THE

AMERICAN

WHEAT CULTURIST.

Ji f rattual fnatise

ON THE

CULTURE OF WHEAT,

EMBRACING A BRIEF HISTORY AND BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF WHEAT,
WITH FULL PRACTICAL DETAILS FOR SELECTING SEED, PRO
DUCING NEW VARIETIES, AND CULTIVATING ON
DrFFERENT KINDS OF SOIL.

Illustrated with Num&rous Engravings of a Practical Character.

BY S. EDWARDS TODD,

AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES, AND AUTHOR
OF " THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL," ETC., ETC.

NEW YORK :

TAIJSTTOR BROTHERS & CO.,

229 BROADWAY.

1868.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by

TAINTOR BROTHERS & CO.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.

THE NEW YORK PRINTING COMPANY,

81, 83, AND 85 Centre Street,

NEW YORK.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Introduction to Wheat Culture — Botanical Description of

Wheat — Description of Varieties, 9

CHAPTER II.

Soil for Wheat, and Preparation — Culture and Fructification, . 120

CHAPTER III.

Saving Seed Grain — Procuring Early Varieties — When to Sow
Wheat, . 235

CHAPTER IV.

Wheat Harvest — General Management of Wheat — Machinery, . 325

CHAPTER Y.

Mildew — Diseases of Wheat — Insect Enemies of Wheat — Reme
dies for Insect Ravages, 406

171781

PREFACE.

My apology for writing a book on wheat is simply my
desire to aid farmers in their efforts to produce more bountiful
crops of this kind of grain. For more than forty successive
years, I have had more or less practical experience in the cul
ture of wheat. I have studied the habit of the wheat plant
far more, perhaps, than the great mass of farmers have con
sidered the subject to be of any practical importance. I have
investigated the failures of the wheat crop, and endeavored to
discover efficient and practical remedies.

I have excluded from the book every subject that might
leave the ambitious young farmer in doubt ; and have simply
made a record of my own practical experience. There are
scores of successful farmers who know most of what is con
tained in these pages. But the great mass of young farmers,
who are just taking the places of their fathers, have yet to
learn the important fundamental principles laid down in this
work. Thousands upon thousands of active men, who know
little about the practical part of raising wheat, will find in the
following pages exactly the information they must have, before
they can raise a bountiful crop of this kind of grain.

Some of the articles were prepared originally by my pen,
for the Independent, New York Observer, New York Times, and
American Agriculturist. But after publication in those papers,
they were rewritten and revised. I herewith desire to give
honorable and honest credit for anything that has appeared in
those periodicals and in this book also.

With a few exceptions, the illustrations were originally pre
pared by myself for this book. The use of cuts on pages 11,
25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 39, 99, 406, 407, 408, 415, has been kindly

v PREFACE.

afforded by Moore, Wilstack & Baldwin, Cincinnati, O., and
62 Walker St., New York City, publishers of "Klippart's
Wheat Plant." I have quoted a few pages from his work ; and
I sincerely hope every reader will procure a copy, as it will
be found an excellent introductory treatise to this book.

I have aimed to bring out in these pages all the facts on
wheat culture that young farmers will be ambitious to know.
If they will peruse this book with care, they will find an answer
to nearly every question that they may wish to have answered
about wheat. Although my instructions are strictly elemen
tary, they are by no means superficial. Mere theories have
been discarded. My aim has been to tell farmers how to raise
good wheat, where their predecessors failed to get fair crops.
If they follow my directions, success will crown their efforts.

I have frequently referred to my first and second volumes
of The Young Farmer's Manual. The first has met with an
excellent reception. The second is just issued ; and is follow
ing the first. This Wheat Culturist may be called a third vol
ume, as they are intimately connected with each other.

Illustrations of certain farm implements have been intro
duced for the express purpose of directing beginners where to
procure reliable tools and machines that stand preeminently
the highest in our country.

Read the Index and Table of Contents.

SERENO EDWARDS TODD,

Office New York Times, New York City.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION TO WHEAT CULTURE.

" The sire of gods and men with hard decrees,
Forbids our plenty to be bought with ease ;
And wills, that mortal men inured to toil,
Should exercise with pains, the grudging soil."

UNREMITTING diligence is the price of material luxuries.
The beautiful compensation principle seems to pervade
the entire domain of all animated existence. Well-
directed skill and industry are always crowned with a
satisfactory reward. To do something — to make some
thing — to give material substances a variety of forms — to
produce something useful out of certain useless sub
stances, is a consideration worthy of our highest ambi
tion. There is an indescribable satisfaction in doing
something. There is a charm in industry. The man
who toils through a long summer's day to catch a single
trout experiences an enjoyment when partaking of his
frugal meal which he could never feel were the same
h'sh taken by other hands. And the same is true of him
who cultivates the soil to secure his daily bread. Were

10 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

a field of wheat to spring up spontaneously, and were we
not required to break up the stubborn ground and culti
vate it, and put in the well-selected seed, existence would
not bring half the pleasures which it now proffers so
freely. The all-wise Creator foresaw that it would always
be better for every man, woman, and child to have some
thing to do, than to spend their days in idleness. For this
reason, if we would have fine wheat for making excellent
bread for ourselves and children, we must labor for it.

It has been suggested by some writers that the diffi
culties attending the production of delicious fruits, and
fine grain, seem to increase with developments in arts and
science. As our day is, so shall our knowledge be. Our
ancestors cultivated wheat with but little difficulty. As
soon, therefore, as scientific men were competent to devise
remedies for the insect and other enemies in checking
the growth of the wheat crop, the foes appeared. Science
has taught us that, if we would have ripe fruit, we must
destroy the insects which will devour the young fruit or
kill the tree. And science has taught us that, when we
would grow wheat, as we are unable to exterminate the
hordes of insects that would feed upon the crop, we must
cultivate and enrich the soil so as to make the plants grow
faster than the insects can eat.

CHEMICAL STRUCTURE OF WHEAT.

In common parlance, when wheat is alluded to, the
bran and the flour only are spoken of. The bran is the
tough skin that envelops the part that makes the flour.
Then, when we discourse farther of wheat, we say that
the part that makes the flour is composed principally of
starch and gluten.

THE WHEAT CULTTJEIST.

11

if with a sharp knife we slice up a kernel of
wheat into thin sections, and examine it with a glass of
greatly magnifying power, the various parts will appear
similar to the ac-

companying illus- „ ISjSlOT^TBF
tration, which rep
resents a portion
of a kernel of wheat
highly magnified.
The part of the ker
nel represented by
a a shows an ex
ceedingly thin por
tion of the external
part of the bran.
The section repre
sented by 5 reveals
a second layer filled
with minute pores.
At c is a third layer,
much more delicate
than either of the
others, which is so
exquisitely fine, that
its presence can
scarcely be detected,
even by the aid of
a good glass. The part of the illustration at d, repre
sents the portion of the kernel which is composed prin
cipally of gluten. " These four layers constitute the
bran. The gluten in the cells, <#, appears to be a faint
yellowish substance, very small grained, and oily to the
touch and smell. The cells in which the gluten is

FIG. 1. — Section of a kernel of wheat highly mag
nified.

12 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

formed are rather larger than any of the cells of the
three layers just described, the walls of which are per
haps more delicate than any others in the entire kernel."
Directly beneath the cells of gluten, d, lies the albumi
nous portion of the seed, which consists of hexagonal
prismatic cells, which are filled with ovoid granules of
starch, shown at e. These granules of starch, f, are
enveloped in several layers of cellulose, or cell mem
brane, which, when heated to excess in water, burst
and exude the starch contained in them. Gluten
affords large quantities of nitrogenous matter.

INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON PLANTS.

A writer in the " Portland Press " gives some facts to
show that a northern climate, within certain limits, is
better adapted to those plants which yield food, than
the warmer climate, where the same plant is indigenous.
In order to succeed most satisfactorily, he thinks south
ern plants must be carried to a latitude north of the
place where they grow. He writes :

" That a northern climate is more conducive to
health than a southern one, is generally admitted ; but
that its influence upon the vegetable kingdom is more
propitious to the perfectability of plants necessary for
the sustenance of man and of beast, is a proposition
perhaps not so generally noticed and adopted as it
should be. In these cold northern regions we some
times need to be apprised of facts which will rebuke
the spirit of discontent, and make us more reconciled
to the climate in which Providence has cast our lot.

" The influence of climate upon plants is unquestion
able. Those carried from the North to the South

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 13

erally deteriorate ; those brought from the South are
generally improved by the transfer. In the process of
vegetable acclimation, nature indicates that plants
should emigrate toward the fields and gardens of
northern cultivation, rather than that northern cultiva
tors should emigrate toward south-born plants. The
process, indeed, is slow, but it is sure. Tropical plants,
which once could hardly exist beyond a vertical sun,
have, by acclimation, been transferred to temperate lati
tudes, and made to yield larger and better fruits than
they ever were capable of yielding in their native
soils.

" In general it is true that all cultivated plants yield
the greatest products, and these of an improved quality,
near the northernmost limit in which they will ripen.
This is true of all the farinaceous plants, such as rice,
maize, wheat, rye, oats, barley, and millet ; of all tuber
ous and bulbous roots, as potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips,
parsnips, and radishes ; of all lint plants, as cotton, hemp,
and flax ; of the salad family, as cabbage, lettuce, endive,
and spinach ; of all the grasses, from timothy and red-
top to lucern and the clovers, red and white ; of all the
gourd family, from pumpkins and squashes to cucumbers,
gherkins, and musk and water melons ; of all delicious
and pulpy fruits — as apples, pears, peaches, nectarines,
grapes, plums, cherries, currants, gooseberries, and straw
berries. It is also equally true of sugar cane, sorgo, and
tobacco. Each and all of these most important products
of the earth are improved by northern acclimation, and
when brought as far into the high latitudes as they can
be made to grow and mature, are found to produce in
the greatest perfection and of a more excellent quality.
The reason is this : the hot sun of a southern sky forces

THE WHEAT CULTTJKIST.

the plants into a rapid fructification before they have
had time to concoct their juices. The growth in stalk,
vine, and foliage is too much for the composition of
fruit."

It is stated by respectable authority, that wheat raised
in Virginia is better for making white bread than
northern grain. The wheat grown in Missouri and in
California yields a flour that commands a higher price
in market than the northern wheat. The flour of the
California wheat is said to yield a larger percentage of
gluten than wheat that was grown in latitudes north
of the latitude of California.

I pen these suggestions simply for the purpose of
awakening in young farmers a spirit of investigation,
with a view of encouraging them to take critical obser
vations on every subject connected with the cultivation
of this valuable grain.

GROWING WHEAT THEN AND Now.

The question is asked with no little solicitude, why
farmers cannot raise as good wheat at the present time
as they did fifty years ago ? Then, a, crop of wheat was
as sure as a crop of Indian corn ; and, in numerous in-
.stances, three bountiful crops of wheat were taken from
the same field, in three successive seasons. I well re
member, when a small lad, that my father raised three
crops of wheat in one of his fields in three successive
years ; and the third year, the growing grain seemed
heavier than either of the preceding crops. Then, with
miserable cultivation, and only a small quantity of
inferior barnyard manure, a farmer could count upon a
heavy crop of first-rate wheat, with almost absol nte cer-

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 15

tainty. But now, many of our best farmers have met
with so many serious failures and disappointments in
their wheat crops, that they are sometimes exceedingly
loath to try again.

The true causes of failure have not, as yet, been satis
factorily unravelled. It is a remarkable fact, that the
product of good wheat has not only diminished, but the
quality of the grain has greatly deteriorated. Then,
it was a common occurrence to see an entire crop of
wheat as fair and plump as the best qualities of seed
grain at the present day. Scientific farmers and in
telligent laborers have been anxiously inquiring after
the cause; and one has assigned the ravages of the
midge as the main cause, while others have attributed
the failure of crops to the increased severity of climatic in
fluences following the removing of our extensive forests.
Besides these causes, others have assigned another, to
them, plausible cause, which is the diminution of those
elements of fertility in the soil which are essential to the
formation of the grain. But all these reasons have been
satisfactorily refuted, in most instances, when taken
alone. We must, therefore, attribute the failure — not
to any single cause — but to a variety of such causes as
have been mentioned, operating together to the great
injury of the wheat crop. There is one observation in
which I think every intelligent farmer will coincide with
me, which is this : If a piece of new land be sowed
with choice seed wheat, and a dense forest protects the
field during the winter, and if the midge do not injure
the growing crop, the yield will be about as bountiful
as crops were forty years ago. These hints suggest
what is required in order to succeed in raising a bounti
ful crop of wheat.

16 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

In the year 1861-62, I was ruralizing in Monroe Co.,
N. Y., when I penned the following suggestion, touch
ing the culture of wheat in the wheat-producing part
of the State :

In the county of Monroe, thirty or more years ago,
raising wheat was attended with remarkably good sue
cess. Indeed, wheat was the great staple with farmers
for many successive years. Many old farmers with
whom I conversed, pointed out to me whole farms, here
and there, and many large fields, where the yield was
seldom less than forty bushels of most beautiful wheat
per acre; and, in many instances, the yield would be
fifty bushels. But at the present time, on the same soil,
the yield is expressed by any number from eight to
thirty bushels per acre.

" We cannot raise wheat now, as we could once," was
the oft-repeated expression among old farmers ; and the
reason assigned, usually, was the " insects — the wheat
midge makes such ravages in the crop." Thirty or forty
years ago, they had all the advantages of a most excellent
virgin soil, which was as well adapted to wheat as any
other crop ; and had there been proper care exercised
with reference to keeping the soil in a good state of fer
tility, by making and applying as much barnyard manure
as was practicable, there never would have been such a
decrease in the number of bushels per acre, as farmers
now talk of. Old farmers have told that " here on these
fields we once could raise three crops of wheat in succes
sion, and the third would be fully equal to the first." Of
course, under such a system of farm management, the
most productive soil that can be found in the country
would fail to produce a remunerating crop, after so many
years of hard cropping. I was assured that thirty years

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 17

ago they were sure of a good crop of wheat, even when
the soil was very poorly cultivated. But now wheat
was the most uncertain crop that they attempted to cul
tivate.

WINTER WHEAT — Triticum Hybernum.
SPRING WHEAT — Triticum (Estivum.

" In the rich soil, clean wheat we sow ;
Out of the soil, fine wheat we grow ;
In measureless store, we garner the sheaves
When the kernels are ripe, and dry the leaves ;
Out of the sheaves, pure wheat we beat ;
Out of the chaff, we winnow the wheat."

EDWARDS.

Wheat is one of the most excellent of our cereal
grains. JBotonicatfy, wheat is one of the grasses. But,
from time immemorial, the wheat plant has been cul
tivated for its excellent and fine grain.

The origin of wheat is not positively known. Still,
there is good reason for the belief, that, when " the
Lord God made every plant of the field before it was
in the earth" (Gen. ii. 5), wheat was one of the finest
productions of His hands. And, there is no doubt, that
this esculent grain constituted a good proportion of the
best food of the antediluvians.

The first allusion to wheat in sacred history is in
Gen. xxx. 14, during the patriarchal age, by which we
may infer that wheat was raised by the servants of
Jacob. And, when the Lord sent the destructive plague
of hail on the land of the ancient Egyptians, Moses has
told us, Ex. ix. 32, that " the wheat and the rye were
not smitten." In Numbers xviii. 12, wheat is alluded
to among the offerings of the Israelites. In the days
of the prophet Samuel, and during the reign of David

18 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

and Solomon, this grain is alluded to in such a manner
as to convey the idea that wheat was a kind of grain of
great value and excellence. See Ps. cxlvii. 14, where
" the finest of the wheat " is spoken of as one of the
crowning blessings which the God of Israel lavished on
his obedient people. And wrhen Solomon dipped his
graphic pen to portray the excellent graces of the
Church, nothing would convey a more impressive and
exalted idea of the beauty which he would describe than
" a heap of wheat set about with lilies." (Cant. vii. 2.)
Solomon sent wheat to Hiram, King of Tyre, when he
was erecting the Temple. And in numerous other
places in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, wheat
is alluded to in a manner to convey the idea that it was
the finest of the cereal grains, which rendered the most
excellent food, not only for the poor, but for the rich
and distinguished characters of the age.

There is another idea concerning wheat worthy of
especial notice, which is, that the wheat plant nourishes
in proportion to the intelligence and condition of the
agriculture of the people. This is especially true as to
the condition of agriculture. If the agriculture of a
nation is in a low state, but little or no good wheat will
be found there. On the contrary, where the people are
industrious, well civilized, and their agriculture is in a
good condition, in most latitudes, good wheat — either
winter or spring wheat — is, or may be, raised with
profit, provided the climate is congenial to the produc
tion of this cereal.

WHEAT AN EMBLEM OF CIVILIZATION.
After alluding to the wheat plant as an unequivo-

THE WHEAT CULTURI8T. 19

cal emblem of civilization, enlightenment, and refine-
ment, J. EL Klippart, in his " Wheat Plant," writes
that:

"As truly as did flocks of sheep in the primitive
ages lead the shepherds to the threshold of that truly
magnificent science, Astronomy, just so certainly did
the wheat plant in yet earlier ages induce man to forget
his savagism, abandon his nomadic life, to invent and
cultivate peaceful arts, and lead a rural and peace
ful life. There is not on the vast expanse of the
face of the globe a savage, barbarous, or semi-civilized
nation that cultivates the wheat plant. In the settle
ment of New England, the Indians called the plantain
the ' Englishman's foot ;' and in the infancy of society
wheat may have been similarly regarded as springing
from the footsteps of the Persians or Egyptians.

" The ancients, who had burst the bonds of savag
ism, and scarcely more than escaped from the confines
of barbarism, and through the magic influence of the
fruit of the wheat stalk, barely reached the threshold of
civilization, retained a grateful memory of the plant,
which was the prime cause of their amelioration. They
erected temples and instituted an appropriate rite for
the worship of the goddess Ceres, who was by them
regarded, not only as the patron goddess of the crops,
but the propitiator of sound morals, and the promoter
of peace and peaceful avocations.

" In their traditions of the wars of the giants, the
ancient Germans have a legend, the purport of which
is, that Thor, the agriculturist, obtained possession of
the soil from Winter, who had depressed, brutalized,
scattered, and destroyed the inhabitants with his chill
ing blasts and storms of sleet and snow, and drenching

20 THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST.

showers of rain, upon condition that he would intro
duce harmony, peace, and fellowship into social life by
the culture of straw-producing plants.

" The culture of the wheat-bearing plant compelled
the cultivator to abandon the wild or nomadic life which
it is not unreasonable to suppose he must have led ; and
the time which otherwise would have been spent in
roaming through the forests, was now spent in contriv
ing indispensable implements. First and prominent
among these were the plough and harrow — rude beyond
question in mechanical structure, and uncouth in ap
pearance, yet they were the first peaceful, and at the
same time utilitarian products of civilization.

" Thus has the culture of this straw-growing plant
caused savages to abandon their barbarous customs —
has fixed in friendly communion many nomadic and
rival hordes — inaugurated the greatest era the world
ever saw, the era from which the human race may date
its incipient civilization — the era of labor. The continued
culture and increase of this plant has from the very
commencement called into action all the resources of
civilized nations. After the invention of the plough and
harrow, man's inventive genius was tasked to produce
a reaping hook or sickle ; and successively during the
many ages of the historic period has this plant called
into existence the scythe, the grain cradle, winnowing
machine, sowing machine, thrashing machine, and
within our own day and generation, the reaping ma
chine. The prolificacy of this plant has brought into
existence the cart and the wagon in the earlier ages of
society, but in more recent ones it has demanded the
construction of turnpikes and macadamized roads
through the pathless wilderness ; that canals be dug to

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 21

unite the waters which flow to the northward with those
which flow to the equator ; that boats be constructed,
and ships with wide-spreading canvas were found to be
indispensable ; and lastly, the steamboat, steamship,
railroad, and steam flouring-mill were as loudly and
as earnestly demanded in our day as was the rude plough
in the first days of civilization.

" There is not in the entire catalogue of plants an
other one which has been as instrumental in the devel
opment of mechanical ingenuity, and the intellectual
faculties, as has been, and is, the wheat plant. It is
true that fibre-producing plants, and prominently among
these flax and cotton, have exercised considerable influ
ence in the development of mechanical inventions ; but
upon strict examination it will be found that very many
of the principles of mechanical structures and combi
nations of powers had already been called into requisi
tion by the fibre produced by the sheep, and the thread
produced by the silk- worm.

" In countries where the agricultural art, or rather
the culture of the wheat plant, has fallen into disuse,
there has civilization also retrograded ; and were it
not for commerce with enlightened and refined nations,
several countries would speedily relapse into all the hor
rors of absolute barbarism. Were the wheat plant
' blotted out of existence,' society would of necessity
revert to its original state. In vain would the miner
delve in the bowels of the earth to bring forth the dark
and heavy ore to make iron. ~No iron would be wrought
because there would be no use for ploughs, and conse
quently, no use for the thousand mechanical contriv
ances for sowing, harvesting, thrashing, cleaning, trans
porting, and grinding wheat. Is it not astonishing to

22 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

reflect on the number of persons engaged in the culture
of the plant, the number engaged in constructing and
improving machinery to gather and prepare the seed,
the number engaged in transporting the grain from
place to place, as well as the number engaged in the
manufacture of flour, and the preparation of bread.
Truly is not the wheat the plant, the corner-stone of
civilization, and would not the destruction of it over
whelm society with darkness blacker than the storm-
cloud at midnight ! Does the extreme cold of winter
destroy the germ of the stalk in the plant ? have the
rains been too frequent and too abundant, or has a
pitiless and heartless hail-storm levelled it to the earth ?
Then how many are the thousands to whom is brought
suffering and sorrow and hunger !

