The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1867-07-06
To Prevent WeevI in Wheat.

The following timely article was eommu-
nicated, we think, to the Southern Cultiya-
tor:
In looking over the Southern Cultivator
for last October, fud an extract from the
Dollar Newspaper, in which two plans are
given to keep weevil out of wheat / am
thus reminded that during the last harvest /
wrote article on the subject for the Cul-
tivatOr, but neglected to forward it.
To come short to my point, let a0heat be
sdLed, and weevil will never infest It. l
have followed this plan from 1884 or '35 till
now, and have never lost aUy wheat by
weeYil after sailing it. So certain is this
plan to save wheat that l never sun mine at
all. l let it stand in the field IN dozens for
ten or twelve days then thresh, fan and salt
it away at once. If it be dry enough to
thresh well, it Is dry enough to salt away
l use half pound of salt to the bushel Of
wheat. As it is measured into garners or
hogsheads ] sprinkle the salt, and stir after
each measure. If the house be dry, wheat
is certain to keep we'll on this plan.
l got this plan from the Tennessee Farmer
in 1884 a farmer of East Tennessee com
muni, ated this as his plan, based upon ff-
teen years experience have forgotten his
name, but we'll remember his statements.
He said that salted wheat remained new as
it does not shrink by time, and it continues
to yield as good and as much -four as when
| first harvested. All these statements I have
! found to be true, by the experience Of eigh-
| teen years.
! Now, all farmers know that wheat put up
/ in the usual way diminishes In bulk as it
! gets older, "a. {. the grains get less and that
/ it will not yield as much or as good four as
| when it was fresh from the field This
| change is prevented by sailing. prefer the
| Kanawha salt because It all dissOlves and is
soon absorbed by wheat If you examine
| it eight or ten days after sailing, it will be
found dry, having kept cool all the time
The salt enters into the grain and makes
| the -four saltish but not enough so to inter
fere with any Of its culinary use. Let us
now sum up the advantages Of this mode Of
saving wheat
/. 1t preserves the wheat with more GER
| tainty than summing.
2. The wheat does not lose in volume or
| weight by long keeping
3. 1t makes more and better -four.
f. 1t costs much less labor.
s. The wheat is better for seed, because
it is preserved in its perfect state. There Is
not salt enough in it to prevent it from ger
minating, but there is enough to stimulate
it to sprout vigorously.
l suppose that after all the cost of laIoI
| IN summing, nearly One-IOurEh OF all ths
wheat produced IN the valley Of the Missis
sippi IS either lost by weevii or badly dam
aged This is no item of loss, when the
/ aggregate crop Is considered Were al
farmers to salt their wheat, this enormous
annual loss would be prevented and theI
no one would ever make bread Of wheat
not quite sOiled enough to give to the pigs
{ and yet too bad for any person to eat.
have seen wheat saved by sailing it after
Z tho weevil were in it.
IN 1886, for want Of house room, ny
S wheat was put IN hand-stacks as it wa.
hauled up for threshing When about bal
+ done hauling it occurred to me that weevI
; might get In It before We should get ready
3 | thresh it; / therefore salted the remaining
e wheat as it was put In stacks, and it was
| fortunate that It was done, because th'
\ weevii ruined all which were not sslted-
2 while those stacks which were salted re
! NAMED uniniured. In 1852 there were fou
? seperate parcels Of wheat puJ in my barn
three Of them were salted, and the fouFti
n was not All three of the parcels salte'
r kept perfectly sound and free of WeeVii-
n but the one not salted was ruined By to
r weeyiL I think Indian corn might be saves
by sailing
q lis best to unite the two principles her
,t set forth IN saving wheat; that is It shoul
b be kept dry and salted too. Because if it b
r put up moist so much salt would be requirs
i 70 save it that it would make the -four to
Il salt for use, and the vitality Of the graf
g would be destroyed, so that it would be unf
s for seed.