. American farming and stock raising, with useful facts for the household, devoted to farming in all its departments. Agriculture. CEREALS. 281 modem iron plough suited to all soils and situations, and stiU more marvelous, the steam plough, walking like a thing of bfe across the broad prairie, turning up its numerous furrows, at once, and leaving behind it a broad wake like that of a majestic ship 1 Compare the old scythe and sickle of our fathers, slowly and tediously gathering up their crops, with our mowing and reaping machines, cutting down their ten to twenty acres per day !" In clim
. American farming and stock raising, with useful facts for the household, devoted to farming in all its departments. Agriculture. CEREALS. 281 modem iron plough suited to all soils and situations, and stiU more marvelous, the steam plough, walking like a thing of bfe across the broad prairie, turning up its numerous furrows, at once, and leaving behind it a broad wake like that of a majestic ship 1 Compare the old scythe and sickle of our fathers, slowly and tediously gathering up their crops, with our mowing and reaping machines, cutting down their ten to twenty acres per day !" In climates less favorable than California, where wheat cannot be immediately threshed in the field, the bound sheaves are usually stacked until ready for threshing, or, where only small crops are grown, the grain is put in a barn or shed. In some localities it is customary to put it in small stacks or small collections of sheaves, which gives the grain a better opportunity of drying where it is not fully ripened. When the season has been quite dry, it is common for om- large grain growers to thresh the wheat without stacking it, but when it has ripened in very warm and rainy weather, the grain is usually stacked and goes through the ''sweating" process, which is a dampness accompanied with considerable heat to the straw and grain, but which passes off after a few. FARyUHARS AND CLEANER. days when the grain and straw become dry and ready for threshing, which could not be done when the grain was damp, as the kernels would adhere to the straw. The color of the kernel is somewhat changed, being brightened by this process, and it is thought to improve the quahty of the ilour. Grain should be sufBciently dry when stacked to prevent moulding. Tlireshing.—The common practice with extensive grain growers at present, is to thresh the grain in the field with machines driven by either steam or horse power. Before the use of machines, all the grain was threshed by hand, which was
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