" While the hands of industry are busily employed in
securing the product yielded by the wheat plant, every
one is eagerly and earnestly shaping his demand for a
pro rata of the results. This one has closeted himself,
and buried himself in the stud}7 of law ; that one has
seized the pencil or the chisel ; another has taken to the
jack-plane ; a fourth has mounted the fearful locomo
tive ; a fifth has intrusted himself to the treacherous
waves of the briny deep ; a sixth has picked up the
sledge, whose uses were taught to mankind by Yulcan,
and from sun to sun strikes the patient anvil ; all, all
having a single and identical object in view, namely,
that of exchanging the fruits of their labors for the
fruits of the wheat plant. Thus is the action of society
kept in a continual round of exchange, like a bark on a
sluggish eddy, forever departing from the shore only to
be forever arriving at it, and forever arriving only to be
forever departing. The pearl-fisher dives fearlessly into

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 23

the fathomless deeps of the ocean for the animal prod
uct found among the rocky polyp-trees ; the miner
excavates the subterranean shaft for gold ; the artists
produce articles of the most exquisite workmanship,
and like a beast of burden, the porter tenders the services
of his physical strength in order to obtain a proportion
of the products of the wheat plant. All that we see or
hear, all that is done, all that is spoken, written, or
thought, is performed directly or indirectly on account
of the fruit of that plant, which introduced, developed,
and to-day maintains civilization."

OLD GKEVECXEUK'S SPEECH.

When the aborigines of our country saw the refine
ment of character, the spirit of philanthropy, which
possessed the hearts of their white neighbors, their ob
serving chieftain, Crevecceur, of the now extinct tribe
of the Mississais, is said to have addressed his people in
the following pathetic remarks :

" Do you not see the whites living upon seeds, while
we eat flesh? That flesh requires more than thirty
moons to grow up, and is then often scarce. Each
of the wonderful seeds they sow in the earth returns
them an hundred fold. The flesh on which we subsist
has four legs to escape from us, while we have but two
to pursue and capture it. The grain remains where the
white men sow it, and grows. With them winter is a
period of rest ; while with us, it is the time of laborious
hunting. For these reasons they have so many chil
dren, and live longer than we do. I say, therefore, unto
every one that will hear me, that before the cedars of
our village shall have died down with age, and the

24 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

maple trees of the valley shall have ceased to give us
sugar, the race of the little corn (wheat) sowers will
have exterminated the race of the flesh-eaters, provided
their huntsmen do not resolve to become sowers."

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF WHEAT.

Although this portion of rny treatise on wheat may be
quite uninteresting to men who are solely practical, still
I think every ambitions farmer will be interested in the
botanical description of a plant so eminently valuable
as wheat. Boys in particular, I think, will be ambitious
to learn the names of the various parts of the growing
plant.

That part of the wheat plant which farmers colloqui
ally call the head or ear, is termed, botanically, a spike,
as 14, in the accompanying illustration. A subdivision
of a spike, or ear, is called a sp-ikelet. In some sections
of the country, a spikelet is better understood if it is
spoken of as a breast of wheat. At A, in the illustra
tion, a three flowered spikelet is represented. B B are
the beards or awns. The ear 14 is called beardless, awn-
less, or bald wheat. At the right hand, 1 represents the
rachis, or the centre of the ear, as it appears after the
grain and chaff are removed, either by thrashing,
or rubbing the ears in the hands. The spikelets are
placed on alternate sides of the rachis, so that the edges
of the florets, 5, 5, 10, in the spikelet, A, of the illus
tration, lie toward each other. At 4, the glumes are
represented. At 13, a kernel of grain is shown. B, 2.
represents a kernel of wheat enclosed in the chaff; or
such portions are spoken of as " white caps"

Certain kinds of wheat are remarkable for white caps,

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

25

Previous to the invention of the thrashing-machines,
when the wheat was thrashed with flails, or trod out
with horses, white caps were a serious annoyance, when

FIG. 2. — Different parts of a wheat bead.

grain was being prepared for market. But thrashing-
machines remove the inner chaff, or the white caps. At

2

26 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

4, 5, 6, 7 an awned glume and kernel is represented,
with the grain laid bare. Before thrashing-machines
were invented, farmers considered it an important char
acteristic of wheat to thrash easily, and be free from
white caps. The old bald wheat, and the Hutchinson
wheat always thrashed easily. But the Whitefnnt
variety furnished white caps in untold numbers. But
now some wheat-growers consider the Whitenint variety
the most desirable, as the kernels are enveloped closely
in the inner chaff; consequently, the wheat midge is not
so apt to injure the grain as if the chaff were more
open.

How KERNELS OF WHEAT GERMINATE.

" Lo ! on each seed, within its slender rind,
Life's golden threads in endless circles wind ;
Maze within maze the lucid webs are rolled,
And as they burst, the living flames unfold :
Grain within grain, successive harvests dwell,
And boundless forests slumber in a shell.''

The germination of a kernel of grain, the manner of
the growth of the roots of the young plant and their
ramifications through the soil, the unfolding of plumule,
or stem, and the full and perfect development of the
ear and the full corn in the ear, all considered collec
tively, constitute a wonderful mystery ! When we con
sider what a very minute and tender thing the germ of
a kernel of wheat is ; how easily a score of enemies may
destroy it, or how quickly some adverse influence of
cold or heat, or of both operating alternately, may de
stroy the vitality of the germ, it is really a wonder
that farmers are ever able to produce a single bushel of
wheat.

The accompanying illustration represents a kernel of

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

27

Fig. 3.— A kernel of
wheat magnified.

wheat with the groove downward. The part marked
a represents the main part of the kernel which supplies
nourishment to the growing plant.
By cutting a kernel of grain into thin
slices with a sharp knife, the germ or
embryo may be seen at e. At b the
plumule, or stem, appears ; and c rep
resents the radicle, while h and d
show the first and second skin of the
kernel. The true roots issue at the
points of the kernel represented at
f and g. J. H. Klippart states in his
" Wheat Plant," that as soon as moist
ure has found its way through the
canals in the husks or skins, #, a, Z>, <?,
and d, so as to be in contact with the
starch cells, e, the moisture penetrates the cell-walls
of the seed and its embryo, and there forms a strong
solution. The seed has now the power of decompos
ing water. The oxygen in the water combines with
some of the carbon of the seed, when the product is ex
pelled as carbonic acid. The presence of moisture and
oxygen induces putrefaction of a portion of the albu
minous matter in the cells, which becomes an actual fer
ment, exhaling carbonic acid gas, generating heat, and
converting the insoluble starch which is stored up in the
kernel into soluble sugar.

The starchy substances deposited within the seed were
undoubtedly designed to furnish food to the young plant
until the roots and leaves have attained sufficient size to
derive nourishment from the soil and the atmosphere.
In wheat, starch is the most important ingredient of
plant food.

28 THE WHEAT CULTIJKIST.

The germination of a kernel of wheat is further illus
trated by the figure herewith given, which represents
a grain of wheat highly magnified. B represents the
body of the kernel, composed of starch and gluten. A
is the cellular tissue, the original covering of the embryo
blade. C is the main root ; and D shows the hard cellular
matter which constitutes the base of growth of the root
and stem. E, E, E are free cones of cells at the
points of roots. F, F are lateral roots, a is the future
stalk or plumule, d is the course of bundle of dotted
fibre. 0, e, e are suckers ; and/1, i represent the course
of spiral fibre. A, A, h show the cellular tissue, or
covering of the blade.

FIG. 4.

SPONGIOLES.

I have met with certain botanists who sneer at the
idea of there being spongioles at the ends of the roots
of wheat. Yet, all the most reliable authors of trea
tises on botanical subjects speak of spongioles. And if

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

a person will examine the ends of roots of the wheat
plant, with a microscope, he will find a free cone, or
Bpongiole, at the ends of the roots E, E, Fig. 4 ; and
the same thing, highly magnified, is represented at
Fig. 5. The part represented by the letter d is the
root; and c, b is the lozenge-shaped cone. This free
capsule envelops the inner apex of the growing root ;
but there is a space free from cells between the base of
the cone and the apex of the root which the cone covers.
Beneath this cellulated cone, or capsule, the growth of
the roots takes place, by the development of cells at the

FIG. 5. — Spongiole highly magnified.

extremity of the inner apex of the roots. Soon after
the main roots are formed, suckers, or rootlets, e, e, 0,
Fig. 4, are put forth, on the ends of which are minute

30

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

capsules, similar to the magnified spongiole represented
by Fig. 5.

The grand practical point for farmers to consider is
this : the capsules at the ends of the roots are thrust
through the soil like the point of a plough ; and the roots
are formed behind them. This teaches us the eminent
importance of assisting nature, by preparing a mellow
seed-bed, through which the roots may spread with little
difficulty.

THE STEM, OR PLUMULE.

The illustration herewith given represents the ex
tremity of the stem of wheat, highly magnified, as the
end appears when the wheat is coming up. Although
this illustration resembles a stack of hay or straw, it
exhibits the free capsule of cells and epidermic plasm?
which are so nearly identical with those of the roots of
the same growing wheat plant.

As soon as the plumule
-co has forced its way through
the soil, and appeared
above the surface of the
ground an inch or more
— J. H. Klippart in his
Wheat Plant states— that
the stem gives birth to the
first true leaves, as seen
in Fig. 8 011 a succeeding
page, while the central bud
is destined to become the
future stalk. There can be
FIG. 6.-End of the plumule. no reasonable doubt that

the cellular envelop, A, B, performs a similar function

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 31

to the capsules of the roots, Fig. 4. In other words,
the material in the envelop exerts a chemical influence
on the soil which lies immediately above it, rendering
the earth more yielding and pliable, so much so that
the tender plumule can come up into the sunlight and
air with little difficulty.

The plumule is of great importance to the existence
of the wheat plant. By its existence we may readily
demonstrate how dependent each organ of a plant is on
the other, and how harmoniously every part performs
its destined function in sublime silence. If the heart,
or plumule, of the young wheat plant be pulled out
from between the leaves, it will riot be replaced by a
new one. Yet, if the kernel or plant be not too much
exhausted by a luxuriant growth, a new plumule will
appear from the grain, or main root, directly below the
surface of the soil.

The first effort of the growing plant toward more
perfect development is to form a joint, or knot, im
mediately beneath the surface of the soil, and another
a little above the surface. The upper one of these
joints is the true commencement of the stalk. The
joint beneath the surface marks the place from whence
the coronal roots emanate, as has been already stated on
a preceding page. These coronal roots are the chief
laboratory for the preparation and distribution of the
future nourishment of the growing plants.

THE ACTION OF ROOTS AND SPONGIOLES.

" There is no subject connected with vegetable physi
ology which more nearly concerns the practical cultivator,
as well as the man of science, than the precise nature

32 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

of the action of roots ; for on them, more than on any
other organ of a plant, depends the health of crops of
every kind, without one single exception. That the
subject has not received more attention is one of the
curiosities of science. It is true there are many state
ments of variable character and value ; yet even more
speculations respecting the manner in which roots be
have — theories of excretion — assertions regarding the
chemical action roots are said to exercise on dead mat
ter ; but the quiet practical man who reads 'these be
yond the atmosphere of science, is far from being
satisfied with what he finds in books.

" The question as to whether the roots of plants are
or not endowed with any special excretory functions is
one which has occupied the attention of many natural
ists, as being one of considerable importance, as well to
the vegetable physiologist as to the agriculturist, in its
application to the principles of alternation of crops.
!No absolute conclusion has as yet been come to, the
affirmative as well as the negative having been respec
tively maintained, either from general induction, or more
rarely from direct observation and experiment. The
opinion, however, that no such excretions take place, has
been the most generally adopted.

" The impossibility of closely following under the
microscope, in their natural circumstances, vegetable
phenomena winch take place under ground, and conse
quently in the dark, and in an opaque medium, is ob
vious. As a nearest approach to it, Gasparrini has
caused the seeds of various plants to germinate under
glass, in water, or in well- washed sand, in the dark or
under diffused light, and thus examined their roots with
out disturbance in various stages and at various seasons.

THE WHEAT CULTUBIST. 33

He also raised plants for the purpose in vases of sand
well pulverized and washed, so as to be able to free the
roots for examination, at a more advanced period with
the least possible injury. His numerous experiments
appear to have been conducted with the most scrupu
lous care, for which, moreover, his well-known success
in analogous researches offers a sufficient guarantee.

" It has long been known that roots absorb the nutri
ment necessary for the plant, by means of the young
fibres which form the ultimate ramifications of the roots ;
that these fibres are terminated by a short portion of a
loose and soft texture called by botanists the spongiole,
Fig. 5 ; that this spongiole is the point of growth of the
fibre, usually bearing at its extremity a kind of cap of
a harder and drier texture, called the pileorhiza, «, Fig.
5, which is pushed forward by the fibre as it grows ;
and that, immediately below the spongiole, the fibre is
usually more or less invested with a short down consist
ing of small spreading hairs. Gasparrini shows that
the spongiole itself seldom takes any part in the absorp
tion of the nutriment for the plant, but is nothing more
than the young as yet imperfect part of the fibre, con
sisting of cellular tissue in the course of formation ; that
the pileorhiza is a portion of the epidermis or covering
of the fibre, which, after a period of comparative rest,
is torn from the remainder of the epidermis and pushed
forward by the growth of the spongiole under it, and is
ultimately cast off, to be reproduced by similar causes
the following season ; and that in the great majority of
vascular plants the nutriment is either entirely or chiefly
absorbed by the root hairs formed on the young fibres
at the base of the spongiole, and which he on that ac
count denominates suckers.

2*

34: THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

" Each of these root hairs or suckers consists of a sub-
cuticular cellule of the epidermis, more or less length
ened out into a cylindrical hair-like form. It is at first
uniformly smooth and straight, but at a later period
either the extremity or the upper portion or sometimes
nearly the whole length becomes variously deformed by
club-shaped dilations, or irregular ramifications. The
length of the suckers, and the shapes of these irregu
larities, are often more or less affected by the obstacles
they meet with in the earth, but not entirely so ; for
when grown in water perfectly free from an impediment
there is very great irregularity in both respects. In
ternally, however much ramified, the cell remains entire
with one continuous cavity from the base to the extrem
ity of all its branches. Its walls also consist of a single
membrane, no chemical reagent having disclosed any
distinction between the walls of the cell and an external
cuticle.

" These suckers appear to absorb the alimentary juices
by endosmose over their whole surface. Like leaves on
the young aerial shoots, they are formed on the young
shoots of the roots ; like leaves also they die and disap
pear after a longer or shorter season, leaving the old
roots entirely without them.

" When fully formed, and before they decay, these
suckers become more or less covered in their irregular
branching portion (rarely in their basal cylindrical part),
with viscous papillae or adhesive globules, forming gran
ular masses, to which the surrounding earthy particles
strongly adhere. Are these viscous masses excretions
from the roots, or are they the residue of substances
contained in the earth and chemically decomposed by
the roots in the absorption of such elements only as

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 35

might be suited for the nutriment of the plant ? It is
to the solution of this question that Gasparrini's experi
nients are chiefly directed, and he concludes that they
are entirely exuded from the suckers.

" In the first place he adduces several experiments in
refutation of those who believe that the tender fibres of
roots possess some chemically dissolvent properties, and
that it is by such means that they are enabled to pene
trate into masses of hard substances, whether inorganic
or organic, such as the woody tissue of living plants.
In the case of the common mistletoe growing on a pear
tree, he followed the radical fibres of the parasite from
the woody tissue through the alburnum and the par
enchyma of the bark sometimes to the length of half
an inch. They could be clearly traced their whole
length, although forming an intimate cohesion with the
tissue of the matrix, except the spongiole at the extrem
ity, which was always free ; but he never saw the slight
est indication of any morbid alteration in the tissue
thus penetrated.

" In the case of the young plants of wheat, rye, bar
ley, rape-seed, arid others which had been caused to
germinate under glass, the process of excretion was
readily observed. Previous to the formation of the ad
hesive globules on the surface, the suckers were full of
a fluid in which floated a granular substance showing
clearly a circulation in two currents, the one ascending,
the other, descending ; after a time the suckers opened
at the extremity and discharged the greater part of the
granular substance they contained, the discharge being
preceded by a peculiar motion analogous to that of
pollen grains before they burst. The contact of a drop
of warm water accelerated the discharge; and if the

36 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

fibre was cut through at its base, the motion of the
sucker was sudden and convulsive, and the contents dis
charged with considerable elasticity.

" In the roots grown naturally within the earth, the
circulation of the fluid contents of the suckers, when
observed, was slow and feeble. Those which yet re
tained the granular substance withinside, were as yet
free from the external papillae, while those covered with
the viscous masses outside, were nearly empty internally.
But in these cases the excretion appeared but rarely to
have been affected by the bursting of the extremity, but
usually by exudation, through the membrane forming
the walls of the cavity, and that in a manner which
could scarcely be explained by endosmose alone, but by
some other force unknown to us, and which must be
included in the mysteries of vital action.

"With regard to the effects produced by these exuda
tions on the capabilities of the soil for the nutriment of
other plants at the same time, or in succession, there is
nothing to show that they possess any acid, caustic, or
saline properties likely to act prejudicially on other
roots. Whether the matter be compared to the fecal
excretions or to the residue left by insensible perspira
tion on the skin of animals, it can well be imagined
that it cannot serve for nutriment if reabsorbed by the
same plants, nor probably if absorbed by others until
decomposed ; but owing to its extreme tenuity the decom
position takes place very readily ; and as recent detritus
of vegetable matter, its quantity is very small in com
parison to that of the decayed sucker and pileorhizas,
and of the numerous fibres which perish from natural
or accidental causes. If in the relative effect of differ
ent plants on the impoverishment of the soil, the radical

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 37

excretions have any effect, it can only be caused by the
difference in the quality left in the soil by different spe
cies. Some of the plants known to exhaust the soil in
the highest degree, such as flax and box, have few or
no suckers to their roots and leave scarce any exuda
tions. Rye and many other grasses deposit very little
in comparison with crucifers and cichoracese. Hemp,
on the other hand, which is a great exhauster, exudes
a great deal by the roots ; so do wheat and barley, but
the exhausting effects of these plants may be traced to
other causes. Thus, then, although from these experi
ments the fact of absorption and excretion from the
surface of organs of temporary duration on the young
shoots of roots is clearly demonstrated, we do not pos
sess any data sufficient to affirm that the matter ex
creted produces any effect whatever on the capability
of the soil to supply nutriment to other plants grown
in it.

" One of the experiments made by Gasparrini is very
instructive as to the noxious effects of vegetable manures
in those first stages of decomposition which are so fa
vorable to the development of moulds. In the month of
January he sowed seeds of Triticum spelta, or as it is
more commonly called Spelts, in a number of small
garden-pots filled with well-washed Yesuvian sand. In
one pot he placed a piece of young dead wood of Ailan-
thus gland ulosus, in another a piece of bread, in another
a portion of a green potato, in a fourth a portion of a
radish root, in a fifth some parings of kid's hoofs and
bits of nutshells, in the sixth nothing, for the sake ot
comparison. The pots were all watereJ with common
drinking-water, exposed by day to diffused light, and in
clear days for a few hours to the direct light of the sun,

38 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

and placed under cover by night. At the end of a
month each pot contained three plants, all, even those
in the pot without any organic substance, equally
healthy and luxuriant, about a span high, and with two
leaves each.

" In the pot in which was the piece of bread, the
roots of the spelt were much branched, the fibres almost
all turned toward the sides of the pot ; the numerous
suckers wrere as yet scarcely modified, or had only slight
gibbosities toward the extremity ; no circulation was
perceptible ; the granular mucous substance inside was
more or less abundant, and many were sprinkled ex
ternally toward the extremity with similar mucous
granular masses. A few fibres approached within a
certain distance of the bread, but none had penetrated
within it. The bread had become a soft, putrid, spongy
mass, covered externally with white branching filaments
spreading from it into the sand in every direction, and
already in many places having nearly reached the sides
of the pot ; and here and there a commencement of fruc
tification seemed to show that these filaments belonged
to a species of Botrytis. The spongy mass of the bread
was also almost entirely occupied by a violet-colored
mycelium which appeared to be that of a Penicillium ;
the filaments of this mycelium had also spread from
the bread in various directions. Some had descended
to the bottom of the pot, where they had attacked and
produced a morbid alteration on one side of a bit of the
rhizome of Smilax aspera, which had been placed over
the hole of the pot. In another direction the mycelium
of this Penicillium, together with a few filaments from
the Botrytis, had reached a fibre of the Triticum, and had
encircled it for the length of half an inch. The portion

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

39

of fibre so attacked was soft, livid, and dead ; and the
extremity toward the spongiole was shrivelled and also
dead. In the livid portion, the suckers were but little
developed and mixed with the Botrytis filaments ; but it
was evident that the chief injury to the roots was pro
duced by the Penicillium, whose filaments adhered
firmly to their epidermis. In none of the other pots
had the roots of the spelt come into contact with the
organic substances deposited in the soil."

BLOSSOMING OF WHEAT.

In order to enable the beginner to understand more
perfectly the character of the wheat plant, I shall en
deavor to explain by the accom
panying illustration, Fig. 7, the
blossom of the growing wheat.
This figure represents a glume
of wheat in bloom, magnified
twelve times, a represents a rup
tured anther, which is that part of
the wheat blossom that contains the
pollen grains in which is found the
male fecundating fluid, principle,
or property of the blossom, by
which two different kinds of grain
growing in close proximity hyb
ridize, or mix. That part marked
1) is termed the filament, or thread,
from its thread-like form; and it
connects the anther to the ovule
or glume, as the case maybe. The
entire organ, «, &, is called a stamen, a, c, c rep re-

FIG. 7.

