als. The best
time to harvest wheat is when the straw below the head has turned
yellow, and the grain is so far out of the milk as not to be easily
mashed between the fingers, but before it has become hard. The grain is
heavier and of better quality, and wastes far less in harvesting, than
when allowed to ripen and dry standing in the field. Drying in good
shocks is far better than drying before cut. Some have gone to extremes
in early cutting, and harvested their wheat while in the milk, and
suffered serious loss in its weight. We sometimes have rain in harvest,
which causes all the wheat in a large region to grow before getting it
dry enough to house. A remedy is, to go right on and cut your wheat,
rain or shine, and put it up, without binding, in large cocks of from
three to five bushels, packing together as close as possible, however
wet, and cover the centre with a bundle of wheat to shed rain. It will
dry out without growing; and, although the straw will be somewhat
mouldy, the grain will be perfectly good, even when it has been so wet
as to make the top of the shocks perfectly green with grown wheat. This
process is of great value in a wet season. To prepare seed-wheat for
sowing, soak it for a day or two in very strong brine; skim off all that
rises; remove the grain from the brine, and while wet, sift on
fresh-slaked lime until it slightly coats the whole grain; put on a
little plaster to render the sowing more pleasant to the hand. Wheat
will lie in this condition for days without injury. So prepared, it will
exhibit a marked superiority in the growing crop.

_Enemies_ of wheat are numerous, and various remedies are proposed. The
wire-worm is sometimes very destructive. Wheat planted with a drill,
with a heavy cast-iron roller behind each tooth, will not suffer by
them; they will only work in the mellow ground between the drills. Drive
over a field of wheat exposed to injury from wire-worms with a common
ox-cart, and you will notice a marked difference; wherever the
cartwheel passed over, the wheat remains unharmed by the wire-worm,
while on either side much of it will be destroyed. But the wheat-midge,
or weevil, is the great enemy, rendering the cultivation of wheat in
some localities useless. One precaution is, to get the wheat forward so
early and fast as to have it out of the way before they destroy it. This
is often done by early sowing, high fertilization, and warm land.
Sometimes wheat is too late for