206 



SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



Harvesting. — Wheat is generally harvested as soon as ripe. The 

 straw should be yellow in color and the grain in hard dough, before the 

 wheat may be safely harvested. In the wheat-growing section along 

 the Pacific Coast the wheat is allowed to stand a week or two after it is 

 ripe, and is then harvested with a combined harvester and thresher. 



Wheat should be shocked the same day it is cut. Considerable 

 starch is transferred from the leaves and stems to the grain after the wheat 

 is harvested. Immediate shocking of the grain prevents rapid drying 

 and aids this action. 



When not to be threshed from the shock, wheat should be hauled 

 in and stacked or stored in the barn as soon as possible (a week or ten 

 days). Hot sun bleaches wheat rapidly; rainy weather often damages 

 and sometimes destroys the crop in the shock. In the eastern United 

 States threshing generally takes place in the barn in the late fall. In the 

 corn belt section and Great Plains region most of the wheat is threshed 

 out of the shock or in the field by a combine. 



Threshed wheat should be stored in tight, clean granaries. When 

 it is to remain in storage for some time the granary should be cleaned 

 thoroughly to make sure of the removal of grain moths, weevils and fungous 

 diseases. If the granary is constructed so as to keep out vermin and 

 insects, there is practically no loss of weight in storage. 



Cost of Producing Wheat. — The fixed charges of growing an acre of 

 wheat are about the same, whether the yield is 15 bushels or 30 bushels 

 per acre. A rough estimate of the cost of growing wheat in the United 

 States is between $10 and $12 per acre. The United States Department 

 of Agriculture has secured from many farmers itemized estimates of the 

 cost of producing wheat in all of the states. Those for .a few of the widely 

 separated states are as follows: 



Plowing 



Seed 



Planting 



Harvesting 



Threshing 



Rent. 



Fertilizer 



Miscellaneous 



Total 



Cost per bushel . . . 

 Net profit per acre 

 Number of reports 



Kansas. 



$1.81 



1.22 



.41 



1.49 



1.44 



3.41 



.06 



.45 



$10.29 



.63 



5.66 



309 



The estimated cost in Kansas was based on the reports of 309 farmers 

 who, during the year 1909, secured an average jdeld of 16.3 bushels per 