40 THE WHEAT CIJLTUEIST.

sent the male portion of the wheat blossom; and 0, e
show the appearance of the female part of the flower.
d represents the ovule, or nnimpregnated seed, or part of
the growing plant which is destined to become a seed,
or the new grain. The pistils are always in the centre
of the flower, and are attached to, or surmounted on
the ovule, or ovary, to which they serve as ducts for the
pollen grain, when brought in contact with each other.

It may be perceived by the illustration, that the
anthers, 0, have their exit at the upper portion of the
glumes, so that the pollen may readily descend, by its
own gravity, directly upon the pistils. The pistils and
the pollen grain are covered with an exceedingly thin
coat of mucilaginous matter, which causes them to ad
here, when they are brought in contact.

The grand practical consideration which I have had
in view by recording these suggestions and facts, relative
to the stamens, pistils, and pollen of the wheat blossoms,
is to give practical farmers* a fair idea of the process
of impregnation and hybridization. Yery few farmers
think of this fact. Thousands of practical men of fair
intelligence know nothing about the means by which
wheat mixes, and how varieties, when planted in a close
proximity, mix and soon run out.

HYBRIDIZING WHEAT.

I pen elaborate suggestions under this head for the
purpose of impressing upon the mind of every farmer
the eminent importance of striving to keep his varieties
of wheat from growing in close proximity, and conse
quently from hybridizing ; and I could think of no more
effectual way to accomplish the desired end, than by

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 4:1

introducing to my readers the operation of hybridiza
tion.

D. J. Brown, in one of the Patent Office Reports,
when alluding to the hybridizing of wheat, states that :

" The terms 'inule,' 'hybrid,' ' half-breed,' and i cross
breed ' are vaguely and indiscriminately used by many
writers ; but it is essential to accuracy, that more precise
distinctions should be observed. The offspring of two
animals of different species is a mule, and is seldom en
dowed with the procreative power, and still more rarely
with a long-continued succession. The product of two
plants of different species is a hybrid / and although it is
in general more prosperous than the mule of animals, it
is still destined to yield at length to the beneficent law
of Nature, which ordains that neither among animals
nor vegetables shall the distinctions of species be oblit
erated. The permanent divisions among plants of the
same species, often called ' varieties,' are properly proles,
or races. The product of two individuals of the same
species, but of ditterent races, is a variety, as is every
modification of this, effected by cross-fecundation with
any other variety, or with any of the races of its species.

" Great advantages have been found to proceed from
the practice of cross-fecundation, in the extraordinary
improvement effected in the flowers, esculent vegetables,
and fruits of almost every country. That the Cereals
have only to a limited extent shared these advantages is
a subject of just surprise to the curious inquirer ; but,
until very recently, it was doubted that much, if any
thing, could be accomplished in regard to them. Pro
fessor Gsertner, of Stuttgart, who has been said to have
almost exhausted the subject in certain points of view;
has declared the Cereals to be ' among the plants

42 THE WHEAT CTTLTTTRIST.

least favorable to cross-fecundation." In 1851, however,
prize medals were awarded at the Industrial Exhibition,
in London, to Mr. B. Maund, and to Mr. H. Raynbird,
of the United Kingdom, for their respective collections
of " hybrid Cereali." In their award, the jurors speak
of the process, not as impracticable, but merely as being
difficult, in consequence of the care requisite in remov
ing the unexpanded anthers from one plant, and apply
ing the pollen of another, and subsequently guarding
them from the attacks of birds, insects, and other dis
turbing influences.

" Mr. Maund experimented with ' Cone ' wheat, which
contains much gluten, in the hope that by crossing it
with a race containing more starch, he might obtain a
whiter quality of equal value ; but it is not stated that
he was wholly successful. Mr. Eaynbird commenced
his experiments in 1846, with the ' Hopetoun,' a white
wheat, of long ear and straw, and fine grain, and
'Piper's Thickset,' a coarse red wheat, with thick,
clustered ears, a stiff straw, and very prolific, but liable
to mildew. Mr. Maund enumerates eight instances in
which successful cross-fecundation had taken place, as
follows :

" Mr. Maund found, as a general rule, in the cross-
fecundation of wheat, that a strong male and a weak
female produced a better result than a weak male and a
strong female. This principle holds equally good in
the animal kingdom as well as in the vegetable.

" The entire feasibleness of the production of new va
rieties of wheat by cross-fecundation, and its great de
sirableness, being thus established, it is not doubted that
many intelligent agriculturists of the United States will
be willing to institute further experiments for the pur-

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 4:3

pose of developing improved varieties, or such as shall
be found peculiarly adapted to the soil, climate, or de
mands of particular sections of the country ; and, for
their guidance, a few practical suggestions will here be
given.

" 'New varieties thus produced resemble both parents,
but seldom in an equal degree. In successful experi
ments, they are usually of earlier development than
either parent, more prolific, and better adapted to with
stand cold and drought. A late plant of an early, and
an early plant of a late race, may be made to produce
early, late, and intermediate varieties. Sometimes,
wrhen the first cross is not good, a mixture between it
and one of the parent races, or even a second or third
cross of this nature, may result in the desired quality.
Two races, which do not cross freely, may also find a
medium of union in a third. Again, a race that will
not readily receive, will often freely impart impregna
tion.

" In every perfect head of wheat, there are, during the
blooming season, both male and female organs of repro
duction, three stamens and one pistil. The stamens, or
male organs, shoot out beyond the chaff, or calyx, each
having an anther suspended by a fine thread.

" The three males are designed to impregnate the
stigma of the one female, or pistil, which is situated in
the centre of the anthers. From these anthers, a pow
der, or pollen, is emitted, which adheres to, or is ab
sorbed by, the stigma, and is conveyed by it down to
the berry, or seed, at its base, and thus effects the work
of fecundation. So decided is the preference of the
pistil for the pollen of its own stamens, that it is often
impossible to impregnate it with that of any other head,

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

while a particle of this is near. Impregnation takes
place best when the weather is dry and warm, as a pecu
liar warmth, and a certain electric state of the atmos
phere, prepare the parts for this process, which always
occurs on a dry day. The opinion, indeed, has been ex
pressed, that the pollen of the male conveys hydrogen
to the ovules of the female ; that oxygen is received from
the atmosphere, and carbon, in the form of carbonic
acid gas, from the roots ; and that, when the pollen is
destroyed by the rain, or from any other cause, the
carbon alone is found in the ear ; and this is the well-
known ' smut ' in wheat. That pollen of the stamen is
essential to impregnation is at least certain ; and it is al
most as certain, from what has been stated, that the total
destruction of the reproductive power of a particular
race of wheat must be effected, before the influence of
another can be felt. Two races being placed together,
therefore, a cross can only be certainly effected by clipping
the anthers from all the stamens of one variety, and leav
ing the work of impregnation to be effected by those of
the other exclusively. This may be done by any person
capable of distinguishing between the two races ; but,
perhaps, the safer guide to this distinction consists in
sowing the two in separate drills, very near each other,
say nine or ten inches apart ; and to render the work
still more sure, there should be no other growing wheat
within at least a quarter of a mile of that experimented
upon, the affinity between the pollen and the ovules
being of almost incredible force.

" As soon as the anthers show their first rudiments,
in a race upon which the cross is to be made, they
should be carefully removed, or clipped with a pair of
sharp scissors, leaving the female organs undisturbed.

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 45

Thus the races would be impregnated with the pollen
of one. When matured, the utmost care should be
taken to gather the seeds of the crossed race by
itself.

"Hybridization is an operation requiring dexterity,
a light and steady hand ; and it has been frequently re
marked that the operation is more uniformly successful
when performed by a female. Many singular facts with
regard to the structure of flowers have been discovered
through attempts to hybridize. In the common nettle,
the stamens have elastic filaments which are at first bent
down so as to be obscured by the calyx ; but when the
pollen is ripe, the filaments jerk out, and thus scatter
the powder on the pistils which occupy separate flowers.
In the common barberry the lower part of the filament
is very irritable ; and whenever it is touched the stamen
moves forward to the pistil. In the style wort the sta
mens and pistils are united in a common column, which
projects from the flower. This column is very irritable
at the angle where it leaves the flower, and when
touched it passes with a sudden jerk from one side to the
other, and thus scatters the pollen."

KLIPPART'S SUGGESTIONS.

" When it is desired to obtain a hybrid from her
maphrodite flowers, the first thing to be done is to re
move the anthers ; this is best performed early in the
morning, because the dew has swollen the anthers, and
prevents the opening of the little sac, which contains
the pollen. The simplest method of removing the
anthers is to use a pair of very small scissors or forceps.
Then at, or toward noon, carefully remove the anthers

46 THE WHEAT CULTUEIST.

from the flower with whose pollen we wish to impreg
nate, and shake them gently so that the pollen dust may
fall upon and adhere to the stigma of the flower from
which the anthers had been removed in the morning.
The heat of the day produces a dilatation of the pollen,
and thus facilitates its dispersion.

" In order, then, to hybridize, it is necessary to take
the heads of wheat which are intended to be the parents,
both male and female, when they have arrived at that
state of maturity indicated by Fig. 7, or before any of
the anthers have escaped from the glume. Suppose a
cross is intended to be consummated between the Gen-
esee Flint, as male, and White Blue Stem, as female.
Then, on a dry and warm day — this state of weather
seems to be necessary, as at such times impregnation not
only more readily takes place, but appears to be more
successful — between 10 and 12 o'clock, hold the head of
the Blue Stem downward, and carefully open the glume ;
then with a very sharp-pointed scissors, cut off the
anthers (#, <?, <?, Fig. 7), and let them fall to the ground.
Great care must be taken that no anther is permitted to
touch the pistil of the same head, either before or after
separation of the filaments (5, 5, Fig. 7). This is perhaps
the most delicate part of the operation. After the
anthers have been removed, pollen grains from the
anthers of the Genesee Flint must be immediately ap
plied to the pistil of the glumes from which the anthers
have been removed.

" In order to preserve the heads thus impregnated
from injury by insects or birds, they may be enveloped
in a hood of gauze, or Swiss muslin ; but 110 caution
whatever is necessary to guard against accidental intro
duction of pollen grains."

THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST. 47

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PERFECT VARIETY OF WHEAT.

As the growing wheat plants and ripening grain have
so many enemies to encounter, and as variable climates
and changing seasons greatly affect the quality of the
grain and the yield per acre, it is eminently desirable
that a variety should be selected for seed which will
escape if possible, all the injuries incident to the wheat
crop. I will mention the most desirable characteristics
of a superior variety of winter wheat.

1. Early maturity. This characteristic must not be
overlooked, as a period of only a few days in the matu
rity of the crop, will often decide whether the farmer is
rewarded for his labors, or whether the wheat midge
destroys most of the crop.

2. Prolificacy. By this I mean, that the variety shall
be pure, having been cultivated with unusual care on
a fertile soil, until the yield will be as large as it is
possible for the soil to produce of any other variety of
wheat.

3. Midge-proof. The glumes, or chaif, of certain vari
eties of wheat grow with an open chaff, which enables
the wheat midge to commit its ravages with very little
hindrance ; while the chaff of other varieties grows close
to the kernels, thus offering a very effectual preventive
to the entrance of these pests of the wheat field. A
variety that grows with a loose and open chaff should
be rejected, and a kind of seed chosen that grows with
the chaff close to the kernels.

4. A. thin skin, or l>ran. Some varieties of wheat
will yield several pounds more of flour than another
variety. For this reason, that wheat which will yield
the largest quantity of flour per bushel, is more profit-

43 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

able to cultivate, than a variety- which affords a larger
percentage of bran.

5. Hardiness in winter. Very few farmers in our
country recognize this characteristic of wheat. Either
they do not believe it, or they have not given the sub
ject sufficient thought to satisfy their minds, that one
kind of wheat may produce tender plants that the cold
weather will destroy, while the plants of another variety,
growing in the same soil, will not be injured by the cold
weather. I consider this characteristic of wheat one of
the most excellent features that can be named in any va
riety of winter grain.

Let me not be misunderstood on this point. 1 do
not mean that the young plants of a hardy variety will
not be lifted out by the freezing and thawing of wet
ground, while the plants of a tender variety will be de
stroyed by the upheaval of the surface of the land. That
is not my idea. ~No wheat plant can resist the action
of the frost in heaving out the roots, when wet ground
freezes and thaws. But, what I desire to be understood
on this point is, that on dry land, which is naturally
dry, or has been made so by under-draining, the plants
of one variety of wheat will endure the rigors of winter
without injury, while those which sprang from another
variety of wheat sowed at the same period, will experi
ence such serious injury by the cold weather — not by
being lifted out by the frost — that the product of grain
will not be half a crop.

A farmer can determine by observation whether a
wheat plant has been lifted out of the soil by the
frost, or whether the dead or injured stems and leaves
remain as they grew. If wheat plants die without being
lifted out by the frost, the evidence is conclusive that

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 49

the variety is not so hardy as it should be. Every wheat-
grower should take critical observations on this subject,
with a purpose to reject a variety that will not endure
the winter satisfactorily, and to improve those kinds
that appear most hardy.

6. Regularity of 'Rows of Grain.— A perfect variety
of wheat will produce regular and uniform rows of
grain; and the kernels will all appear of a uniform
shape and color. When the variety is not perfect, the
heads will exhibit irregularities of form, like the Weeks
Wheat on a succeeding page. The Andriolo shows a
perfect wheat. The form of the heads, the color and
shape of the kernels, may "always be relied on, as a cer
tain index to the purity of the variety.

7. Stiffness of Straw. — Some kinds of wheat will
lodge, or fall flat to the ground, long before harvest
time ; while the stems of another kind will maintain an
erect position until the grain is perfectly matured. The
ears of grain will never swell out full and plump, filled
with large kernels, if the stems are not kept in an erect
position till harvest time. Grain that has a slender
straw, therefore, should be rejected ; and a variety should
be chosen that produces stems which will not lodge,
unless the growing crop is beaten down by protracted
storms in connection with driving wind.

THE HABIT OF THE WHEAT PLANT.

By habit is understood the manner of growth and
development of the stem, leaves, and roots. In order to
be able to cultivate wheat with satisfactory success, a
farmer should have a correct understanding and a lively
appreciation of the habit of the growing plants, which
will enable him to prepare the soil, put in the seed at

3

50 THE WHEAT CTJLTUKIST.

the proper depth, sow the most desirable quantity per
acre, and give the growing crop the proper cultivation.
In order to obtain a more correct idea of the habit
of the wheat plant, experiments should be made by
planting a few kernels of wheat.

FIG. 8.— Wheat plant.

The accompanying illustration of a young wheat plant,
which sprang from a kernel planted by myself, will

THE WHEAT CULTUBIST. 51

serve to show something of the habit of wheat. Every
kernel sends out numerous long roots and roctlets, as
represented by the figure. The kernel was buried about
one inch deep. The longest leaf was about four inches
long when the sketch was made. The roots which
spring from the kernel are called the primary roots.
At A, a little below the surface of the soil, is a ring, or
bulb, in the stem, from whence the coronal, or secondary
roots spring, which all spread out horizontally ; while the
primary roots strike downward as far as the soil has been
pulverized ; and where the subsoil is not compact, the
roots frequently grow from one to four feet below the
stratum of soil moved by the plough.

Here is a point of eminently practical importance to
wheat-growers, which will be explained more fully under
the heading of the Advantages of Drilling in the Seed,
viz. : when the grain is deposited from one to two inches
deep, the primary roots, which issue from the kernel,
and the secondary roots springing from the joint A, are
so near each other that freezing and thawing of the soil
is not so liable to injure the plants during a mild winter
or late spring, as the numerous roots and fibres hold the
soil in a kind of mat, which prevents the frost from
heaving out the young plants.

The habit of the wheat plant is further illustrated by
the accompanying figure of a wheat plant which
sprang from a kernel planted six inches below the sur
face. The leaves, it will be perceived, appear slender
and not so strong and luxuriant as those of the pre
ceding plant. There is a plausible and philosophical
reason for it. The substance which composes the kernel
is transformed into the primary roots and stem. If the
kernel is small, and is buried deep, there is sometimes

52

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

not enough nourishment in it to form a stem to reach
the surface of the ground. When this is the case, both

roots and stem
cease to grow,
and die before
the young
plant has
come up. In
five days after
the kernel was
planted, the
first leaf ap-
p e a r e d. In
two days more
the leaves
were develop
ed as here rep
resented. The
joint at A, in
sures the for
mation of a
system of sec
ondary roots,
the office of
s which is to
take up nour
ishment for
the growth
and fructifica
tion of the plant. At this point also the tillering of the
plant takes place, and not where the primary roots unite
with the stem at the base. The stem of this plant is
represented as having been doubled.

FIG. 9. — A young wheat plant from a kernel planted deep.

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

53

TILLERING OF THE WHEAT PLANT.

As an effectual means of multiplying the young
wheat plants, where the soil is sufficiently rich to sustain
more than one stem,
nature has provided
for an increase of
the stems, just in
proportion to the
amount of roots.

The illustration
herewith given rep
resents a stool of
growing wheat
which has sprung
from a single kernel.
If the soil is rich, so
that large and strong
roots are formed
which afford more
nourishment than
one stem can appro
priate to its growth
and development,'
other plumules or
stems will continue
to appear until they
can take up all the
nourishment that
the complete mat of
roots supplies. See
this subject more ful- FlG- 10.— stool of wheat.

ly explained under the head of Thick and Thin Seeding.

54: THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

The tillers always spring from the joint, knot, or bulb,
just below the surface of the ground, when the seed is
planted more than one inch deep. When the kernels
are planted very shallow, it seems difficult to determine
whether the new stems or tillers start from the grain,
from the seminal, or primary roots, or from the coronal,
or secondary roots. This a matter of little consequence.
Yet the fact that the young wheat plant does tiller is a
valuable one ; and practical wheat-growers may take
profitable advantage of it.

I have seen stools of wheat having forty-eight stems ;
and have had reliable accounts of stools of over seventy

\ \

FIG. 11.— Stool of stubble.

stems with perfect heads. C. Miller planted a few ker
nels of wheat on the 2d day of June ; and in August,
one of the plants had tillered so much that he was en
abled to divide it into eighteen distinct plants, all of
which were transplanted. After a few weeks, these had

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 55

tillered to sucli an extent, that the number of single
plants put out before winter was sixty-seven. The next
spring all these plants continued to tiller, until the num
ber of growing stalks, from one kernel, amounted to five
hundred. The soil was in an excellent state of fertility ;
and the product of grain reported from a single kernel,
was so large, that I cannot receive it with sufficient con
fidence to enable me to record the result in this place.
What I have penned will be amply sufficient to show the
practical farmer, when he has only one or a dozen ker
nels of wheat, how he may obtain more than a thou
sand-fold in one season. By understanding the habit of
the wheat plant, when producing a new variety of grain,
a farmer may accomplish in one year, more than he
would be able to do in three seasons, if lie be ignorant
of this peculiar habit of the growing plant.

How THE STEMS AKE FORMED.

Trees are exogenous plants ; but wheat and the other
grains are endogenous. Trees and some other kinds of
plants increase in height by the growth of the outside
and the outer extremity of branches. But the stems of
wheat increase in height by lengthening the cylindrical
portions between the joints. The straw, or tubular stem,
is formed nearly the way that lead pipe is made. The
melted lead is forced out of an issue at the under side
of a huge iron mould, by means of a piston fitting air
tight, which is forced down upon the lead equal to a
superincumbent pressure of one thousand tons ! The
tube issues from the mould slowly, so that the metal has
sufficient time to cool before it leaves the mould.
Within a space of six inches in the mould, the lead pipe

56 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

may be found in every stage of formation, from perfect
liquidity to a solid. Perhaps an inch from the outside
of the issue of thf mould, the lead is in a semi-plastic
state. A little farther up, the lead tube is in a semi
fluid condition. On the upper side of the joints of
wheat straw, down in the sheaths, which fit the straw
cylinders perfectly air-tight, the material which forms
the straw is in a liquid state. The sheath is the mould,
and the straw is the piston. By the A7ital expansion of
the liquid above the joints, the length of the straw i?
increased between them, so that the upward growth o^
the plant takes place above every joint. If there be six
joints in one straw, and the length of each is increased
only one-eighth of an inch in twenty-four hours, the
head of grain will be elevated above the roots three-
fourths of an inch per day.

These facts in vegetable physiology will enable us to
understand why the stalks of Indian corn often grow
more than two inches in height in less than a day;
and we perceive, also, something of the practical im
portance of having an abundant supply of nourishment
for the roots of the growing wheat to take up and ap
propriate to the growth and development of the straw,
at that critical period when portions of the straw are in
a liquid state ; as the wheat plant cannot lay up in store
plant food to be employed in promoting the growth of
the various parts at the time when the pabulum is
needed most. The growth of wheat plants suggests
many interesting thoughts to which I shall not allude,
as the purpose of this treatise is primarily to bring
out items of a practical character, without burdening
the reader with interesting theories of no practical
utility.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 57

CLIMATOLOGY OF WHEAT.

For more than thirty years, I have taken observations
on this subject, with a special reference to ascertaining
what are the facts in the case with reference to the cli
matology of the wheat plant. My purpose has been,
if possible, to lay down some reliable guide for be
ginners who 'may exist hereafter. But I regret to say,
that I have been able to find nothing to corroborate the
popular theory in relation to selecting wheat from dif
ferent latitudes, with a view to secure a variety that
will ripen as early as it possible for a crop of wheat to
mature. (I may state, in parentheses, in this place, as
the idea is quite irrelevant to the subject, that the ulti
mate object in procuring seed wheat from other climates
is to get a variety of grain that will ripen before the
wheat midge commences its ravages. Late-ripening
wheat is far more liable to be destroyed by the wheat
midge than if the grain matured ten to fourteen days
earlier. See this subject elucidated under its appro
priate heading — Selecting Early Varieties.)

