196 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEK. 



July 



which will be drawn all the water that strikes 

 the outside of the stack. We saw a farmer 

 lose nearly his entire crop of oats of seven- 

 teen hundred bushels in this way ; they were 

 totally spoiled for market, and only a few of 

 them could be fed to his own team. Wheat, 

 barley and rye will be less injured when 

 placed in the stack damp than bats, and great 

 care is necessary in bad weather in the stack- 

 ing of oats, as they will heat very readily, 

 when they become musty, and are worthless 

 for seed and unsaleable for feed. It is bet- 

 ter to thresh barley from the gavel, which is 

 loaded with a barley fork, generally, the third 

 day after it is cut ; it must not lay too long, 

 as the value ot barley depends much upon 

 its brightness when sent to the brewer ; 

 three or four extra dews on a lot of barley 

 will lessen its value ten to twenty per cent. 

 In stacking, three stacks should be set to- 

 gether, forming a triangle, with space be 

 tween them for the thresher, and so located 

 that advantage can be taken of any direction 

 of the wind. 



Overworking in harvest time is a very bad 

 practice, and most generally proves unprofit- 

 able in the end. The days are long and hot, 

 and to work as many do, sixteen hours in the 

 broiling sun and falling dew, is taxing human 

 endurance to a point beyond good economy. 

 In this way we have seen harvesting done up 

 in a very shoi't time, but followed with a 

 long doctor's bill and the hiring of extra 

 hands. No ncore hours should be worked 

 during harvest than at other work, nor will 

 bad whisky add to the muscular force of the 

 busy binder. Unusual liard work, the heat- 

 ing of the blood, the drinking of a large 

 quantity of tepid water, strong cofi'ee, worse 

 whisky, and exposure to niglit dews, have 

 led to a vast deal of sickness in ihathiUions 

 season directly after harvest, for which the 

 western climate has had to bear the blame. 

 Another item might be added : an abundant 

 supply of saleratus biscuits and the want of 

 the small fruits whose acid is of such value 

 to the human machine during the hot pe- 

 riod. On the whole we are making good 



progress, and these old time habits that grew 

 up under the pressure of too much work and 

 too small a variety of food are fast disappear- 

 ing and only to be found on some of our 

 large farms, and those who do not take the 

 papers. 



A man seeking harvest work should look 

 first to the vegetable garden. If there is 

 none he will find pain-killer cards and ague 

 specifics posted up on the walls, with one or 

 two quack medicine almanacs hanging on the 

 window frame ; in fact, where these are 

 abundant he need not look for a garden, for 

 his time will be lost. But, says one, what 

 have all these to do with the harvest — much, 

 very much — plenty of vegetables and the 

 small fruits keep the harvester in good 

 health, so that he can perform his task, and 

 the laborer who engages work, depending on 

 fat pork, bread and strong coffee will find 

 within a few months that the doctor and the 

 boarding master will not only have his 

 wages, but run up a bill against him j hence 

 we say to all such, look well to the garden 

 before you engage for the harvest. 



THRESHING. 



In this part of the State it is the custom 

 to thresh either from the shock, or so soon 

 as the grain goes through the sweating pro- 

 cess in the stack, and is at once marketed or 

 put up in cribs or rail pens forstorage. As 

 a general thing the price is good at this time, 

 but the extra cost of labor and the necessary 

 neglect ot other farm work often more than 

 overbalances this advantage. 



In the north part of the State the straw 

 and chaff are beginning to be of considera- 

 ble value, and as labor is cheaper in winter 

 much of the threshing is left over for that 

 time. The great number of farm barns and 

 substantial graneries enable them to guard 

 against bad weather, and even to pursue this 

 branch of farm work when they would be 

 otherwise comparatively idle. As wheat can- 

 not, during the war blockade, be shipped 

 south, it is questionable whether the market 

 will warrant early threshing this season ; we 



