236 



THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST. 



iields in any other locality in the town or connty. My 

 farm was some five or six hundred feet above the level 

 of Cayuga Lake. The wheat growing on those fields 

 near the shore of the lake, usually ripened ten to four- 

 teen days earlier than the wheat on the upland. I al- 

 ways secm-ed my seed from those farmers near the shore, 

 for the first crop ; then, at the next harvest time, patches 

 of the growing grain, a few rods square, on the knolls 

 and highest points of the field, were staked off on my 

 own farm and allowed to stand until the grain had 

 matured perfectly. The grain that grew on such ele- 

 vated parts of the field, would mature sometimes a week 

 before the grain grovring on low parts of the same field 

 was fit to harvest. 



Such seed grain should always be harvested by itself: 

 stacked or stored in the barn by itself; thrashed by 

 itself ; and secured in a bin or barrels by itself. It is 

 folly to attempt to grow a bountiful crop of wheat un- 

 less all these directions are followed out, year after year, 

 with scrupulous exactness. "When the unthrashed crop 

 of grain is stored in a building, the sheaves should never 

 be put in the bottom of the mow, unless unusual care 

 be exercised in removing the grain that may be placed 

 above the seed grain, to prevent grain that is not fit for 

 seed, from falling down among the seed bundles. 



Another important consideration to be kept in mind 

 is, to procure seed that grows on high, dry, and rather 

 heavy soil, rather than to choose grain that was pro- 

 duced on a light, mucky soil. Grain that grows on a 

 light, mucky soil, is seldom as light colored as that which 

 was produced on a fertile clay loam. We always find 

 the choicest and the whitest wheat where there is a 

 liberal proportion of clay in the soil. In every locality, 



