278 



AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



of the wheat are separated from the straw and chaff, 

 and come pouring out in a steady stream from a spout 

 into the sacks or other measures, while the straw and 

 chaff is conveyed up on a long elevator and let fall 

 to the ground at its end, where men stack it, or else is 



blown through a long 

 movable funnel and is 

 stacked automatically. 



This, then, is the height 

 of harvest, when the 

 farmer can see dollars in 

 sight, and has the final 

 recompense for all his 

 long labor. It is the 

 hardest work of the year, 

 and the hottest, early 

 hours and late, and short 

 noons; but when it is all 

 over, and the wheat is 

 stored away in sacks, or 

 lies in a great brown 

 heap on the barn floor, 

 ready for sale, or is 

 packed away in a gran- 

 ary for winter, then it is 

 with much relief that the farmer can turn to the fall 

 work, — the plowing for next year's grain, the sowing 

 of it, the picking of the apples, the cider press, the 

 pruning of the orchard, the cutting of the tasseled 

 maize, the gathering of the pumpkins, corn husking, 

 and the sawing of the winter wood. 



Practically the same process is gone through with 



' WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE ?' 



