Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1867-08-01
10 Prevent Weevil in
Wheat.

The following timely article was
communicated, we think, to the
Southern Caltivator..
In looking over the Southern
Oultiuotor for last October, ! find
an extract from the Dollar Neacs-
paper, in which two plans are
given to keep weevil out Of wheat.
| am thus reminded that during
the last harvest / wrote an article
on the subject for the Cultiuator,
but neglected to forward it.
To come short to my point, Let
suheat be sailed, and weevil will
never infest it. Ihave followed
this plan from 1884 or IS till now,
and have never lost any wheat
by weevil after sailing it. So GER
tain is this plan to save wheat,
that never sun mine at all. l
lett 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. |
use half pound of salt to the
bushel of wheat. AS it is measur-
ed into gamers or hogsheads /
sprinkle the salt, and stir after
each measure. If the house be
dry, wheat is certain to keep well
on this plan. l got this plan from
the Tennessee Farmer in 1884
A Farmer of East Tennessee COM
inundated this as his plan, based
upon fifteen years experience. l
Ihave forgotten his name, but well
remember his statements. He
said that sailed wheat remained
new as long as you might desire
to keep it; that is, it does not
shrink by time, and it continues
to yield as good and as much -four
as when first harvested. All these
statements ! have found to be true,
by heexperience CT eighteen years.
Now, all farmers know that
wheat put up in the usual way
diminishes in bulk as it gets older
| "a. e. the grains get less) and that
it will not yield as much or as
good flour, as when twas fresh
from the field. This change is
prevented by sailing. l 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 flour saltish,
but not enough so to interfere with
any of its culinary uses. Let us
now sum up the advantages of
this mode of saving wheat.
1. 1t preserves the wheat with
more certainty than summing.
! 2. The wheat does not lose in
volume or weight by long keeping.
3. Itmakes more and better -four.
4. 1t costs much less labor.
5. The wheat is better for seed,
because it is preserved in its per-
feet state. There is not enough
in it to prevent it from germina-
ting, but there is enough to stim-
ulate it to sprout vigorously.
Isuppose that after all the cost
of labor in summing, nearly one
fourth of all the wheat produced
in the valley of the Mississippi is
either lost by weevil Or badly DAM
aged. This is no small item of
loss, when the aggregate crop is
considered. Were all farmers to
salt their wheat, this enormous
annual loss would be prevented;
and then no one would ever make
bread Of wheat not quite spoiled
enough to give to the pigs, and
yet too bad for any person to eat.
| have seen wheat saved by salt
ing after weevil were in it.
In 1886, for want OF house
room, my wheat was put in hand
stacks as it was hauled up for
threshing. When about half
done hauling, it occurred to me
that weevil might get in it before
we should get ready to thresh it;
l therefore sailed the remaining
wheat as it was put in stacks, and
it was fortunate that it was done,
because the weevil ruined all
which were not salted-while
those stacks which were sailed
remained uninjured. In 1852
there were four separate parcels
of wheat put in my barn; three
of them we're sailed, and the
fourth was not. Ali three of the
parcels sailed kept perfectly sound