WHEAT 59 



Wheat is best cut and tied by the self-binder. It should 

 be promptly shocked and capped. Some farmers thresh 

 from the shock a few weeks after harvest, but it is safer to 

 place the sheaf-wheat in stack or barn until ready to 

 thresh. Threshing is usually done bj' threshing crews 

 that travel from farm to farm. 



63. When to cut wheat for hay. — Wheat for haj^ is 

 probably best cut when in the " late milk stage," but if 

 rust is absent, mowing may be deferred until the grain is in 

 the " early dough " stage. If rust promises to be severe, 

 wheat may be mown while still in bloom. 



64. Yields and prices. — The legal weight of a bushel 

 of wheat is 60 pounds. A measured bushel may weigh a 

 few pounds above or l^elow this weight. The hea\'ier a 

 bushel of wheat, the better is the quaht}-. The average 

 jdeld of wheat in the entire United States for the ten-j'ear 

 period ending in 1906 was 13.8 bushels per acre. The 

 average of the cotton states is considerably below this 

 figure ; but indiiddual farmers in the cotton states some- 

 times produce an average of more than 20 bushels per acre. 

 The u.sual price of wheat is from 80 cents to $1.20 per 

 bushel. 



EXEMIES 



65. Weeds. — Numerous weeds grow in wheat fields, 

 either because the seeds were sown as impurities in the 

 seed wheat, or because the weed seeds were ahead}' in the 

 ground. Among the most important of these are the fol- 

 lowing : — 



Cheat or chess. — A ■winter-gro'wing annual grass liable 

 to be troublesome in all kinds of grain. It is most abun- 