Farmers have always said that, in order to obtain a
variety of grain that will ripen earlier in the season, the
seed must be obtained in a latitude farther to the north,
except for wheat, which must be brought from a south
ern latitude. Numerous experiments have been re
corded, showing that wheat brought from a latitude
farther north, failed to mature as early in the season as
the same variety had been accustomed to ripen where the
seed grew ; and when the seed was brought from the
south, the same failure was observable.

I have, therefore, arrived at the following deliberate,
3*

58 THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST.

and I think correct conclusion : that wheat is not differ
ent from Indian corn, and other grain, as it regards
climatology. I believe that seed wheat is governed by
the same laws that control other useful plants. The
seasons are so different that the same variety, cultivated
by the same farmer, and where soil and location are as
nearly alike as it is practicable to have them, will not
ripen at the same period in two, three, or four succeed
ing harvests. Consequently, when seed is brought from
the north, and it fails to produce a satisfactory crop, and
to ripen as soon as the same variety has been accus
tomed to mature, nothing definite is proved, in regard
to the climatology of the wheat plant; because the
field where the wheat was grown, may have been a
warm and quick soil, having a southern exposure ; and
the crop may have had the advantages of superior culti
vation and a propitious season, and every circumstance
favoring a bountiful crop. On the contrary, the seed
may be sowed in a soil not so fertile as where it grew,
which would make a marked difference in the next crop.
Besides this, the soil may be cold, clammy, and late, the
cultivation inferior, the season uri propitious, and every
thing adverse to the production of a bountiful crop early
in the growing season.

This is the manner in which all our experiments have
been conducted. Consequently, the conclusions are in
correct. Because some farmers have obtained their seed
wheat at a few degrees south of their own locality, and
by superior cultivation arid richer ground and propi
tious seasons have succeeded in raising better crops
than southern farmers, it is not safe and in accordance
with the laws of vegetable physiology to conclude that
we must secure seed wheat from a southern latitude in

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 59

order to have the crop ripen as early as practicable.
There are many things that will exert a marked in
fluence on the growth and fructification of wheat, which
should not be overlooked when one is conducting an ex
periment to determine any- point touching the climatol
ogy of wheat, or of any other plant.

J. S. Lippincott, Haddonfield, ~N. J., writes on this
subject :

" When importing seed wheat and any other seed of
new or superior varieties of plants, attention should
always be directed to the peculiarities of the soil and
climate under which they originated, and those under
which it is proposed to grow them. English varieties
of spring wheat that are sown in February or early in
March, have the benefit of early spring growth, and
of a milder and moister summer than a spring-sown
wheat can have in the eastern United States. The fail
ure that has attended recent attempts to introduce
English varieties of wheat is no new thing, such hav
ing been the almost universal result for many years
past.

" If it be true that each variety of grain is adapted
to a specific climate in which it grows perfectly, and
where it does not degenerate when supplied with pro
per and sufficient nourishment, may not the considera
tion of the origin of each variety we propose to sow be
of more importance than has yet been accorded to it in
the selection of minor varieties, the product of our own
country ? The varieties of wheat that have originated
apparently by accident (for there are no accidents in
nature), or from peculiar culture, do not enjoy all the
surroundings necessary for perfect continuous product.
Causes yet unexplained are ever at work modifying the

GO THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

germ of the new growth, and the guardian care of man
is needed to preserve unimpaired or to perfect the al
ready improved sorts. In most soils we are aware that
wheat degenerates rapidly if the seed be sown year after
year where it was produced. Nor is it sufficient to pre
vent degeneration that the seed be taken from a differ
ent field ; but that grown on a soil of different quality is to
be preferred ; and if from a different climate, but not
widely diverse, it is found that the product is increased
in quality and in quantity.

" English-grown seed when sown in Ireland generally
comes to maturity ten clays or two weeks earlier than
the native-grown seed. In general, plants propagated
from seed produced on a warm, sandy soil, will grow
rapidly in whatever soil the seed is sown ; and plants
from seed produced in a stiff, cold soil are late in grow
ing, even in a warmer soil. On limestone soils, which
are often heavy, wheat seed, the product of sandstone
regions, generally succeeds best. The experience of a
Kentucky farmer shows that seed wheat obtained from
a northern locality has failed with him, owing to late
ripening and consequent injury from rust. The experi
ment was tried with three varieties of northern-grown
seed, and with the same result in each case. When
wheat from a southern locality was sown by the same
experimenter, his crop ripened early, was free from rust
and disease, and improved in sample over the original ;
while the main crop, in the same district, was ruined by
rust and other diseases. This experience was corrobor
ated by the result of four seasons of growth ; and the
southern-grown seed, because of its early ripening, is
rapidly superseding all the later wheats in the district
referred to. The kind of wheat introduced from the

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 01

more southern region of Tennessee, or perhaps northern
Alabama, is the ' Early May,' which, though small, pos
sesses superior flouring qualities, and is now the ordi
nary wheat of some northern counties of Kentucky,
where it does not deteriorate, but improves in quality.
The controversy that was originated by the introduction
of the Tennessee i Early May ' wheat into northern lo
calities appears to have settled into the belief that the
selection of southern-grown, early-ripening varieties is
judicious where it is necessary that the grain should
attain early maturity.

" The i Mediterranean ' is an early-ripening southern
wheat, which it is said was introduced in 1819 from
Genoa, Italy, by John Gordon, of Wilmington, Dela
ware. It is still an early-ripening and very valuable
wheat, adapted to many districts where the more ten
der varieties, subject to the attacks of the Hessian fly,
midge, or the rust, have rendered resort to this kind
necessary. The introduction of the Mediterranean has
proved an invaluable boon to many districts. Many
other valuable kinds, noted for early maturity, etc., are
of southern origin. The Rochester, or original White
Flint, is said to have been of Spanish origin. The
Turkish White Flint is not affected by fly, rust, or
midge. The China or China Yelvet wheat ripens at
the same early date as does the ' Mediterranean,' as
also does the Malta, or White Smooth Mediterranean.
The ' Early Japan ' wheat, from seed brought by Com
modore Perry, is also from a warmer region than our
own, and ripens early. So valuable has this variety
been deemed by one grower, that he asserts that had
Commodore Perry brought many bushels, it would ere
this have paid the expenses of the expedition from the

62 THE WHEAT CULTTJKIST.

increased productiveness through early ripening and
adaptation to the wants of the country.

" All attempts to ripen wheat early by sending farther
north for seed have signally failed, says a Kentucky
farmer. The experiment of sowing Canada-grown wheat
in Pennsylvania resulted in a ripening of the crop two
weeks later than that grown from native seed. As to the
cereals, which, as we have said, possess great flexibility,
and are readily subject to the influences of soil and
' climate, we might naturally expect to find that wheat
grown for a long time in southern Tennessee or northern
Alabama, where the mean temperature of March equals,
if it does not surpass, that of April in northern Ken
tucky and southern Ohio, would acquire a tendency to
early vegetation, which it would retain when removed
to more northern localities, and the plant be thus en
abled by early maturity to escape the high heats of early
summer, and insect enemies which appear at the period
of the late ripening of northern-grown wheats. Though
it may be advisable to use southern-grown wheat for
seed, the rule, we fear, will not apply if such seed has
grown more than two or three degrees farther south.
All northern planters who have experimented with
southern-grown seed-maize have learned that they can
not ripen the crop if the seed has been brought from a
few degrees of lower latitude. This arises from the
sudden decline of the temperature of September and Octo
ber, and the early access of killing frosts, which shorten
the period of growth to which the large and rank-
growing southern kinds of corn have been accustomed,
though the summer heats may have been the same as
they had known in their native place. In the case of
the southern wheats removed to a northern soil, the

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 63

variety is not more rank or strong-growing, does not
appear to require a longer season, but has had im
pressed upon it a proclivity to early vegetation by the
influence of the early heats of March and April, which
are not known in the north until April and May re
spectively."

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINTER WHEAT AND SPRING
WHEAT.

It has been maintained by writers on wheat culture
that the distinction between winter and spring wheat
is one which arises entirely from the season in which
the seed has usually been sown ; and that they can
readily be converted into each other by sowing earlier
or later, and gradually accelerating or retarding their
growths. If a winter variety is caused to germinate
slightly, and then checked by exposure to a low tem
perature, or freezing, until it can be sown in spring,
some writers have asserted that it may be converted
into a spring wheat.

It requires a long time to change winter wheat into
a spring crop. Still, it can be done, by persevering for
half a dozen successive years. The usual way to change
a winter wheat to spring variety is, to put in the seed
a month later every season, until the period of vernal
seed-time is reached. This makes it necessary to sow
wheat during the winter months. But the desired
object can be accomplished in a much more expeditious
way than to sow seed in December, and the product
of that crop, the next January, and the next season in
February, the next in March, and the next in April.

The most expeditious way to change winter wheat to

64 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

spring grain is, to have the ground all read}7 for the seed
in late autumn ; and then, the day before the ground
is frozen up solid, sow and harrow in, or drill in the
seed. Unless the ground is covered with a deep snow,
the grain will seldom germinate until the following
spring. (Read the remarks on another page of this
treatise, under the head of Sowing Wheat in Winter.)
Should there be a heavy body of snow on the ground
for two or three months, the wheat will sometimes veg
etate, and get a fair start, before the growing season
commences the next spring. As a general rule, wheat
sowed at such a time does not succeed satisfactorily
the first, nor the second season. But let the seed be
selected with care for a few successive years, and
sowed in the early part of the growing season ; and
after a few years, if the experiment has been conducted
on a soil which is in an excellent state of fertility, a
new variety of spring wheat will have been secured.

In attempting to produce a new variety of spring
wheat from winter grain, seed of a very hardy and
prolific variety should be selected, in preference to
taking seed of some ordinary variety.

A writer inquired of the Editor of the " Germantown
Telegraph" : " What is Spring Wheat ? Is it a distinct
species of grain from winter wheat, and if so, where has
it come from ? If not, how was it produced from winter
wheat ? I have applied in many quarters for answers to
these questions without success. A reply will oblige
many besides myself." The Editor answered : " Spring
wheat is a mere variety of winter wheat. Some of the
oldest botanists made them distinct species ; but winter-
wheat, sown early in spring, has ripened grain the same
year ; and other changes are produced in a similar way.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 65

There are many varieties of wheat, of more or less per
manence — produced by a difference of climate, or by
successive sowings of selected grains, with some con-
tinned peculiarity observed. Even the compound heads
of the Egyptian wheat (see Egyptian Wheat) produce
single spikes after a while."

The author of the Farmer's Dictionary states that :
" The distinction between the winter and summer wheats
is one which arises entirely from the season in which
they have been usually sown ; for they can readily be
converted into each other by sowing earlier or later, and
gradually accelerating or retarding their growth. The
difference in color between red and white wheats is
owing chiefly to the soil ; white wheats gradually be
come darker, and ultimately red in some stiff, wet soils,
and the red wheats lose their color and become first
yellow and then white on rich, light, and mellow soils.
It is remarkable that the grain sooner changes color
than the chaff and straw : hence we have red wheats with
white chaff, and white wheats with red chaff, which on
the foregoing principle is readily accounted for. The
chaff retains the original color when the skin of the
grain has already changed to another. We state this
on our own experience."

J. H. Klippart, in his Wheat Plant, says: "To con
vert winter into spring wheat, nothing more is necessary
than that the winter wheat should be allowed to germi
nate slightly in the fall or winter, but kept from vegeta
tion by a low temperature or freezing, until it can be
sown in the spring. This is usually done by soaking
and sprouting the seed, and freezing it while in this
state, and keeping it frozen until the season for spring
sowing has arrived. Only two things seem requisite,

06 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

germination and freezing. It is probable that winter
wheat sown in the fall, so late as only to germinate in the
earth, without coming up, would produce a grain which
would be a spring wheat if sown in April instead of
September. The experiment of converting winter wheat
into spring wheat has met with great success. It re
tains many of its primitive winter- wheat qualities, and
is inferior in no respect to the best varieties of spring
wheat, and produces at the rate of twenty-eight bushels
per acre."

THE FASTIDIOUSNESS OF GROWING WHEAT.

It has been stated by a certain writer, that " the
wheat plant has no greater enemy than another wheat
plant." But I cannot coincide with that assertion, as it
is not in keeping with the habit of the wheat plant.
If the wheat plant disliked the presence of another
wheat plant, the original stool would not surely throw
out numerous stems by its side, which should be attached
to the same system of roots. But it is safe to say
that the growing wheat dislikes the close proximity of
grass or noxious weeds. And more than this, wheat
has a capricious taste for its plant food, quite as much
so as human beings, whose taste is so delicate that they
can subsist on none but the most delicious and con
centrated nourishment. Wheat must bear undisputed
sway where the plants grow, or the stems, leaves, and
grain will never be fully developed. Besides this, the
growing wheat will not appropriate its nourishment from
the rough material, as grass and clover do. * Some plants
wrill decompose stones, and hard atoms of the earth, and
thus prepare plant food for its own use. But if a lib-

THE WHEAT COLTUKIST. 67

eral supply of pabulum has not been prepared by the vege
tation and decay of other plants, the young wheat plant
fails to attain its wonted size, and to yield its accustom
ed amount of grain. Growing wheat must have its ap
propriate and chosen pabulum, or it will be folly to at
tempt to grow this kind of grain. Wheat, like the
grape, must and will have mineral food. The wheat
plant cannot produce line grain out of coarse straw and
barren clods of earth.

FORCE IN THE VEGETATION OF WHEAT.

The exercise of force in the production of the wheat
plant is an idea that is seldom thought of by farmers
of common intelligence. There is a vital force exer
cised when the kernel first sends out the germ and the
roots ; and this force is constantly exercised, until every
plant is fully developed and the seed matured. It is
one of the fundamental laws of the universe, that where
there is motion there must be the exercise of some
force. When masons build a house, a force adequate to
the erection of the various parts of the edifice must be
exerted in fitting one part to another and bringing
everything to its proper place. There is a constant ex
ercise of force against the force of gravitation, until the
house is finished. So it is in the growth of a wheat
plant : the roots must be formed, and the stem must be
produced by the vital force of the growing plant.
There is great force exercised by the plant in throwing
out numerous roots, sometimes as far downward, or in
a horizontal direction, as the plumule, or stem, grows
upward.

That man who has made holes in the ground with a

68 THE WHEAT CTJLTTJRIST.

crowbar, understands something of the force required by
plants to spread through the hard soil. In many locali
ties a wooden staff can be thrust into the ground three
or four feet deep, with a very little force. On the con
trary, in most localities, it is exceedingly difficult to
work a crowbar through the soil. What a powerful
force must necessarily be exerted, then, by a plant,
in pushing its roots through the hard soil. We frequent
ly have ocular demonstration of the force exerted by
small plants and trees. It is a common occurrence,
where the soil is heavy, to see a crust of earth, that is
formed over the growing stems, to be lifted up, so that
the young stems appear above the surface of the ground,
often throwing off a crust of earth more than ten times
heavier than the entire plant would be, were both weigh
ed in a balance. Then, there is the exercise of a con
stant force to keep the plant in an erect position. In
many instances, the force of gravity on the growing
plant exceeds the vital force exercised in developing the
various parts and keeping the stem erect. When this
is the case, stems fall to the ground before the grain has
come to perfect maturity. We frequently see the effect
of the operation of the vital force of a tree, the growing
roots of which will lift heavy flag-stones of the side
walk several inches above their level position ; and
roots of trees growing near dwelling-houses frequently
grow along the foundation wall and among the stones,
and damage the foundation of the dwelling to such an
extent, that repairs are required.

In the production of every plant, from the most deli
cate spear of grass to the towering oaks and rocking
pines of the forest, there is a wonderful effort of nature
to achieve a given result. The numerous fine rootlet?

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 69

and the tender blades are met by opposing f rces. If
the intelligent husbandman will break up the hard soil,
and reduce it to a fine and mellow tilth, a large share of
the vital force of the plant that is used up in pushing
the roots and stems through the soil, will be employed
in developing the stem, leaves, and fruit.

The source of the force of the growing wheat plant,
for example, is the substance in the kernel. If the
kernel be small, of course the vital force must be very
limited. For this reason, tender plants cannot nourish
luxuriantly, wTlien they first begin to live, if there be
'numerous lumps in the soil. Roots of tender plants,
like wheat, seldom have sufficient force to enter hard
lumps of earth. The roots will pass around and
between them. But, as hard lumps furnish very little
plant food until they are pulverized, wheat plants ex
pend so large a proportion of the vital force in perform
ing what implements of husbandry should do, that but
little force is left to develop and mature the grain.

Stevens, in the Book of the Farm, states that the force
of the vegetation of a single seed is so great as to be
able to raise two hundred pounds, as has been proven by
the process being made to split hollow balls of iron.

PROLIFICACY OF WHEAT.

The prolificacy of our cereals, and of wheat in par
ticular, is a subject that has been seriously neglected for
many years past, even by those who have a reputation
for being excellent farmers. Seed wheat should be
selected every successive season, with a direct reference
to the prolificacy of the variety. In many instances,
thirty bushels of grain might just as well be grown on

70 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

one acre as fifteen, with the same cultivation and the
same fertilization. When wheat is in the path of
degeneracy, the best soil in the country, the most favor
able season, and the most thorough and intelligent culti
vation, will fail to produce a remunerative crop.

Intelligent breeders of swine select their seed animals
with an especial reference to the prolificacy of the dam
that will raise twelve or fourteen pigs. In some in
stances wre see this principle neglected or entirely
ignored. And what is the consequence? Why, instead
of twelve or fourteen sleek, plump, and thrifty pigs, the
sow drops only two or three at a litter. On the same
principle, we often see short heads of wheat only half
filled with small kernels of grain, when, if the seed had
only been selected with a reference to its prolificacy,
the yield would have been twice the amount realized.

It is not possible for any one to compute the pecuniary
advantage that would accrue to our nation, were all the
farmers of the country to make a proper selection of his
seed wheat for only a few. successive years. There is a
broad and inviting field open on this subject, for every
ambitious farmer to exercise his skill in improving the
productiveness of our wheat-growing fields by produc
ing new varieties of wheat which will yield large heads
and plump kernels of choice grain. The prolificacy of
wheat may be improved to a wonderful extent by proper
management ; and if a prolific variety of wheat can be
brought out, that will yield only a few bushels more per
acre than the ordinary varieties, the advantage in the
aggregate would be a consideration of no small magni
tude. Dr. Vcelcker, in a recent letter, before the Royal
Institution, London, stated that in the County of Norfolk
the average produce of wheat was, in 1773, fifteen

THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST. 71

bushels per acre ; in 1796, twenty-eight bushels per
acre; in 1862, thirty- two to thirty-six bushels per acre
— the increase being due to drainage, tillage, and to the
growth of improved varieties.

On this subject, Hon. Isaac Newton, Commissioner
of Agriculture, says : "A new variety of wheat intro
duced into a district has in some instances proved of
very great value. It is said that the product of one
quart of a variety brought from North Carolina in 1845
had in nine years benefited the farmers of Preble
County, Ohio, alone, more than $100,000 by the gain
over what would have accrued from the continued use
of the old varieties."

The prolificacy of a variety can be determined only
by experimenting with it, from year to year. The pro
lificacy of grain cannot be determined by the appearance
of the kernels, any sooner than one can select a prolific
hen, or sow, or a prolific rabbit.

LARGE WHEAT STORIES.

I have observed, for a few years past, that almost
every agricultural journal will record now and then a
fabulous account of the enormous yields of wheat per
acre, which are published in good faith ; but which are,
in reality, in numerous instances, unmitigated false
hoods, originated for some selfish purpose. I regret to
feel under obligation to record this fact, that I have per
ceived with astonishment that honest and truthful men,
whose word is sacred and reliable in all the ordinary
transactions between men and neighbors, will sometimes
tell stories about their grain which are really untrue.
They do not mean to lie ; but the fact is, they think

72 THE WHEAT CULTIJRIST.

that a large yield of grain will sound well for their
culture as skilful farmers, as well as for the productive
ness of their ground. Therefore, they think and guess
that there may possibly be so many bushels of grain
per acre. By and by they, look at their growing crops,
and venture to speak of forty, or fifty, or seventy bushels
per acre ;. and after thinking and talking about the mat
ter for a few weeks, they make the confident assertion
that their ground produced so many bushels per acre,
when in truth the yield was very much less than the
quantity mentioned. I will record a few facts on this
subject that came under my own observation, which will
go to show that honest and truthful men will sometimes
talk at random.

I knew a farmer who secured the prize of a county
agricultural society for reporting a yield of one hun
dred and eight bushels of shelled Indian corn per acre.
The grain was measured thus: A bushel basket was
filled with ears as neatly as they could be placed in the
basket. Every interstice was filled with a part of an
ear. The grain was then shelled off and weighed.
Taking this basketful of ears as the basis, in pounds of
shelled grain for every bushel of ears that was after
ward thrown into the basket promiscuously, without
shelling or weighing, the yield of grain was computed
at the amount just stated. The laborer who husked the
corn disclosed the manner of measuring and computing
the amount of grain.

I have known other farmers to state, in the most posi
tive language, that they raised sixty bushels of barley
per acre, and sixty bushels of rye, or forty or fifty bush
els of wheat per acre, when they had not measured a
single bushel of the grain that grew on an acre ; and

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 73

this lias been done, too, when I knew that their fields
never produced more than about one-half the reported
quantity. I have known farmers, who had gained a
great reputation for raising excellent wheat, write to
editors of their county papers or to certain agricultural
journals that their crop would yield so many bushels of
grain — an enormous product — when their neighbors
knew that they did not raise a greater number of bush
els per acre than were produced on other farms.

