Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-09-05
Count up What you Have Lost.

Il
Count up What you Have Lost.
We very much fear that number
of our readers will regret that they
have not taken our advice to stack
their grain instead of waiting for
the threshing machine to come
around and thrash it out of the
shock. In seasons where there is an
absolute certainty of dry weather
grain can be put in the bin cheaper
by thrashing out of the shock than
by thrashing out of the stack. In
seasons like the present, where in
some sections, in Iowa at least, it
has been raining about every other
day when the farmers wanted to
thrash, we can imagine the discom-
fort of the owner, and especially of
his wife, in looking for thrashers,
getting ready for them, disappointed,
and looking for them again, disa-
pointed again, until the poor woman
gets out of patience and almost
wishes she had married someone
else than farmer. That, however,
is not all. Where there has been
continuous rains with warm wealth
rithe grain will grow in the shock,
as we have known it to do times
without number. After it has been
wet and subjected to intervals of
heat and sunshine, grain becomes
discolored and is liable to mold,
even if it does notsprout. tits very
apt to become damp when theashed,
because the theashermen will not
stop because the wheat is a little out
of condition. 1t is then liable to
heat in the bin, and when sold will
not command the price of sound
grain that has gone through the
sweat in the stack.
This is the old story we have
harped on time out of mind, but we
wish farmers who have lost this
year would sit down and figure up
just how much they have lost. In
many cases where farmers intended
to stack they have been hindered by
rain. This cannot we'll be helped
and there is some loss on this ac-
count, but it is small as compared
with the loss that has been suffered
by farmers who have been waiting
until the machine would come around
and they could have their turn at
thrashing.
We are quite well aware Of the
objection that is made, namely, that
if you do.not take the machine when
you can get it you are not liable to
get it until it goes the second round.
The only remedy we see is for
three or four farmers to go together,
buy small thrashing outfit, stack
their rain, and thus control their
own business. Il will require CO.
operation, but in time farmers will
learn to cooperate with each other
in matters of such vital Importance.
The grain buyers could work
reform very quickly if they would
simply refuse TO pay "the same old
price" for all sorts of grain. In their
competition with each other they are
often disposed to follow the same
foolish methods which were such a
very great hindrance to dairying
twenty years ago, when the farmers
wife would take her butter to town
and trade it for goods; the merchant
giving the same price for butter no
matter whether it was grease or but
ter fit for the tables ofroyalty. The
result was that many farmers wives
bee"me very careless in their butter
making. We did not much blame
them; they had no encouragement
to do anything else. In some sec
tons of the west grain buyers have
been paying the same price for oats,
for example, that weigh twenty
pounds and twenty-eight, paying
probably the price for about twenty
four pound oats. This is all wrong.
The farmer who raises good quality
OF any kind Of grain is entitled to
an extra price. The farmer who
sends in poor quality should get
the price OF the poor quality, and no
more. We have known millers, for
example, to fix the standard of wheat
at iifty-eight pounds per bushel,
dock the farmer when it fell short,
but failed to give him a premium on
wheat weighing sixty or sixty-two
pounds. This. too, is wrong. If the
grain men would sharply discount
the price of wheat and oats that have
been damaged in the shock and pay
a premium for grain Of superior
quality, farmers would learn to stack
their grain and thus produce bet
ter quality and worth more money.
There is another feature that
must not be forgotten. Grain
threshed when damp cannot well be
kept without frequent stirring,
hence the farmer pushes it on the
market and a great surplus of grain
directly after threshing affects ser
iously the price. Somebody must
hold this grain until it is used, and
he will take good care that he does
not lose anything by holding it
The cheapest place to hold this
grain is in the stack or in the farm.
er's bin. He is then master of the
situation; if he depends on thresh.