600 handfuls or a million kernels of wheat 

 in a bushel.* This amount wasted in ten hours indicates 

 that a handful or 1700 kernels is being wasted every minute. 

 If farmers realized the economy of finishing a job as quickly 

 as possible, irrespective of the grain lost, they would not 

 attach so much importance to the small amount ordinarily 

 wasted. 



*In the "Thresher World" contest of August 1903, the bushel of 

 wheat counted contained 869,762 kernels. 



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