I once purchased a quantity of seed rye of a distant
neighbor, who published that his rye yielded sixty bush
els of superior grain per acre ; and I learned the next
season that, to all appearance, his yield of rye was no
larger than my own, which was less than twenty-five
bushels per acre. Only a few days ago, I read of a
farmer who raised seventy-two bushels of excellent wheat
per acre. But I never could credit the statement. Men
sometimes count the heads of wheat that grew on one
foot square of very fertile ground, weigh the grain, and
make an estimate how many bushels will grow on one
acre. But the true way is to harvest, thrash, and weigh
the grain that actually grew on one acre.

It would seem, that if a farmer can raise a given quan
tity of wheat on one foot square, he could produce a
yield proportionately large on one acre. But let us have
the exact weight of grain that was actually produced on
one acre. These airy estimates of a large yield, which
are got up for some pecuniary effect, are not the true
motive to induce farmers to cultivate their ground in a
more thorough manner.

I have in mind a farmer, who stated positively and
unqualifiedly, that he was raising cabbages on his farm
at the rate of 10,890 per acre. He said he had less than

4

74 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

oi^e acre ; but what he did have " was " — not were — •
large enough to fill a half-bushel measure. As he was
a man of truth, a person was sent to see his cabbages.
He had one cabbage in his garden, and only one ! ! By
an arithmetical calculation, it was found that, as there
are 272J square feet in one square rod, if one large head
would occupy only four square feet, 10,890 cabbages
would stand on one acre. So the man could not be ac
cused of stating an untruth.

Farmers who have seed wheat to sell will frequently
state that their seed grain weighs so many pounds per
bushel, or that so many bushels grew on one acre ; all
of which may be true. But measures often vary in size.
Scales sometimes weigh too many pounds in a hundred.
And, besides all this, if a variety of wheat does weigh
66 Ibs. per sealed bushel, on John Smith's farm, his
neighbor, near by, or remote, cannot expect to secure an
equal yield, unless his soil and cultivation are both fully
equal to John Smith's.

I make these suggestions that beginners need not ex
pect to grow a heavy crop of grain on inferior land,
when they have paid an enormous price for celebrated
seed.

HARD, SOFT, AND POLISH WHEATS.

Some botanists have divided wheats into different
species, from some marked peculiarity in their formation.
Others, considering that they mostly form hybrids when
mixed in the sowing, and that their peculiarities vary
with the soil and climate, have looked upon all the cul
tivated wheats as mere varieties. There are, however,
three principal varieties, so different in appearance that

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 75

they claim peculiar attention. These are the hard or
flint wheats, the soft wheats, and the Polish wheats.
The hard wheats are the produce of warm climates, such
as Italy, Sicily, and Barbary. The soft wheats grow in
the northern parts of Europe. The Polish wheats grow
in the country from which they derive their name, and
are also hard wheats. It is from their external form
that they are distinguished from other wheats. The
hard wheats have a compact seed nearly transparent,
which, when bitten through, breaks short, and shows a
very white flour within. The soft wheats have an opaque
coat or skin, and which, wrhen flrst reaped, give way
readily to the pressure of the finger and thumb. These
wheats require to be well dried and hardened before they
can be conveniently ground into flour. The Polish
wheat has a chaff which is much longer than the seed,
a large, oblong, hard seed, and an ear cylindrical in ap
pearance. It is a delicate spring wheat, and not very
productive ; hence it has only been occasionally culti
vated by way of experiment.

" The hard wheats contain much more gluten, a tough,
viscid substance, which is very nutritious, and which,
containing a portion of nitrogen, readily promotes that
fermentation, or rising, as it is called, of the dough,
which is essential to good, light bread. The soft wheats
contain the greatest quantity of starch, which fits them
for the vinous fermentation, by its conversion into sugar
and alcohol. For brewing or distilling, therefore, the
soft wheats are the best."

LIMIT OF THE WHEAT-PRODUCING REGION.

. A great deal has been written in regard to the cli
matic influences on the wheat crop ; and I am sorry to

76 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

say that, for the most part, theories touching wheat
have been promulgated from year to year, by men who
never raised a bushel of wheat, and who were utterly
ignorant of the fundamental principles of agriculture.
On this subject, I herewith copy a few paragraphs from
a work written by J. Disturnell, on the Influence of
Climate, for the purpose of showing how common it is
for writers to reiterate, for well-established facts, cer
tain theories that are palpable absurdities. The writer
says:

" The limits of the culture of wheat and the common
cerealia are not so well defined in the United States, and
Canada and other portions of British America, owing to
the want of correct meteorological observations in the
different parts of this extensive and unexplored region.
It is safe, however, to say, that in Canada it extends
north as far as the 48th parallel of latitude, from the
Bay of Chaleurs to near the mouth of the Saguenay
River, and from thence to the Lake St. John, 48 deg.
30 min. north, including the valley of Lake Temiscaming
and all the head sources of the Ottawa River, extending
to Michicopoten Bay, situated on the north shore of Lake
Superior, 47 deg. 50 min. N. lat., having a mean summer
temperature of 59 deg. Fahr.

" To the west of Lake Superior it embraces the valley
of the Lake of the Woods, on the 49th parallel, running
northward and embracing the whole of the valley of
Lake Winnipeg, elevated 700 feet above the ocean ; and
the great valley of the Saskatchewan River, extending
still further northward to the 60th parallel of north
latitude, in the valley of Mackenzie's River. To the
west of the Rocky Mountains, in the northern part of
British Columbia, and on the Island of Sitka, 57 deg.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 77

north latitude, the culture of wheat and other cei^als is
prevented, owing to the low summer temperature which
exists along the northwest coast of America.

" On the south, wheat can be raised profitably in the
western portion of Texas and Arkansas, commencing at
about the 30th parallel of latitude, excluding the Gulf
Coast, where cotton nourishes to great perfection. Thus
it appears evident that wheat can be raised to advantage
from Texas to the British possessions on Mackenzie's
River, running through about one-third of the distance
from the Equator to the North Pole, and from the At
lantic to the Pacific Ocean.

" The harvesting of wheat through this extensive belt
may be said to commence in the latter part of May, and
continue until the latter part of August. * It is said that
the ripening of the " staff of life " will move steadily
northward about twelve or fifteen miles per day, like
a wave, until it sweeps up to the northern margin of the
great wheat belt. A marching regiment in Texas, start
ing for the north, could barely keep before the ripening
wave ; and if they halted a day to rest, it would pass them.
This wave stretches east and west across the Union,
from the Atlantic to the confines of Kansas, and as it
moves north it will grow longer and denser.' Minne
sota, extending northward to the 49th parallel of latitude,
is one of the finest wheat-growing regions on the con
tinent. Indian corn also flourishes in the valley of the
Red River of the North, which empties into Lake Win"
nipeg in about 50 deg. north latitude.

" The northern limit of wheat on the American con
tinent may be said to be on the line of the isothermal or
mean summer temperature of 58 deg. Fahr., where is
found a fertile soil ; while Indian corn requires a mean

78 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

summer temperature of 66 deg. Fahr. and upward, em
bracing a still larger area of the earth's surface for its
growth than that of wheat.

" In Europe, on the coast of Norway, and in Finland,
wheat is raised as far north as 61 deg., in favored spots ;
while the hardier cerealia, rye, oats, and barley, are cul
tivated as high as 68 deg. north latitude.

" The growth of grass or hay as an article of commerce
is less limited than wheat or the other cereals. It may
be said to nourish from the 38th to the 45th parallels of
latitude, although its limits in perfection are much less
extensive. The belt included within the parallels of 39
to 43 north, within the United States, having a mean
annual temperature from 4Y deg. to 53 deg. Fahr., is its
most favorite region, where are produced the largest
quantities, and the best quality of butter and cheese.
South of 39 deg. north latitude, except in elevated re
gions, grass is of an inferior quality, and not much cul
tivated. In importance, as regards its value as an article
of commerce, it vies with the product of either wheat,
Indian corn, or cotton."

ABSURDITIES EXPOSED.

I have great respect for historians and literary char
acters, who have forgotten more than I ever expect to
know about certain things. But, when they write about
wheat, I happen to know when they assert facts that
can always be relied on, or whether their suggestions
are merely assertions which can never be shown to be
correct ; and wrhich are not in perfect coincidence with
the experience of practical wheat-growers.

When I was young, farmers were accustomed to state

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 79

that wheat could not be produced on the slopes of the
lakes in Central New York. But now, experiments in
raising wheat have shown that the clay loams of those
localities yield the finest wheat. If there is any wheat
in the country, fair crops, with good management, can
always be found there.

Rye was the great staple in the line of cereal grain,
in New England, so far as farmers were accustomed to
raise grain. Consequently, if a farmer provided wheat
bread for his family, he bought his flour, at an enor
mous price; because the impression was that wheat
would not grow there. I have in mind large numbers
of farmers, who purchase all their wheat flour, simply
because they have imbibed the erroneous notion that
wheat cannot be grown in Connecticut and other New
England States.

Wheat will not grow, it is very true, where no seed
has been sowed. Neither will apples grow in many of
the Western States and Territories, where people affirm
that they cannot raise apples. The true reason is, they
fail to give apples a chance to grow. They do not plant
trees, and give them suitable cultivation. And it is
precisely so with wheat. It will not grow where the
soil is not cultivated and kept in an excellent state of
fertility. I have no confidence at all in the " climat
ology theory," that wheat will grow only in certain
localities. As a general rule, where other grain and sheep
succeed satisfactorily, fair crops of wheat can be raised,
if the soil be enriched with the manure of fattening
sheep, neat cattle, or fattening swine. Wheat can be
raised on the drifting sands of New Jersey, in boun
tiful crops, if the soil be prepared properly for the
seed.

80 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

INTRODUCTION OF ITALIAN WHEAT.

In the volume of Transactions of the New York State
Agricultural Society for 1841, Jay Hatheway, Oneida
County, New York, has recorded facts touching the
introduction of this variety of wheat, from which the
following extracts are taken : " The Italian spring wheat
possesses a property which no other variety of this kind
of grain can claim — that of growing well and yielding
a fair crop of grain upon land so poor, that no other
variety will succeed satisfactorily. On inferior land,
twelve to fifteen bushels of good grain have been grown
per acre. On good ground, thirty bushels per acre have
been grown ; and on the best wheat land the yield has
reached from forty to fifty bushels per acre. The orig
inal seed weighed sixty- three pounds per bushel ; and the
first crop was sown in this country in 1832.

u This kind of wheat has a bright lemon-colored straw,
which gives the entire crop a beautiful appearance when
the wheat is growing. The kernels have a thin skin of
a bright brown color; and from a given quantity of
grain, more flour may be obtained than from any other
kind of grain grown in this country. The flour makes
excellent bread ; and some have stated that flour made
ot' this kind of wheat contains more gluten than other
kinds of flour. It is said that in Italy the manutac-
tuivrs of macaroni prefer this kind of wheat for making
this article of food.

••This kind of wheat was first introduced into this
country by a gentleman from Florence, in Italy, who.
marrying contrary to the wishes of his father, was
denounced and disinherited; and smarting under the
severity and reproaches of an incensed parent, he re-

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 81

solved to emigrate to America, and to engage in agri
cultural pursuits. He brought with him a tierce of
seed Italian wheat to the town of Florence, Oneida
County, New York, where it was used for seed with
excellent satisfaction for a few years ; but in conse
quence of injudicious management in saving seed grain
from year to year, this variety failed to yield satisfac
tory crops."

Some allowance must be made for an enthusiastic
writer of the foregoing account of Italian wheat, as every
skilful farmer knows that no variety of wheat that ever
had an existence would yield forty or fifty bushels of
grain on poor ground. This variety failed entirely in
some parts of the country, from no other cause than the
one alluded to — negligence in saving the seed from year
to year. With injudicious management on the part of
farmers in saving seed grain, the best variety of grain
that was ever known would soon run out.

IMPROVEMENT OF WHEAT.

A good variety of wheat is capable of being greatly
improved, provided the soil is of the right character,
and very fertile in wheat-producing elements. When a
man sows a small plot of wheat in his garden which has
always been abundantly manured, so that the soil is
well fattened with such fertilizing material as will make
long heads and full and plump kernels, he is utterly sur
prised at the success of his experiment in a limited wa}r.
He concludes that his unprecedented success must be
attributed to the variety, when almost everything is or
was attributable to superior cultivation and fertilization

of the soil. A vast deal depends on having a variety,

4*

82 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

the characteristics of which are well established. Yet,
if the cultivation be inferior, the cultivator will most
assuredly reap the bitter fruits of disappointment in his
efforts to produce a large yield of grain.

I herewith condense an interesting account of experi
ments made in the Old World by Mr. Hallett, of
Brighton. I will point out to young farmers — as well
as to old ones — certain points in which this gentle
man as well as all others will fail, as the premises are
wrong?.

o

Mr. liallett's first idea was to increase the tiller
ing power of wheat, so that less seed would be needed.
That is all well enough, provided the soil is sufficiently
rich to furnish an abundant supply of plant food for a
large number of stems. If a plant of wheat be induced
by any possible means to tiller largely, and the land be
too poor to supply nourishment sufficient to develop
such a large number of stems, the heads must be short
and kernels of grain small. On this same principle, it
will be found to be more profitable to grow only one
large ear of Indian corn on a single stalk, where the
land is not sufficiently rich to develop two, than to
attempt to produce two ears^as they would necessarily
be small. Yet, if the soil be so well fattened that there
is sufficient pabulum to build up and to develop two
large ears on a stalk, let that variety be planted. It
will be folly to develop the habit of tillering in any
kind of grain, unless the fertility of the soil be improved
at the same time. Mr. Hallett proposed to improve the
tillering characteristic by early seeding.

His next purpose was to increase the length of the
ears and the number of kernels of grain in every head.
This he proposed to accomplish by careful selection, and

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 83

by what he has styled " careful breeding." How far he
has been successful the result clearly shows.

As a starting point, in the fall of 1857 hu selected
two heads of "nursery wheat," coming as near as pos
sible up to his standard of what a head of wheat should
be. The grains of these two heads were kept separate
and carefully dibbled in, one grain in a place, nine inches
apart. Of one head the best grain produced ten stalks,
with heads varying from seventy -nine to fifty-five grains,
or a total of 688 grains. The finest ten ears, selected
from the product of the other head, contained from
seventy 'to fifty-one grains, and a total of 598 grains.
Of the two original ears, one contained 43, and the
other 44 grains, showing a gain of from 30 to 36 grains.

Next year the best head from the first-mentioned ear
was planted as before. From this the best grain pro
duced 21 heads, containing from 91 to 55 grains per
head, or in all 1,190. The best random head of the
other ear was also planted ; but it was thrown out as
being evidently inferior to the others.

From this, Hallett deduces the first proof of the cor
rectness of his idea that careful breeding and cultiva
tion was correct, and not the random selection of good
specimens.

During the fall of 1859, the best head as above, con
taining 91 grains, and the worst, containing 65 grains,
were separately planted. The best grain of the former
produced 39 ears, containing 2,145 grains ; but, owing to
the extraordinary season of 1861, they were so injured
by the wet that the two best ears, containing respectively
74 and 71 grains, were the only ones sufficiently unin
jured to carry on the experiment; so that the head con
taining 74 grains was selected to carry on the experi-

84 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

ment, not because of the number of its grains — for
there was a falling off in this respect from the previous
year — but because of the increased tillering power.

As before stated, in 1859, the worst grain from the
best -ear was planted. It yielded 15 ears, containing from
87 to 61 grains, or 1,086 in all. In 1860 the best ear of
this sample was taken, and produced 1,909 grains from
24 heads, containing from 123 to 50 grains. This brings
our account up to 1860 ; and as the original stock had
been injured, liallett started afresh from the last-men
tioned head, the best grain of which produced 24 ears,
the best one of which contained 123 grains. In 1861
the best grain produced 80 heads, the best one of which
contained 132 grains.

Let us now note Hallett's improvement : In 1857 his
shortest head was 4f inches long, contained 44 grains,
and gave 10 ears from the best stool. In 1862 his best
ear was 9^ inches long, contained 132 grains, and the
best grain produced 90 heads or stalks on one stool.
One peculiarity in his culture is the small amount of
seed used. In his field culture, where the planting is
necessarily done by machinery, he uses but four bushels
on ten acres. In his large experimental plots he uses
seed at the rate of but one bushel on ten acres, and
plants by hand in squares of nine inches. lie is a
strong advocate of early seeding, and puts his field
crops in, in September ; 4 bushels on 8 acres, for the
first half of the next month, and 4 bushels on 6 acres
for the latter half ; 4 bushels on 4 acres for the month
after, and 4 bushels on 3 acres for the last month in the
year. If used as a spring wheat, he advises that it
should be put on at the rate of 4 bushels on 2^ acres.
These directions are for drill culture, and is much

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 85

heavier seeding than he practises when planting by
hand on his own estate.

His experiments clearly show the tillering power of
not only his own wheat, but of any wheat, where space
is allowed for it to accomplish this important part of its
growth. One grain from the best ear of 1861 was
planted by itself on well-prepared ground, so that its
tillering powers should be unimpeded by competition.
The result was that, after the produce of this single
grain was removed, the stubble covered an area five
feet in diameter, with 84 ears averaging 7-J- inches in
length.

GREAT YIELD OF ONE KERNEL.

" In order to show how soon the product of a single
grain of wheat may be increased, I make the following
extracts from Hallett's pen : ' From one grain planted
September, 1859, 1 shall this year, September, 1861, drill
forty acres. A whole ear in 1859 would have planted
eighty times as much.'

" ' I can show you a field of seven acres now up,
which was in one grain two years ago, and one acre
which was in one ear this day one year ago. In Sep
tember last (1861) I drilled thirty acres with thirty
pecks of seed. This is now, September 30th, well up,
and the plants as thick as I could wish.'

" Inasmuch as Hallett's success in England is very
different from a trial in. this country, I will give the
result of my own trial for three years past : In 1864,
two weeks before the end of the year, I received my
seed direct from Hallett's farm at Brighton. It should
have arrived sooner, but owing to causes over which

8(3 THE WHEAT CTJLTUKIST.

lie had no control, it was delayed. The next day a
thaw ensued, and I was enabled to stir up the mud in
one corner of my garden to the depth of three inches,
when I came to frost. A small portion of the wheat
was put in, one grain in a place, six inches square. Of
course it made no show until spring, when it came up
early ; but not very thickly, though it tillered out so
that the number of stalks varied from eleven on the
best, to five on the worst stool. It did not all grow,
and future experiment demonstrated that about sixty-
five per cent, was injured in its passage across the ocean.
The remainder was planted in the fall of 1865, just
before our regular seeding time ; and one quarter of an
acre planted came up in about the above proportion ;
that is, about thirty-five grains out of every hundred
grew. This was truly a dull prospect, and was made
more so from the fact that the midge injured the grain
of what did grow. Early in the fall of 1866 we planted
some of the best of our own seed as thinly as our drill
would put it on — say one bushel to four acres ; and
having some of our imported seed left, we put a portion
of it in, alongside of that of our own growth, at the
same rate, without any allowance for injured grains in
either case. At this time the difference is in favor of
our own seed, it being quite as thick as our regular wheat
on another part of the farm, while that from the im
ported seed makes but little show, nor should we reason
ably expect much from wheat seeded at the rate of six
teen pounds per acre, and but thirty-five per cent, of
this to grow. Those who have tried to acclimatize
foreign wheat know that it cannot be done in one or two
years. Thus far my experience confirms Hallett's idea
that by ' breeders ' he has fixed the peculiar type of

THE WHEAT CULTUBIST. 87

his wheat; for under the unfavorable circumstances of
our first trial the best head was 5^ inches long, and in
the second one 6 inches long." — Cultivator.

I cannot forbear to allude to the disappointment
which scores of farmers have experienced after having
purchased improved varieties of wheat, at fabulous
prices, of those farmers who had made their ground as
rich as it could consistently be rendered by rich manure.
In this manner, by careful selection and judicious culti
vation, they have accomplished wonders in respect to
large and long heads and plump and a large number of
kernels. On the contrary, slack farmers, who never
half-cultivate their land, have sowed such choice grain,
and produced wonders in the line of small ears and
diminutive kernels.

Every farmer who has any idea of growing wheat
should experiment, in a small way, with the seed in his
garden, where the soil is very rich. I can record nothing
that will be so effectual in accomplishing just what
should be done, and what wheat really requires, as a few
well-conducted experiments for improving the excel
lence of the seed.

88 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

THE NOMENCLATURE OF WHEAT.

Wheat hybridizes so readily, and -varieties lose their
identity in so short a period of time, that farmers are
in doubt, whenever a given variety of wheat is spoken
of, whether they really understand what kind of wheat
they are talking or reading about, or not. I have ob
served that wheat, which is raised and said to be of a
given variety in one section of the country, is so differ
ent from it in another State, that when compared, side
by side, the grain is quite as different as two distinct
varieties. The old " Bald Wheat,'' which was once —
say about the year 1830 — one of the finest varieties of
wheat that was ever cultivated, lost its identity in a few
years, by being allowed to hybridize with other varie
ties. The same is true of many other varieties. In
some sections of the country, varieties of wheat that
were originally awnless, have some awns or beards ; and
certain varieties which were known as bearded or awned
varieties, became partially bald. Under these circum
stances, one feels like a man pursuing his course in an
unknown, dubious, and uncertain way. If our Govern
ment possessed sufficient authority and influence to take
hold of this subject in a proper in aimer, and establish a
common standard of merit and an intelligible descrip
tion of each variety, and keep every variety entirely dis
tinct from year to year, farmers in different parts of the
country would be supplied with some reliable guide in
the selection of the various desirable varieties of wheat.

