COST OP HARVESTING WHEAT. 15 



sirable in certain sections (see Farmers Bulletin 678, " Growing 

 Hard Spring Wheat."). 



The two more important advantages of stacking, therefore, are the 

 protection from the weather and, generally, the improved quality of 

 the grain. These results are likely to follow good stacking. Where the 

 stacking has been poorly done there is often a different story, the 

 grain being in worse condition when thrashed from the stack than 

 it would have been if thrashed after a reasonable time in the shock. 



HEADERS. 



Thousands of acres of wheat are harvested annually by means 

 of the header, but this machine is, for the most part, an auxiliary of 

 the binder for reasons mentioned below. Although usually there 

 is a slight saving in harvesting with the header compared with the 

 binder, in most sections there are some seasons when it is imprac- 

 ticable to run the header, so that it is very common to have binders 

 on farms where headers are used. (See PL L, fig. 2.) 



The principal advantages of the header, in addition to its economy 

 under certain conditions, are that it eliminates considerable hand 

 labor, covers more ground per day, saves the cost of twine, expedites 

 thrashing because of the smaller amount of straw handled, and will 

 harvest short grain that could not be cut and bound with a binder. 

 In certain sections headers are kept largely for the last-mentioned 

 purpose, since in areas where there is little rainfall there will often be 

 a fair yield of wheat on straw that is altogether too short to handle 

 with a binder. In such cases the header will remove the heads and 

 place them in the header wagons with practically no loss. In some 

 localities it is frequently desirable to plow the stubble immediately 

 after harvest, and when a field has been headed there are no shocks to 

 interfere with or delay this work. 



The disadvantages of the header are several. The wheat must be 

 allowed to ripen upon the stalk sufficiently to keep well in the stack, 

 yet, when harvesting is not begun until the grain is in this condition, 

 before it can be completed much of the wheat will be so ripe that con- 

 siderable loss may result from shattering, especially with certain 

 varieties. It seldom happens that all parts of a large field will ripen 

 •evenly ; certain low spots where there is a surplus of moisture will 

 remain green for several days after the grain around them is fit to 

 cut with a header. The green heads from such spots, if harvesting is 

 clone with a header as soon as the remainder of the field is ready 

 to cut, may cause considerable loss in the stack by reason of heating 

 and molding. 



The header requires more men and horses to operate it efficiently 

 than are needed for two binders, five to eight men and ten to sixteen 

 horses being employed in the crews. The same number of men and 

 horses using binders could cut and shock a larger acreage per day 



