Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-07-10
To Stack or Thresh out OF the
Shock.

This is one of the questions which
the farmer will have to solve very
soon, and solve it in the light of his
climate and the conditions prevailing
on the farm. We have not the slight
est doubt but that it would be better
for a large majority of our readers in
the corn belt, proper to stack their
grain, let it go through the sweat and
then thresh out OF the stack instead
of the shock. 1t involves a little more
labor, but the advantages are so great
that this car safely be disregarded
even when labor Is as scarce as 1t Is
this year.
Where the habit of threshing out
of the shock is general, the grain must
be rushed to market. It may be said
that the high price prevailing this
year will render it more profitable to
rush it at once upon the market; but
our readers must remember that this
immediate demand will be met by the
winter wheat sections in the SOUTH
ern part Of our territory, where
threshing out of the shock is almost
compulsory, and that by the time the
farmer in Iowa, central Illinois, and
north, is ready to put his grain on the
market from the shock the demand
will be fully supplied. Grain threshed
out Of the shock in a humid climate
does not keep well, whereas If stacked
and allowed to go through the sweat,
it can be kept for one or two years
and marketed at leisure.
The great objection in the minds
of many farmers to stacking their
grain Is that by the time the grain is
ready to thresh the threshermen have
threshed the shock grain in the neigh
borhood and will not return until that
season is over. Hence it is necessary
for farmers in a neighborhood to agree
as to which method they will follow.
If they will agree as to either method,
everything will work smoothly. II
they do not agree, there will be more
or less difficulty. Hence we suggest
that this matter be taken up at the
very first convenient opportunity and
one of the two methods determined
on.
There are large sections in our
territory, and especially in the west
and northwest where no other method
but thresheng out of the shock is
practicable. This is another reason
why stacking should be resorted to in
the humid section. The market will
be glutted with the shock threshed
grain; and If farmers in the humid
section thresh out of shock also, the
entire crop has to be marketed in the
early part of the season, and conse
quently at lower prices. For 1t must
be remembered that somebody must
hold the grain from the time it is
grown until it is consumed. The
cheapest place to hold it is on the
farm, thus securing at the same time
a better quality.
There is nothing at present to indi-
cate that a good quality of wheat,
oats, or barley will be a drug on the
market this year. There have been
immense losses in the winter wheat
belt in all the western states, particu-
larly in Oklahoma and parts of
Kansas, through. the exceeding wet
weather that has prevailed in those
sections for the last month. There
are large areas Of winter wheat OF
twenty to thirty bushels per acre that
cannot be harvested at the proper
time, not merely on low lands but on
lands which In ordinary years would
! be as hard as rock, and where horses