Now, why should farmers not have standard varieties
of grain at Washington, by which to compare the varie*
ties of grain produced on their own farms ? It appears
to me that if our Government would establish some

THE WHEAT CULTTJKIST. 89

standard in relation to wheat, to which the farmers,
north, south, east, and west, could look for reliable in
formation, there would not be so much confusion in
regard to the varieties of wheat which are worthy of
cultivation.

For example: Some competent person should be
authorized to collect several heads of all the improved and
approved varieties, from numerous sections of the coun
try; and then select a few ears of each variety, and
place them in glass cases, where farmers could see them
and compare their own grain with the standard samples
at headquarters. Besides this, every variety should be
neatly illustrated by an accurate engraving of one of
the standard ears of grain ; and accompanying each
illustration should be an intelligible and plain descrip
tion of every variety. Were I the authority in the
United States, I would do the same thing in this treatise.
But were I to attempt it, my efforts would only increase
the confusion in regard to the varieties of wheat, as my
illustrations and descriptions of certain varieties, which
might be quite correct in a given locality, would not
coincide with grain of those names in other sections of
the country.

To illustrate still further the extreme difficulty of
attempting to do anything correctly, by way of estab
lishing the identity of any variety of grain, the reader
must remember that the author of this treatise may
give an illustration and description of numerous varie
ties of wheat, which are well known in some States,
but which may be very unlike them all in other States.
This difference should be settled by some authority
which the whole country will respect and receive as
correct.

90 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

OF VARIETIES.

I purposed, when I commenced waiting this book, to
record the name of every variety of wheat that I could
hear of. But, when I met with the long list of names
in the Keport of the Superintendent of the Experimental
Farm, Washington, in the Department of Agriculture,
for 1865, I felt so thoroughly disgusted with names, that
I at once abandoned the idea of presenting the reader
with a list of the numerous varieties of wheat. I will
give a few, simply t'o show what intolerable jaw-breakers
some men will employ, when a monosyllable, that any
body could remember without difficulty, and which a
child could speak, would be ten thousand times better
in every respect. Here they are : Frumento Andriolo
Esastico Kosso ; Tauntondean ; Flickling's Hallet's
Genealogical; Schonermark's ; Canadischer and Wiez-
acker !

There is another consideration touching the names of
the different varieties of wheat which has induced me
to omit names, which is this : Wheat bearing the same
name, which has been produced on different kinds of
soil, will frequently be as unlike as two distinct varie
ties, even when both samples grew in one field, only two
or three years previous. The introduction, therefore,
of a long list of names of wheat, which has never been
tested, and which will never succeed, even if properly
cultivated, would seem to be adding confusion and be
wilderment, where the subject might otherwise be
moderately clear and intelligible for all practical purpose.

The name of every variety of wheat should be signi
ficant of something, if possible ; and always short, so
that it may be remembered without difficulty.

THE WHEAT CULTURIfeT.

91

THE PEDIGREE WHEAT.

This celebrated variety of wheat, which caused so much
surprise among the farmers of America a few years
ago, is a winter variety ; and one of the heads is rep
resented by the accompanying illustration, »

as the heads appeared before the variety
had been improved by judicious selection
of seed from year to year in connection with
thorough cultivation on a rich soil adapted
to this kind of grain. I have had one of
the original heads engraved, for the pur
pose of showing how grain may be im
proved.

The heads are not smooth and beautiful,
like many of our popular varieties ; and
there is nothing remarkable about the
variety, any more than there would be in
any of the choice varieties of winter wheat
that are now raised in various parts of the
United States.-

This Pedigree Wheat was a very prolific
variety ; and had the samples which were
sown been cultivated on rich wheat soil,
this variety would, doubtless, have proved
one of the choicest varieties of wheat that
was ever cultivated in America. This va
riety was defective in one very important
respect, namely, the grain was liable to shell
out easily, when the crop was not harvested
before the wheat was dead ripe. The grain
made excellent flour, and there was a small
percentage of bran.

wheat.

92

THE WHEAT CULTTJKIST.

Fio. 13.— Improved Pedi
gree wheat.

The head of wheat on this page re
presents the same variety as is shown
on the preceding page. But this head
is an exact representation of the Fed
igree Wheat after the variety was im
proved by judicious management,
with the exception that this cut is
more than one inch shorter than
the original head. The pages of this
book are too short to receive an illus
tration of the full length of the im
proved ears.

This variety of wheat had one rad
ical defect, as a popular variety for
cultivation, which is this: the chaff
was very open and loose, so much so
that the grain would shell readily, at
harvest time, unless the crop were
gathered before the kernels were fully
ripe. Besides this, as the chaff was
loose and open, the grain was much
more liable to be infested with the
wheat midge.

Large numbers of American farmers
procured small quantities of seed of
European wheat-growers, with the
expectation that they would be able
to raise forty bushels of choice wheat
per acre, where they had heretofore
grown only ten to twenty bushels.
But, in almost every instance, they
were wonderfully disappointed, as the
heads grew but a trifle longer and
larger than our improved varieties.

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 93

Most persons who received and cultivated this ki.id of
wheat, being grievously disappointed in the growth of
ears and yield of grain, denounced the variety as a no
torious humbug. But the grand difficulty rested in their
imperfect mode of cultivation. The soil where the
originator of this variety cultivated his wheat was ex
ceedingly rich in those elements of fertility which are
essential to the growth of large heads and plump kernels
of wheat. But the ground where American farmers at
tempted to grow this European variety was only in
a common state of fertility, and by no means rich enough
to develop ears of such enormous size. Before heads of
giant size can be produced, there must be an abundance
of wheat-producing pabulum in the soil available by the
growing plants. Then there will be no difficulty in
producing a bountiful crop of excellent grain.

I have had this Pedigree engraved for several specific
reasons, one of which is to induce American farmers, if
possible, to make an effort to produce such a variety of
wheat as this Improved Pedigree is represented to have
been. When an experiment of this kind is ever made,
care should be exercised to have every characteristic of
a perfect variety of wheat, developed as completely as
practicable. (See the Characteristics of a Perfect Wheat,
on a preceding page.)

Another idea is, do not go to England for wheat.
Select the best heads of some improved American vari
ety ; and improve the seed, from year to year. Varie
ties of wheat brought from Europe to this country must
first be acclimated ; and more likely than not, after the
wheat has been thoroughly acclimatized, there will be
defects in it, just as there was in this noted Pedigree
Wheat. But if the variety be improved on American

94: THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

soil, the crop will not fail, so long as the seed is selected
with proper care from harvest to harvest.

RED CHAFF BALD WHEAT.

fn the Transactions of the New York State Agricul
tural Society for 1842, Rawson Harmon

!« * >

writes thns about this kind of wheat :

" This variety was well adapted to the soil
in the Genesee Valley of Western New
York. In 1803, Peter Slieffer harvested
forty acres of this kind of wheat on the
Genesee Flats, that produced sixty and a
half bushels of grain per acre. The same
season, this variety, sown on the oak open
ings in this vicinity, was nearly destroyed
by the Hessian fly. Its long and well-filled
heads, the white and beautiful berries, gave
it the preference over other varieties for
more than twenty years ; and some farmers
in this vicinity [Western New York] con
tinue its cultivation. The bran of the
grain is thin ; and it yields flour of supe
rior quality. In 1833 I harvested sixty-
seven bushels from one bushel of sowing,
which grew on one acre and one-fourth
of land)'

I have copied this paragraph for the
purpose of showing what a profitable and
excellent variety of grain this "Bald
Wheat " was, when the country was com
paratively new ; and before rust, the
midge, and the fly injured the growing grain.

TITE WHEAT CULTHBIST. 95

THE WHITE GENESEE WHEAT.

This variety, illustrated by the accompanying figure
of a head of wheat, represents what is sometimes called
the Canada Flint Wheat, which is an excel
lent variety, possessing all the external char
acteristics of the best varieties of winter
wheat. It is hardy, prolific, has a thin bran,
yields a large percentage of fine flour, and
resists the ravages of the midge much more
effectually than many other celebrated va
rieties. When the seed has been saved with
care, from year to year, and sowed on a fail-
wheat soil, which is in an excellent state
of fertility, this variety ripens as early as
any kind that has been extensively intro
duced.

This variety is almost identical with the
White Flint described by Klippart, who says
that " this [the White Flint] is one of the
most valuable kinds in the Northern States.
The head's are not long but well filled, with
thirty to forty grains ; the kernel is white and
flinty, large, and with thin bran. They are
firmly attached to the chaff, and do not shell
out, except when very ripe. r\ he heads are
rather drooping, with but few awns, the straw FIG. 15.
medium length, and very white and strong. see-
The flour is very superior; the perfect wheat weighs
from sixty-three to sixty-seven pounds per bushel." This
would be an excellent variety to select a few heads from,
for producing an improved variety, as it possesses pro
lificacy, and is nearly midge proof.

96 THE WHEAT CULTURTST.

THE RED BLUE-STEM WHEAT.

This is an old and very popular variety of wheat,
which originated in Pennsylvania. It is one of the
finest and most profitable varieties of
red wheat. The growing grain with
stands the ravages of the wheat midge
better than many varieties, but not so
well as some others. The chaff fits rather
close to the kernels, but not so tight as
the chaff of some other varieties. The
Red Blue-stem Wheat is one of the most
prolific varieties that has ever been cul
tivated ; and the young plants endure the
cold of winter with less injury than many
other kinds of wheat. J. II. Klippart
says, in the Transactions of the Ohio
Board of Agriculture, that this variety
makes as good a quality of flour as does
any red wheat ; the grain ripens three to
six days later than the Mediterranean
wheat ; but no variety repays *good cul
tivation so well, or yields so little when
indifferently cultivated, as does this va
riety. Many of the more recent varie-

FIG. 16. J

Red blue-stem. ties of smooth, red wheats were derived
from this old standard variety, which has been cultivated
in many counties in Ohio for more than fifty years. The
regularity of the rows of grain and the tightness of the
chaff to the kernels show this to be a very desirable va
riety to cultivate. With proper selection of seed, and
superior cultivation, the yield and quality may be won
derfully improved.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

97

THE BULL WHEAT, OR OLD WHITE FLINT.

J. H. Klippart records the following suggestions
of this variety. He writes : " This flint, Old White
Flint, or Bull Wheat, appears to have had
three distinct origins, so far as Ohio is
concerned, viz. : in Trumbull and other
north-eastern counties it was introduced
from JSTew York State some fifteen years
ago — there it ripens with the Mediter
ranean ; is not much subject to disease,
and is considered a good variety. In Stark,
Harrison, etc., it was introduced as much
as thirty years ago from Pennsylvania, and
is now almost literally ' run out? But in
Franklin and other more southern counties
it was introduced from Kentucky, ripened
about the 25th of July, and was in conse
quence soon abandoned entirely. Ten
years ago Samuel Cole introduced it into
Darke County, where it is doing well ; at
the same time it was introduced into Tus-
carawas. This flint is of Spanish origin.
The head is of medium length and well F[Q 17
filled— straw white, clear and strong at the Bul1 wheat>
root, by which it is prevented from lodging ; spikelets
very adhesive to the rachis, and kernels very adhesive to
the glumes. It succeeds best on loamy soils, and is
rather susceptible to injury from frosts and insects.
The berry is very hard from its silicious cuticle (hence
its name), in consequence of .which it is less injured by
fall rains, and will stand in the shock a long time with
out sprouting."

98 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

THE INDIANA, OR GOLDEN STEM WHEAT.

This variety is a white winter variety ; but does not
possess the necessary characteristics of a perfect wheat.

One of its defects is, the chaff' is too loose,
'^ \

so much so that the wheat midge finds easy

access to the kernels ; and the grain shells
out readily when the crop is being har
vested. Another defect is, the straw does
not usually grow sufficiently stiff to maintain
an erect position till the time of perfect
maturity. The cuticle of the grain is thin,
and the percentage of fine flour is larger
than the yield of some other varieties of
wheat.

THE EARLY MAY WHEAT.

This variety was once one of the finest
kinds of wheat that could be found in
America ; and in some localities it is still
cultivated with excellent satisfaction. But
as I have not, of late, come in personal
contact with the Early May, and as there
are so many conflicting opinions about the
value of this variety, I feel in doubt as
to what I ought to record about it. I
have no doubt, however, that with care
ful cultivation, this would prove an ex-

FIG. IS.

Golden stem. cellent acquisition to the best varieties
of the wheats now cultivated in this country. Who
ever has this variety, still pure, should make an extra
effort to improve it.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

99

THE GENESEE WHITE-FLINT WHEAT.

The illustration herewith given repre
sents the celebrated variety long known
and cultivated as the Genesee White-
Flint Wheat, which was a very hardy and
prolific variety so long as the seed was
kept distinct from other kinds of grain.
But after it had been thrashed with other
grain and allowed to hybridize with impure
varieties, the White Flint character disap
peared. The original grain was of a supe
rior character, and yielded a large percent
age of flour. But after the introduction of
thrashing-machines, the purity of this va
riety became wonderfully adulterated, so
that there seemed to be but little resem
blance between the varieties raised in dif
ferent parts of the country which were
cultivated for the Genesee White-Flint
Wheat.

J. H. Klippart says of this variety :
" Perhaps the first of this variety intro
duced into Ohio was in Warren County,
by Thomas Ireland, in 1842. From there
it no doubt spread through the valleys of
the Miami ; in many of which it forms the
main crop of the white wheats. It is best
adapted to high and gravelly lands, and
rarely if ever succeeds on a bottom soil.
In Franklin County it is regarded as a
much surer crop than when first introduced
eight years ago."

FIG. IP.— Gencsee
wheat.

100

THE WHEAT CULTUKI6T.

THE ALABAMA YAEIETT.

This variety is sometimes known better by the White
May Wheat. Before this variety had been injured by
injudicious culture and defective frianage-
ment, it was one of the most perfect varieties
of white wheat ever cultivated. The ears
and fine white grain closely resemble the
celebrated White Flint Wheat. In many
instances, this variety did not seem to en
dure the cold of winter as well as many other
varieties. Before the Alabama Wheat had
been mingled with other varieties of seed,
with which the growing wheat was allowed
to hybridize, a bushel of the grain would
yield as large a percentage of superfine flour
as any other known variety. But by per
functory management in saving the seed, this
valuable grain, in many localities, has lost
its identity. The Alabama was nearly
midge-proof so long as the purity of the
variety was maintained. In some localities,
this variety, at the present writing — Novem
ber 186Y — is cultivated with eminent satis
faction. Klippart says " it ripens about the
same time the Mediterranean does, but is

FIG. 20. easily winter-killed, thus betraying its south-
Alabama wheat. . . . T -, . , . Ill

ern origin ; yields eighteen to twenty bushels
under ordinary circumstances ; it comes highly recom
mended from Morgan County. Its general appearance
is very like that of the White Blue-stem, with this dif
ference, viz. : the head, when fully ripe, is a deeper yel
low than the Blue-stem ; the stem just below the head is

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

101

a pale greenish-blue. There
are from eight to twelve
breasts on each side, with
four grains in a breast."

BLACK SIX-KOWED ANDRIOLO
WHEAT.

The ear of wheat here
shown represents a mongrel,
or hybrid variety of wheat,
as may be readily perceived
by the rough appearance of
the glumes, the irregularity
of the rows of kernels, and
the destitution of awns at
certain parts of the head.
This variety has not been
introduced sufficiently to
warrant a recommendation.
I simply give it a place to
show the difference between
a pure and well-established
variety and a mongrel. This
Black Six-rowed Andriolo
Wheat is the product of a bald and
bearded variety,, the kernels of one
of which were impregnated with the
pollen of the other variety. Such va
rieties should always be discarded for
seed, as the yield will always be less
satisfactory than when good seed of a
pure variety is selected and sowed
from year to year.

FIG. 21.— Black Aiidriolo wheat

102

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

FIG. 22.— Hairy Andriolo.

RED, HAIRY ANDRIOLO
WHEAT.

I have given a sketch of
this wheat, not for the
purpose of recommend
ing this variety, but to
suggest to farmers not to
attempt to grow it be
cause the ears look so
large, fair, and beautiful.
This variety is a fair
wheat, prolific, and pos
sesses most of the charac
teristics of a superior va
riety of wheat. But the
large awns and hairs with
which the ears are cov
ered are a serious objec
tion to its general intro
duction. The variety
came originally from
Italy ; but has not been
introduced, except to a
very limited extent. It
is evidently a mongrel, or hybrid ;
and before it can be cultivated with
satisfactory results, the grain needs
to be acclimatized by selecting a
few of the best heads and cultivat
ing the grain on rich ground until a
perfect American variety is brought
out. This variety has prolificacy,
for which reason, it would be a first-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 103

late grain to experiment with, for the purpose of im
proving its other characteristics.

THE KENTUCKY RED OR WHIG WHEAT.

This is an old variety, known in vari
ous localities by different names, among
which are the Early Ripe Carolina, Ken
tucky Red, arid the Whig Wheat. This
kind of wheat was cultivated in several
counties in Ohio, with eminent satisfaction,
for a number of years. But, as the crop fell
an easy prey to the wheat midge, this variety
was discarded. I allude to this wheat for
the purpose of teaching young farmers the
transcendent importance of selecting those
varieties of wheat for cultivation which
are as nearly midge-proof as a wheat can
be. Many farmers, by continuing to sow
this variety, which had previously yielded
fair crops, lost hundreds of dollars which
they might have received without any
more labor, if they had sowed some other
variety of wheat.

Klippart says, that in Kentucky this vari
ety is known as the " Early Ripe " wheat.
The ears are of a great length, usually ; the
kernels of a light color ; and sometimes the
grain is shrunken. This variety has lost
its identity in many localities, for wThich
reason, it fails to yield a satisfactory crop.
In some localities, however, the " Early
Ripe " is still cultivated with the best of
satisfaction ; and few varieties excel it.

104:

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

FIG. 24. — Four-rowed Andriolo.

THE FOUR-ROWED ANDRIOLO
WHEAT.

The variety herewith
represented is the Four-
rowed White Andriolo
variety, which was raised
to some extent by the
Hon. Isaac Newton, Com
missioner of Agriculture,
Washington. This is a
beautiful variety, prolific,
stands the winters tol
erably well, and ripens
early. The long awns, or
rough beards, are an ob
jection to it, as they are
unpleasant to handle, and
make so much chaff,
which is a nuisance,
when the straw is em
ployed for feeding and
littering sheep and horses.
This variety has all the
external characteristics of
a perfect variety of grain ;
and were it properly cul
tivated, no doubt this
would be one of the best
varieties ever raised in
America. The kernels of
this variety are very uni
form in appearance ; and
the variety is prolific.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

105

THE DIEHL VARIETY.

The illustration on this page is an exact representa
tion of the far-famed Diehl Wheat, which is familiar
to almost every wheat-grower in the North
ern and Western States. I know of no
other variety of wheat, either spring grain
or winter, that has been cultivated with
more universal satisfaction than this wTheat.
It is a winter variety. This variety seems
to come up as fully to the requirements of
wheat-growers as it is practicable to have
wheat. The grain is white and the crop
ripens .early in the season. It is hardy,
prolific, and the plants endure the rigors
of our northern winters quite as well as
any other known variety. The ears are
bald, or awnless, the kernels set very
securely to the rachis, the chaff is close to
the kernels, so that this variety may be
truthfully denominated a "fly -proof"
wheat. The grain does not shell out,
when the crop is being harvested, as easily
as the kernels of some other varieties.
The straw is stiff; and thus far this vari
ety has been exempt from injury by the
rust.

"Colman's Kural World," published at
Chicago, in a recent number, has the fol
lowing remarks touching the Diehl wheat : The jxua wk«-,at.
" This is the second year since the introduction of the
Diehl wheat into this country. Its yield last year was
considered above the average of other kinds of wheat

5*

106 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

sown here, and the consequence was, it was much sought
after to seed with last fall, and the whole crop was
bought up at $3 per bushel, at that time being from 50
to 75 cents per bushel above the market price of other
white wheat. In consequence of the high price asked
it went into the hands of many, and has been sown on
all the different soils of our country, from light sand
to heavy clay. The growth of straw has been good on
all, but it promises the best yield on the rich lands, and
where sown early. Where sown late, and on the same
day with the Treadwell, it was very much injured by
the midge, and the Treadwell was uninjured.

" We cannot say positively what its merits are when
compared with the other white wheats. Many think there
is nothing like it, while others are not ready to express
their opinions. There has been but little of it thrashed
yet. After it has been generally thrashed, it will as
sume its position.

" To sum up — with our present knowledge of the
Diehl wheat, if we had a good fallow, rich and clean,
we would sow the Diehl wheat, and sow early. If the
land was of moderate richness and to be sown late, we
would sow Treadwell. We think the Diehl requires a
dryer soil than the Treadwell. Persons wanting Diehl
wheat for seed this year should not pay fancy prices for
it, but should willingly pay for good, sound, clean seed
sufficient above the market price of wheat to recompense
for the labor of making it so."

Mr. John Johnston, the veteran farmer of Geneva, N.
Y., says in regard to the Diehl wheat : " My Diehl
wheat is pretty good. One field may yield about as
well as last year's ; the other not. Cause : not manured
for many years. The variety has degenerated on the

THE WHEAT CTTLTTJRIST.

107

one field, but not
on the other ! "
Mr. J. adds : " If
plenty of manure
were applied, there
would be less loss
from midge. All
that is needed to
insure good crops
is more and better
m a n u r e. Diehl
wheat is excellent
for rich land, but
not good for poor.
This is not a popu
lar doctrine, but it
is true."

The head of
wheat represented
by this illustration
was sketched from
a head of this
variety raised in
Colorado, and de
posited in the
archives of the
Agricultural De
partment at Wash
ington. There is
nothing remark
able about this
variety, except the
uncouth appear-

FIG. 26.— Egyptian club wheat.

108 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

ance of the ear. The variety is called the Seven-
headed Egyptian Club Wheat. Mr. Klippart states that
" this variety is known under the names of Egyptian,
Syrian, Smyrna, Many-spiked, Reed, and Wild-goose
Wheat. It derives its latter name from a story, which is
current in the north, that four or five kernels, from which
the American stock has proceeded, were found in the
crop of a wild goose, which was shot on the west shore
of Lake Champlain. It is called Reed Wheat, from the
great strength of its straw, which serves to prevent its
being prostrated in the field. It does not yield so much
flour or meal as other kinds of wheat ; and the flour is
scarcely superior to that obtained from the finest barley.
We find it described in some authorities as Mummy
Wheat, or wheat three thousand years old. The
following is a brief popular alleged history of it : It is
said that some years ago a gentleman having occasion to
unroll an Egyptian mummy, found enclosed with the
body a few grains of wheat, which afterward, upon being
sown with the modern Egyptian wheat, was found to be
entirely dissimilar. The former contained nearly a
hundred stalks, ranging in length from nearly five to
upward of six feet, the leaves broader than usual, and
fully an average as to length. The grain was in two
rows or triplets, and on some, twenty triplets on a side,
or forty on the ear. The ear contained a few barbs or
awns on the upper end, and was open and distant be
tween the grains. It flowered nearly a fortnight before
any of the varieties sown at the same period. The
modern Egyptian is dwarf, not more than four feet high,
closely set. and barbed in every part of the ear, and its
general resemblance to its ancient progenitor is not
greater than that of barley to wheat. Egyptian wheat.

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 109

found in the tombs of the 18th dynasty — i. <?., from B.
c. 1822 to B. c. 1476 — has germinated when sown in
Germany, and is frequently found in the tombs of Egypt.
It has been grown by P. Poorman, in Stark County, O.
" This is an indifferent variety of wheat. The straw
grows to the height of about five feet, is thick and pithy ;
the leaves are often ten inches long ; the head, or rather
panicle, is about four inches long, and nearly two wide
and deep, and when ripe is of a reddish brown. The
head consists of from five to twelve small heads densely
compacted ; the awns or beards are often four inches
long, and of a very dark brown or blackish color. The
lower part of the grain is inordinately swollen ; it is
very starchy, but not hard or flinty."

THE WEEKS WHEAT.

Perhaps very few other varieties of wheat have been
cultivated with more general satisfaction than this
variety. (In numerous instances, this wheat has erro
neously been bought and sold and advertised as the
" Wicks " wheat.) But as I lived for many years within
a few miles of the originator of this variety, at the time
of his experiments with it, and am personally acquainted
with him, I can correct any false impressions that have
been promulgated concerning its identity, with the as
surance that my statements are correct. There has been
great confusion among farmers in regard to the identity
of the Weeks wheat. In some instances, the heads
were bald, while in others they were bearded, similar
to the head herewith illustrated. Although the head
of wheat from which this engraving was made was said
to be the genuine Weeks wheat, still I know, from what

FIG. 2T.

Weeks wheat.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. Ill

I have often seen on my own farm and in the wheat
fields of many of my neighbors, that the heads of the
genuine Weeks wheat are not, as a general rule, so
jagged and irregular as this illustration represents the
variety to be. The heads of the true Weeks wheat, as I
used to raise it, had four regular rows of kernels. In
some instances, there were no beards, while other heads
were covered with long awns. The originator of this
variety communicated the following facts touching this
variety of wheat, in response to my inquiries about its
origin and other characteristics. He wrote under date
of October 19, 1867, as follows:

" In answer to your inquiries, I would say that I found
the head from which the Weeks wheat originated, in a
crop of Mediterranean wheat. There were a few scat
tering heads of Hutchinson and Souls wheat mixed with
the Mediterranean, among which this head grew. The
product of the selected head was both bearded and bald
wheat, nearly one-third being bald ; and it continued to
grow bald heads for three or four years, though such
heads were carefully picked out every year. The midge
worked in the bald heads very bad, whilst the 'bearded
was almost free from their ravages. I therefore rejected
the ~bald, and grew the ~bearded. I think the wheat is a
cross between the Souls wheat and the Hutchinson.
" Respectfully yours,

" J. M. WEEKS.

"King's Ferry, Cayuga Co., K Y."

E. A. King, of King's Ferry, Cayuga Co., N. Y.,
whose farm lies on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake,
and who has cultivated the Weeks wheat for a few
years past, writes thus to the " Cultivator anl Country

112 THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST.

Gentleman " : " For many years the need of an early
and productive variety of wheat, and one free from the
c midge ' or ' weevil ' has been felt ; and in the Weeks
wheat the farmer has such a variety. It is a choice
white wheat, making the very best of flour. Millers in
Ithaca and Auburn pay from two to four shillings more
for it per bushel than for any other kind. They say they
get more flour, and of a better quality, than from any
other kind. It is from eight to twelve days earlier than
any other kind which farmers have here, thus escaping
the weevil or midge. It has a good stiff straw, and
thereby escapes the Hessian fly. It is very productive
— twenty-five bushels not being a high average per acre,
and I have known it to yield as high as forty-five bush
els per acre. It is no humbug, as scores of the best
farmers here will testify ; and I actually believe that if
this variety alone was sown in the United States, the
crop would be doubled on the area over the present
crop. It need not be sown before the 15th or 20th of
September to do its best."

GOLDEN-STKAW WHEAT.

The straw of this variety is short and stiff, and is
consequently not liable to lodge. It does best on rich
sandy loams. The grain is not properly a red wheat ;
but of nice amber color, somewhat resembling the
old-fashioned flint wheats. In Holmes County, Ohio,
it is rather of a yellowish cast. It ripens rather later
than the Mediterranean. It yields about twenty bushels
per acre ; and improves under ordinary culture, and is
but little subject to injury by rust or fly. It is rapidly
growing into favor ; and eventually may perhaps sup
plant the Mediterranean.

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

113

The Red Andriolo
Wheat, represented by
the accompanying en
graving, is similar to
the White Andriolo
Wheat, shown on an
other page of this book.
This is a hardy varie
ty, prolific, moderately
early, and possesses
most of the character
istics of a superior va
riety of winter wheat.
The long, rough awns
are an objection to its
cultivation, when the
straw is to be employed
for feeding stock or
littering their apart
ments. Domestic ani
mals dislike these
harsh, tasteless, and in-
nutritious beards, as
they are ruinous to fine
wool, liable to injure
the eyes of animals,
and when the chaff is employed
for bedding for horses, these
ugly, barbed awns are liable to
find their way into the sheath of
male horses, to their serious in
jury. Awns are of no advan
tage to wheat.

FIG. 28.— Eed Andriolo.

114: THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

THE TAPPAHANNOCK WHEAT.

This excellent variety of winter wheat has not been
introduced to any considerable extent in the United
States. Hon. Isaac Newton, Commissioner of Agri
culture at Washington, experimented with this wheat ;
and the same season he died, 1867, he pronounced the
Tappahannock the earliest and most promising of all
the varieties of winter wheat with which he experi
mented on the government farm. Mr. Newton states
that this variety does not seem to be so prolific as some
other kinds ; but the grain is of a fine quality, and it
makes excellent flour. He thought this variety is
much less liable to disease and the ravages of the fly
than some other varieties. Farmers in other States
besides Virginia, who have raised this kind of wheat,
state that, as a general rule, the Tappahannock is ex
tremely hardy and prolific, when the seed has been
saved with care, from year to year ; the yield of fine
flour is large; the plants endure the winter extremely
well ; and all things considered, the Tappahannock is
an excellent variety of wheat.

THE MEDITERRANEAN WHEAT.

This variety is said to have been introduced from
Genoa, in 1819, by J. Gordon, of Wilmington, Dela
ware. It was cultivated for many years with eminent
satisfaction, as the wheat midge injured the crop none
to speak of. In many instances the straw was not suffi
ciently stiff to maintain an erect position till harvest.
As it was more expensive harvesting lodged wheat, arid
as the yield was diminished by the falling down of the

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 115

straw, and as the price per bushel was often twenty to
thirty cents less in market than other wheat, this va
riety was almost discarded in many localities.

At present we have the Red Mediterranean and the
White, both of which are cultivated with eminent satis
faction, where the seed has not been allowed to mix and
to degenerate by injudicious management. Both the
white and the red varieties yield bountiful crops ; and
resist the midge nearly as well as any other variety.
The Mediterranean wheat matured ten to fifteen days
before other varieties when first introduced. But, by
slack management of the seed, the variety lost its early-
maturing character. This wheat is known as a bearded
and bald ; and as white and red grain.

I have found so many different varieties which pass
for the Mediterranean, that it will be utterly useless to
attempt to pen such a description of the Mediterranean
wheat as will prove of any service or satisfaction to
even a small number of the readers of this book. Mr.
Klippart, in his " Wheat Plant," speaks very favorably
of the Mediterranean wheat ; and my own experience
is, that where the seed has not been allowed to degene
rate by slack cultivation, this variety is one of the
most profitable kinds that American farmers can cul
tivate.

When the Mediterranean Red variety was first intro
duced into the best wheat-growing regions of New York,
many farmers refused to employ this variety for seed,
simply because the straw was so slender that it would
lodge, and frequently be tangled into a complete snarl,
before harvest-time, thus diminishing the yield of grain,
and greatly augmenting the labor of harvesting the
crop.

116 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

THE BLACK-SEA SPUING WHEAT.

This excellent variety of spring wheat was once one of
the choicest kinds of spring grain that has ever been
cultivated in the United States. But slip-shod farm
ing soon brought the Black-Sea wheat into disfavor.
Before it had been allowed to hybridize with other va
rieties, it was considered an earlier variety than the
others ; and it succeeded comparatively well, if sowed
when it would be too late for other kinds to mature.- It
has been sown as late as the 20th of June in Eastern
'New York, and produced bright straw and a plump
berry. This has been much liked, because it may be
sown so late as to escape the wheat midge, and yet fill.
As the wheat juidge does not rage so much now as for
merly, it is not so extensively cultivated.

S. Kieffer, of Jefferson County, N. Y., writes that
the Black Sea wheat is not so valuable to manufac
ture into flour for exportation, because it is not so white
and light, or soft to the touch of the finger, but makes
good bread, of a rather yellowish color. It never has
rusted or blasted with me, and I doubt if it has with
anybody else when sown within the month of May. 1
have grown it upon interval land so rich that it lodged
and lay flat upon the ground during the time it was
filling until it was harvested ; yet it was well filled, and
yielded thirty-eight (38J) bushels per acre.

If this variety could have been kept pure, and the
seed improved from year to year, according to the di
rections laid down in this treatise, farmers would have
had a variety of wheat that would now be a great na
tional blessing. It is a glaring reproach to American
farmers, that they will allow choice varieties of wheat

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 117

to deteriorate and run out, simply by perfunctory man
agement.

THE Rio GRANDE.

This is a choice variety of spring wheat ; but has not
been introduced, except in a few localities. Wherever
it has been cultivated for several successive seasons,
with care, and the seed kept pure, the crops have given
fair satisfaction. The straw is usually rather stiff, so
that the growing grain is not prostrated by protracted
storms. This variety has been grown quite extensively
in some parts of Minnesota, and other Western States.
Usually, farmers and millers have spoken well of the
Rio Grande. I think that if the seed of this variety
could be cultivated with the care alluded to under the
head of Seed Wheat, the Rio Grande would be one of
the choicest and most profitable varieties of spring
wheat that has ever been cultivated in America. This
wheat possesses all the characteristics of a perfect vari
ety of cereal grain. But in numerous instances, the
crop has been allowed to hybridize with other grain, so
that, in some instances, it has lost its identity.

CHINA TEA WHEAT.

This is a spring wheat. The chaff is white; the
heads are long and well filled with plump kernels, when
the soil is moderately fertile. The kernels are large,
and rather far apart. It is a bearded variety ; and very
prolific. On rich soil, the straw stands erect tolerably
well. But some millers have complained of this variety
that the bran is thick ; and that the grain does not yield

118 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

so much flour per bushel as the grain of some other
varieties. The China Tea has been cultivated, in
years past, quite extensively, in many parts of Western
New York, with eminent satisfaction. In some of the
middle counties of the State, where the seed has been
allowed to hybridize, there has been not a little com
plaint about the unsatisfactory results of the China Tea
variety. In some other States, this variety has been
cultivated to a limited extent ; and I have always found
that slack farmers denounced it, while thorough-going
cultivators of the soil speak well of the China Tea.

THE FIFE SITING WHEAT.

The Fife Wheat and the Canada Club Wheat are said
to be the same variety in certain sections of the country.
But they are entirely distinct. They were both culti
vated in Central .New York, to a limited extent, for sev-
ral successive years, when I resided in Tompkins County.
The grain appears very much alike; but the straw,
when growing, is quite unlike. I once grew both varie
ties on my farm ; and I found that the Club wheat
would mature a week earlier than the Fife. The straw
of the Fife is short and stiff ; and the variety is moder
ately prolific. The Fife wheat, -with me, always resisted
the midge satisfactorily; and the grain always made
excellent flour.

SILVER STRAW WHEAT.

This is a variety of winter wheat full of encouraging
promises to American farmers ; but which has been cul
tivated only to a limited extent. It possesses all the

I n u n I U U L

ft Y,

1 ! ITY

THE WHEAT CULTUPtiSTpA Ll FQ R

external characteristics of a perfect variety. The rows
of grain are very regular ; the heads are large and well
filled with plump kernels ; the grain is of a beautiful
amber color ; the straw is stiff, and has a fine silver
lustre; the growing crop is nearly weevil proof; the
straw is seldom affected with rust; the young plants
endure the cold of winter, extremely well ; and it is
one of the finest varieties of wheat that can be found
in New Jersey, where it is grown with eminent profit
and satisfaction.

UNDESCRIBED VARIETIES.

No doubt hundreds of my readers will wonder why
I did not describe certain varieties which have only a
local name, having been cultivated only in certain local
ities. I am aware that there are many, probably, excel
lent varieties of both winter and spring wheat, which
I have never heard of. I have heard of, and have seen
many varieties that I have made no allusion to in this
book ; because I have not been able to learn anything
really reliable in regard to their characteristics. Where
I knew nothing of a certain kind of wheat, and was not
able to obtain reliable information touching its excel
lence, I have thought best to pen nothing about it.
There are many kinds of wheat in the Western States,
of which I failed to secure an intelligible description ;
therefore, I have omitted the names.

120 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

CHAPTER II.

SOIL, AND ITS PREPARATION FOR WHEAT.

" But if your care to wheat alone extend,
Let Maia, with her sisters, first descend ;
And the bright Gnossian diadem downward bend,
Before you trust in earth the future hope ;
Or, else expect a listless, lazy crop."

DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

THE proper preparation and continued management
of the soil from year to year, lies at the very foundation
of successful wheat culture. A farmer may sow the
best and most prolific varieties the world ever knew, and
fail to raise a satisfactory crop of wheat, if the soil is not
just as it should be.

In preparing the soil for the production of a crop of
winter grain — wheat, rye, or winter barley — the aim
should always be to keep the vegetable matter and
the manurial portions as much on, or near the surface as
is practicable. The grand object of preparing the soil
in this way, is that the roots of the plants may spread out
horizontally, instead of striking in a more vertical direc
tion. When they spread out horizontally, they form a
kind of mat in the soil, a few inches deep, which rises
and settles down bodily, when the soil freezes and thaws.
Therefore the soil may freeze and thaw a great number
of times, when the roots are matted together horizontally,
without throwing the plants out of the soil. Whereas,
when the vegetable matter is mingled with a good depth

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 121

of soil, so that the roots must necessarily strike deep
before they can reach the necessary sustenance, they
will be lifted out and broken by the frost after freezing
only a few times.

Now, if we could invert only a few inches in depth
of the soil — say three or four inches — and then pulver
ize the soil below this thin stratum of surface soil, thus
keeping the largest proportion of humus and available
fertilizers near the surface of the earth, there is no
doubt but that we should see a very remarkable differ
ence in more abundant crops of grain ; and at the same
time it would be of a better quality, as its growth
would not be stinted by the frosts of winter.

To show that this theory of cultivation is philoso
phical and practically correct, I will simply refer to the
practice formerly in vogue, of sowing wheat on newly-
cleared land, after the surface had been simply har
rowed — or without ploughing any part of the ground.
Winter-killing of wheat, when put in thus, was seldom
complained of. As there was but little depth to the
soil, all the roots spread out horizontally ; and it was
almost impossible for the young plants to be injured by
the freezing and thawing of the surface of the field.

Thousands of acres of the finest quality of wheat
were cultivated, when the country was new, on ground
that was simply harrowred orver, having never been
ploughed. The most abundant crops that the best
wheat-fields of the country ever have produced, or ever
will yield, grew where the timber had just been cut oif ;
and where the logs and brush were burned to ashes,
which were harrowed into the thin stratum of leaf
mould that formed the seed-bed of the future crop. The
land, in numerous instances, was so exceedingly rooty

6

THE WHEAT CULTHRIST.

and stumpy that it would have been an utter impracti
cability to plough it. And yet, with all the deep
ploughing, thorough pulverization, and bountiful ma
nuring, farmers find it difficult to produce as many
bushels of wheat per acre, on the same land, as they
were accustomed to grow, without any manure at all,
and without any preparation of the land, except a
superficial harrowing.

It is eminently important that farmers should under
stand that the manner of preparing land for winter
wheat, as practised by our ancestors, was compatible
with the habit of the wheat plant ; and it was also the
scientific way of cultivation, with a view of avoiding
the injurious influences of freezing and thawing of the
soil, on the growing wheat plants. If the hard subsoil
beneath the thin stratum of mould could have been
broken up with a subsoil plough, without having been
turned above the rich seed-bed, the yield of grain would
have been much larger than the most bountiful crops
that grew where no implement of husbandry wTas ever
before used, except the common harrow. All the aged
wheat-growers of our country, who have a correct
understanding of the difficulties that are now met with
by wheat-growers, will appreciate these suggestions, as
they understand perfectly well how easy it was, wThen
they cultivated wheat according to the foregoing plan,
to produce a heavy crop.

There are other considerations which it is proper to
mention, that exerted a favorable influence towards the
production of a bountiful crop of grain, among which
may be mentioned the protection of the wheat plants in
the winter, by the extensive forests that shielded the
wheat-fields from the terrible winds that now remove

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 123

all the snow during the winter months ; and also the
liberal amount of excellent fertilizing material in the
form of wood ashes. Allusion is made to these things
more extensively in another part of this work. The
main point to which I desire to direct the attention of
wheat-growers is, the most favorable condition of the
soil, and other circumstances, in order to produce a
satisfactory crop of grain. Necessity required our an
cestors to adopt the mode of cultivation to which allu
sion has been made. They might not have perceived
at that time that those circumstances and conditions of
seed-bed, and everything else, were more favorable than
any other for the production of a bountiful crop of
grain. But they see it now. The suggestion may
never have occurred to them that it made any difference
whether the best soil was kept at the surface or turned
half a foot beneath it. But successful wheat-growers
have learned that it does make all the difference in the
world, whether the best soil is kept at the surface, when
a crop of winter grain is to be raised. Read volume
second, page 125, of Young Farmer's Manual.

Let this be the key-note, then, to successful wheat cul
ture : to keep the best soil, or a thin, mellow stratum
of rich soil, at the surface. Then make the subsoil as
deep and porous by pulverization as practicable, by the
use of the subsoil plough.

How FREEZING AND THAWING OF THE SOIL AFFECTS
GROWING WHEAT.

Practical farmers understand very well, how freezing
and thawing of the surface of the soil affects the wheat
plant. Doubtless every observing farmer who reads

THE WHEAT CULTHRIST.

these pages, will recollect of having seen the surface of
very wet and light ground lifted, so that the ice and
a little earth would resemble a honeycomb. Every
wheat-grower should have a correct understanding of
the effect of freezing and thawing of the soil on the
wheat plants, as the injury to the wheat plant arising
from the freezing and thawing of the soil, is usually the
most serious obstacle that farmers meet with in our
wheat-growing regions. By the alternate freezing and
thawing of the surface of the soil, the stools of wheat
are lifted and separated from their hold upon the soil.
The deep roots which penetrate below the reach of shal
low frosts are broken off, and the earth is more or less
loosened from the others. Here we perceive the dis
advantage of depositing the seed too deep. The roots
originating from the seed, being far below the surface
of the ground, when the plant is lifted by the expansion
of the soil, the stem will be likely to be separated some
where between the surface of the ground and the roots.
The plants then soon die. When the roots strike down
ward, their hold in the soil is loosened, when the frost
lifts the soil ; and as the wheat plants do not settle back
to their original position when the ground thaws, the
roots are soon worked upward, until they are raised
almost clear of the soil, as if they had been pulled up
by hand. Every practical w^heat-grower is familiar
with all these disadvantages in raising winter wheat.
With spring grain, none of these things occur.

When the soil freezes, it is greatly expanded ; and the
expansion is all upward, because the unfrozen earth
below, will not yield to the frozen stratum ; and there is
no vacant space to be filled by the lateral enlargement.
For this reason, the surface of the soil is often elevated

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 125

two, three, or more inches higher than it stands when
the ground is not frozen.

If the position of shallow-rooted trees, w^here the ground
freezes deeply, be compared with horizontal marks on a
building that the frost does not lift, it will often be seen
that they stand from one to two inches higher, when
the soil is thus frozen, than when free from frost. As
the roots of such trees lie nearly in a horizontal position,
they rise and settle back with the lifting and settling of
the soil. Thus it is with sod ground. The roots of the
grass form such a tangled mat near the surface of the
ground, that the entire layer of turf settles back in a
body, keeping the roots in their true position.

I have in mind an instance which will illustrate the
great expansion of the soil, even when beneath a heavy
weight. In the basement of my workshop, there were
two sticks of timber resting with their ends on the sills,
and the middle of each stick was supported by posts set
in the ground, where frost could not reach them. In
very cold weather, the entire building would be raised
by the freezing of the earth beneath the foundation, so
that a plank, an inch and a half thick, could be put
under the timbers, on the top of the posts.

With a perfect understanding of the foregoing sugges
tions, a farmer will be well prepared to do something
to prevent in a great degree, or entirely, any injury to
the wheat-plant from freezing and thawing of the soil.
In order to prevent injury from this source, two things
are essential. The first is, thorough drainage, where the
soil is at all inclined to be too wet. Dry soils are af
fected but little by freezing. But when a soil is satu
rated with water, it often heaves several inches above
its usual height. This process so disturbs the roots of

FIG. 29.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 127

wheat, that they have no more hold on the soil than
if just transplanted. Hence, they are apt soon to die.

The next consideration j.s shallow seeding, and cul
tivating the soil so as to keep the mould, or the richest
part of the soil, at the surface.

I will endeavor to make this point more intelligible
by an explanation of the accompanying illustration,
which represents a young wheat-plant which has sprung
from a kernel of wheat that was planted about six inches
deep. The seminal or primary roots that have sprung
from the kernel take such a firm hold of the soil, that
when the surface is lifted the stem will be severed, as
shown, at some point between the two systems of roots.
Unless winter wheat is put in very early in autumn, the
coronal, or secondary, or upper set of roots will not
attain one-half the size herewith represented. I have
shown a bulb just below the surface of the ground, much
larger than it really grows, for the purpose of illustrat
ing the principle on which the young wheat-plants
grow. The upper set of roots seldom appear as large
as they are here represented, until the plants have begun
to grow luxuriantly the next spring after the seed is put
in. We can perceive, at once, how easily the frost
would heave out the growing plant, if there were only
a few small roots issuing from the bulb, to hold it in
the ground.

When seed wheat is ploughed in deep, if we examine
the plants just before winter, we shall find that there
are roots issuing from the kernel, as shown by the
illustration, and none — or very few — at the bulb. After
a period of freezing and thawing of the wheat field, in
some wet place, let the stems be examined, and they will
be found severed, as represented by the preceding cut.

128 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

Now, the great practical question again recurs — to
which I have previously alluded — what can the hus
bandman do to avoid injury from freezing and thawing
of the soil? I again repeat the answer which, was
hinted at under the Habit of the Wheat Plant, p. 49,
that the seed must be planted shallow. If that kernel
of grain shown in the last illustration, Fig. 29, had
been deposited near the lower end of the bulb, all the
seminal or primary roots, and all the coronal or second
ary roots would be so close together that they would
tend to form a mat of earth, like a sod, which would
rise and fall with the expansion and contraction of the
surface of the ground when it freezes and thaws. By
this means, the injury arising from the heaving of the
soil will be avoided, provided the best, the mellowest,
and richest soil be kept at the surface of the ground.

The foregoing explanation of the management of
wheat is applicable to winter grain — to rye as well as
to growing wheat. In the culture of spring grain, we
have no such difficulties to contend with. Let this sec
tion be read in connection with deep and shallow seed
ing on another page. I am fully satisfied, after thirty
years' observation on this subject, that farmers must
make themselves familiar with the principles of growth
and of cultivation herein laid down, before they will be
able to raise winter wheat with satisfactory success.

BEST QUALITY" OF SOIL FOR WHEAT.

Many farmers have inquired, with much solicitude,
why wheat will not grow on any soil that is fertile and
mellow ? — or. why a soil will not produce a good crop
of wheat that produces fair crops of everything else?

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 129

But the correct answer is very obvious and brief. If a
soil is destitute of wheat-producing material, it cannot
produce a bountiful crop of that kind of grain. There
are many soils that will produce fair crops of Indian
corn, rye, barley, and oats, which will not yield a re-
remunerating crop of wheat. And why ? Simply be
cause the roots of the wheat plant cannot find, in that
soil, the right kind of material that is necessary to form
the kernels. In one soil, the minute roots find an
abundance of material, which they may take up, for the
formation and perfect development of the kernels ;
while in another soil, the roots may send out their nu
merous little hungry mouths into every cubic inch of
the soil, in search of material to produce the grain, and
not find it. This is the great difficulty with a soil that
will not produce wheat. And, until such materials are
added to the soil, it may be cultivated and sowed in vain.

All farmers — or chemists — who know anything, prac
tically, about raising good wheat, will admit that the
best soil for raising good wheat contains a good propor
tion of clay. Wheat requires a firm soil. Therefore, a
sandy soil is not a good one for wheat ; neither is a
mucky soil much better ; because they are both defi
cient in those elements of fertility that are necessary to
form the kernels, and also in that firmness which is
so essential in a good soil for wheat. Yet I have seen
fair crops of wheat produced on a sandy soil.

Our aluminous, heavy, slippery clay soils are by no
means the best soils for the production of either winter
or spring wheat ; although they will yield good crops
of wheat when well drained, and thoroughly pulverized
and manured. Our country abounds in soils of a mixed
character, which will produce a remunerating crop of

6*

130 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

wheat once in five or six years, while they cannot be
set down as good wheat soils ; and they cannot be very
much improved for growing wheat, unless a vast amount
of clay were thoroughly mingled with the soil.

Heavy, slippery clay soils abound in wheat-producing
material. Therefore, such soils will not be exhausted
of their fertility as soon as those will where there is
but a small proportion of clay, or no clay at all.

On some soils, where sand predominates, wheat
would not grow heavy enough to pay the expense of
harvesting it. And the same is true of soils where allu
vion constitutes the large proportion of the soil. A
sandy soil will furnish silica enough to form a good,
stiff straw, while a mucky soil will produce a slender
and soft straw, which will fall down before the grain
has matured.

The best soil for wheat is a soil in which the pre
dominating characteristics are clay and loam, having
neither too much of one nor too little of the other.
The lighter loam soils, arid such alluvions as have been
brought from clayey localities, will often produce boun
tiful crops of excellent wheat ; and sometimes a mucky
soil will yield a fair crop of this kind of grain. But
their fertility for wheat will soon be exhausted. Cal
careous clays, gravelly clays, aluminous clays, as well
as many soils that are a mixture of all these just named,
with good management — cultivating, manuring, and
draining — will, almost always, yield fair crops of
wheat.

R. L. Allen, in the American Farmer's Book, says :
" Wheat is partial to a well -prepared clay or a heavy
loam ; and this is improved when it contains, either nat
urally or artificially, a large proportion of lime. Many

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 131

light, and all marly and calcareous soils, if in ]. roper
condition, will give a good yield of wheat."

In D. P. Gardner's Farmer's Dictionary, the author
says : " Wheat thrives best on heavy soils."

The author of the Practical Farmer says : " Wheat
succeeds best on stout loams."

In Stevens's Book of the Farm — an English work —
the writer says : " Unless soil possesses a certain degree
of firmness, that is, contains some clay, it is not con
sidered adapted to the growth of wheat. At least, it is
considered more profitable to sow barley upon it."
(Read about Improving Soils for Wheat, in chapter on
Soils, in the second volume of my Young Farmer's
Manual.)

A practical farmer of Central ISTew York wrote to one
of the agricultural papers thus: UA firm, fertile, and
dry soil is particularly adapted to wheat, and such soils
as have been under-drained are more productive, and
require much less manure. Wheat, whether winter or
spring, does best in soils in which there is a good por
tion of clay. When the soil is composed for the most
part of muck, as occurs in many places in New York,
Canada, and some of the Western States, it requires
much preparation before it will produce well ; and such
soils can only be made to yield heavy crops of wheat,
with profit, when clay, in some form, can be supplied."

WHEAT ON CLAY LOAM.

The author penned the following article for the " In
dependent," soon after he assumed the editorial charge
of the agricultural department of that paper :

Wheat, especially winter grain, requires a firm soil,

132 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

having in it a preponderance of clay. For this reason,
our clayey loams are found to be better adapted to
winter wheat than any other soil. A strong loam is
better for winter wheat than a clay soil, although where
clay is so abundant as to give a soil the character of a
rich stiff clay, it will produce excellent wheat for a long
succession of years. Still, when clay and sand are com
mingled in the right proportion to form a good loam,
there is no other kind of soil that is better adapted to
the production of winter wheat, that will make the
whitest and best fine flour. A sandy soil is too porous
for wheat, especially winter wheat. Spring wheat will
succeed much better on sandy soil than winter. Mucky
soils are quite objectionable for winter wheat, because
they are too light. The freezing in winter expands them
much more than compact loams, or clays, especially
when they are not well drained. This great expansion
disturbs the roots to such an extent that but few plants
can survive the great injury from freezing and thawing.
Clay gives firmness and solidity to a soil. Sand ren
ders it sufficiently porous to drain off the superabun
dant moisture, which is the means of the great expansion
when the soil freezes ; and at the same time it renders
the soil sufficiently porous for the roots to spread readily.
Another indispensable characteristic of a good soil
for wheat is dryness. "No soil, whatever may be its com
ponent parts, or however fertile it may be, can produce
a large yield of winter wheat when there is an excess
of water in it. What I wish to be understood by an
excess of water is, more than the soil will retain by capil
lary attraction, or absorption. If a good clay soil, too
wet for wheat, were rendered dry by under-drains three
feet deep and not more than ten to twelve feet apart,

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 133

its capacity for absorbing the surplus wafer would be
greatly increased ; and the wheat growing on it would
be very little injured by freezing and thawing ; and it
would suffer less for want of moisture in a dry time.

Another important feature of a good wheat soil is
a bountiful supply of nitrogenous matter and silica.
When a soil is nearly destitute of these ingredients, the
ears of wheat will always be short and light, and the
kernels of grain quite small. In fertile loams, there is
usually a pretty good supply of both substances. Where
nitrogenous matter exists only in limited abundance, it
may be supplied in good barn-yard manure, made by
animals which subsist largely on coarse grain and oil-
meal. Such manure will always produce great heads
and large, plump kernels of grain. Silica is essential to
produce a healthy, bright, and stiff straw. This may be
supplied by spreading on a few hundred bushels of sand
per acre, after the wheat is put in, and sowing eight to
ten bushels of unleached ashes per acre, the next spring,
or even during a dry time in winter, \vhen ashes would
not be washed away by high water. There are thou
sands of acres of inferior wheat soil in our country that
might be made to yield remunerating crops of this kind
of grain, by following the directions just given.

THE CULTURE OF WHEAT CHEMICALLY CONSIDERED.

At one of the meetings of the New York State Ag
ricultural Society, Hon. D. Lee made the following re
marks touching the culture of wheat, which, I think,
will be read with no little interest. He said :

" By the aid of a little practical science, good wheat
may be grown profitably in any county in the State.

134 THE WHEAT CULTUEIST.

" The wheat plant has been raised in a great variety
of artificial soils, where each ingredient was carefully
weighed, both before and after the plant was taken from
the earth. By careful analysis, what the soil had lost,
and what the plant had gained, was susceptible of dem
onstration. A very large portion of the elements of all
cultivated plants comes from the atmosphere. The pre
cise amount will depend alike on the composition of the
soil and the nature of the particular plant upon which
the experiment was made.

" I regard it as a fact of great practical importance,
that wood ashes, even leached ashes, so abundant in the
southern tier of counties of the State of 'New York,
contain all the earthy elements of this invaluable bread-
bearing plant.

" Our primitive forests have been for centuries draw
ing the above earthy constituents of wheat from the
soil. And instead of carefully preserving this indispen
sable raw material of good wheaten bread, thousands
of bushels of leached ashes have been thrown away !
Being but slowly decomposed by the vital action ©f
plants, ashes are an enduring fertilizer, when compared
with stable manure. Mixed with quicklime, their good
effects are more speedily obtained. Lime will render
alumina, either in the soil or in leached ashes, soluble in
water, so that it can enter the minute pores of roots.
Clay in the soil is always combined with a large por
tion of silica, and before it has been exhausted by con
tinuous cropping it holds in combination considerable
potash and soda. Lime, by combining with alumina,
the basis of clay, liberates these alkalies and silica,
which, uniting chemically, form soluble silicates of pot
ash and soda. These also enter into the circulating

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 135

nourishment of plants, and are decomposed in the stems
of grasses and cereals. The silica goes to make
vegetable bone, to keep the plant upright, while the
potash and soda go back to the earth to dissolve as
before."

ORGANIC ELEMENTS OF WHEAT.

I come now to speak of the organic elements of the
wheat plant, which form ninety-six or seven per cent,
of its substance. Water and its constituents, oxygen
and hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, are the four ele
mentary ingredients of all cultivated plants, beside their
minerals. As there is no lack of water or of its ele
ments, oxygen and hydrogen, our attention will be con
fined to obtaining a full supply of carbon and nitrogen.
These are indispensable, and fortunately nature has pro
vided an amount of carbon and nitrogen in the air, if

£3

not in the soil, more than equal to all the wants of veg
etation. A large portion of the fertilizing elements of
vegetable mould in a rich soil is carbon, and a small por
tion is nitrogen ; both of which are usually combined
with other substances. These important elements are
often nearly exhausted in fields which have been un
wisely cultivated ; and I have paid much attention to
the subject of cheap and practicable renovation.

By the aid of clover and buckwheat dressed with
gypsurn, ashes, lime, or manure, and ploughed in, when in
blossom, much can be done in the way of augmenting
the rich vegetable mould so desirable to a certain degree
in all soils. Straw, corn-stalks, leaves of forest trees,
and swamp muck made into compost with lime and
ashes, are of great value. Charcoal, well pulverized

136 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

and saturated with urine, I regard as the cheapest
and most useful fertilizer that can be applied to a
poor soil, for the production of wheat or almost any
other crop.

The earths contained in charcoal, as the analysis of
its ash demonstrates, are identical with the earths found
in the wheat plant. Coal contains a very large portion
of carbon, and will imbibe from the atmosphere a large
quantity of nitrogen in the form of ammonia and its
carbonates. Unlike stable manure, the salts of lime,
potash, soda, and magnesia, it will not waste by prema
ture solution nor by evaporation. On the contrary, it
is of incalculable value to mix with the liquid and solid
excretions of all animals, to absorb and fix in a tangible
condition those volatile fertilizing elements which are
so prone to escape beyond our reach.

When it is recollected that without nitrogen in some
form, it is utterly impossible to grow one kernel of good
wheat, and that a pint of human urine, or four quarts
of that of the cow, or one quart of that of the horse
fed on grain, contain nitrogen enough to supply sixty
pounds of wheat, we may begin to understand some
thing of the money value of this animal product. Ad
ditions cheaply made to even worn-out soils — supplying
them with the comparatively small amount of ingre
dients essential to the production of grain, and without
which wheat cannot be grown — would richly repay the
farmer, and vastly enhance the wealth of the country.
Analysis shows that a very small portion of the nutri
ment of wheat comes from the soil ; but that portion
must be restored in some form, as lime or otherwise, if
we expect to make the earth yield profitable returns for
our labor.

THE WHEAT CULTUBIST. 137

How THE KERNELS OF WHEAT ABE FORMED.

In a few days after the blossoms of the wheat plant
have fallen, the tender kernels appear enveloped in the
chaff; and the material that forms the flour of the grain
is in a liquid state, having been brought up from the
fertile soil through the medium of the roots, stems, and
leaves of the growing plants. At this period, the ker
nels are much larger and more plump than they will be
after the grain is fully matured. If the kernels be
crushed at this period in the growth of the wheat, a
thick milky liquid will exude. After a few days, this
fluid material changes to a plastic state.

The grain is then said to be in the "dough state."
While the substance that forms the kernel is in a liquid
condition, the grain is spoken of as being in the " milk
state." All the exquisitely line material that enters into
the composition of the grain, is brought up to the ear
in particles inconceivably small, having been picked up
by the organs of the growing plant, and conveyed in
the fluids of the stem and leaves to the kernels. It is
exceedingly interesting to consider the untold number
of living mouths attached to the numerous roots that
pervade the entire soil, securing only a choice morsel
here and there to be carried up to the head for the pro
duction of seed ; and it is a most interesting fact to
contemplate, that the roots of the wheat plant are so
exceeding dainty, that they will reject entirely large
quantities of the choicest kind of plant food, if it is not
in exactly the right condition for making a choice arti
cle of wheaten milk. The consideration that air the
choice wheat of commerce is the product of a milky
substance which is formed of a material in the soil that

138 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

is less abundant than the honey which the bees may
gather from the opening flowers, teaches the cultivator
of the soil the transcendent importance of fertilizing,
pulverizing, and teasing the land by all the mechanical
means in his power to bring it into that peculiar state of
productiveness, which will supply the greatest amount
of available material for the formation of wheat milk.

Domestic goats that roam about the streets of our
populous cities, are ever ready to devour every sort of
garbage, even to brown wrapping-paper ; and their di
gestive organs are so powerful that milk is formed by
these animals out of the roughest and poorest qualities
of food. But the functions of the growing wheat plant
are so delicate, that other plants which are stronger and
more hardy than the wheat plant, must prepare pabulum
for the roots of this plant to feed upon. For this pur
pose there is no other plant like clover for transforming
the rough material in the soil into available plant-food,
such as the organs of the wheat plant will appropriate
to the production of "wheat [milk." The hardy roots
of clover will decompose arid digest, so to speak, only
a very small quantity of earthy matter which will form a
wheaten milk, after the ground has been ploughed, and
the clover roots have decayed. Yet, if the fine pabu
lum is in the soil, and if the land be prepared properly
by thorough pulverization, the roots of the wheat plants
will find the little atoms which are adapted to the pe
culiar requirements of those organs that produce the
seeds.

The great practical point, therefore, for wheat-grow
ers to consider is, fattening the soil with alumina, phos
phorus, silica, and other fertilizing substances, which
will afford an abundant supply of the right kind of pab-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 139

ulum for producing " wlieaten milk," without which a
bountiful crop of grain cannot be realized.

Alumina, being the base of all clay soils, furnishes
just what is required to produce large heads and plump
kernels of wheat. Although phosphorus, or phosphatic
material is the great manure for a turnip crop, it is em
inently essential for wheat, if it can be applied to the
soil, say one year or more before the seed wheat is put
in. Silica must be furnished in liberal abundance, or
the straw of wheat will not possess sufficient stiffness
to maintain an erect position until the grain is har
vested.

FATTENING THE SOIL FOE WHEAT.

After a wet soil has l>een thoroughly underdrained,
so that there are no apprehensions that the young
plants will be lifted out of the ground by freezing and
thawing ; after the surface soil has been renovated with
clover and kept in an excellent state of fertility by a
judicious system of rotation of crops for several suc
cessive seasons; after the ground has been ploughed,
reploughed, and ploughed again, and again, and again,
and then harrowed, scarified, teased with the cultivator,
and fretted with the roller, and vexed with the clod-
crusher; and after every noxious weed has been ex
terminated, root and branch, and their leaves, stems, and
radicles have been changed into a fertile mould, the
hopes of the ambitious husbandman will not be realized
in beholding a bountiful crop of the full wheat in the
ear, unless he has fattened the soil. In this lies the
grand secret of raising wheat. Yet very few even of
our best farmers understand that this is the chief re-

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

quirement of the soil, after everything else to appear
ance has been done which is really essential.

Farmers often congratulate themselves, when they
deposit the seed in a mellow seed-bed, that if any of
their neighbors are so fortunate as to have a bountiful
crop of wheat, they, most assuredly, will not fail to
reap an abundant harvest. But they do fail, simply
because the soil has not been fattened. A field often
looks very mellow, at seedtime, the young plants attain
a fair size before winter, and the growth of straw is
luxuriant and heavy ; but at harvest, the heads of grain
are exceedingly short and the kernels small, because the
ground was not properly fattened with those elements
of fertility which are required to swell out the kernels like
grain just removed from the steep-vat. The experience
of every practical farmer will accord with these sugges
tions. We often see wheat, when it is cradled, as high
as the laborers' heads ; and the sheaves are very large,
and numerous over the entire field. But the ears yield
very little grain, because the soil has not been fattened.

CULTURE OF WHEAT ON PKAIKIE SOILS.

Most farmers think that the prairie soil in which the
plant food has been accumulating for untold ages, is all
right for the production of a bountiful crop of wheat.
Tillage, they think, is the chief desideratum on such
soils. Thorough tillage is all that is required for a few
years ; but after a few crops have been removed, the
yield of grain diminishes, for the simple reason that the
soil has not been fattened with a direct reference to
producing a crop of wheat. The sources of fertility
must be husbanded — even in the rich prairie soils of the

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

great West — in order to be able to raise bountiful crops
of fair wheat. Straw is not what farmers desire. There
is an inexhaustible supply of material for making a
heavy burden of straw; but the material for swelling
out large and plump kernels of fine wheat, is to be found
only in limited quantities.

Those farmers who have attempted to grow wheat for
several successive years on the prairies, experience the
very difficulties that I have alluded to. This fact
proves, most conclusively, that thorough culture is emi
nently essential to a bountiful crop of wheat ; and it
shows, also, that even the fertile prairie soils must be
fattened or the wheat crop will be light.

The question then arises, How may such a task be
performed ? What to do and how to do it comes in, at
this juncture, with wonderful pertinence. Well, what
do we desire to do ? Why, simply to maintain a high
degree of fertility in the soil, so as to produce a bounti
ful yield of grain. Straw is not the object. A heavy
dressing of stra\v applied to the soil only augments the
crop of straw, which is, in some respects, more of a
nuisance than an advantage. If all the grain be re
moved from the farm, and none of the refuse of the
kernels be returned in the form of manure to fatten the
soil, I reiterate what I have so often expressed, that the
heads of grain will be short, and the kernels few and
small.

It will not subserve the grand purpose under consid
eration, to remove the wheat and return the straw to
the land, as many of the proprietors of the prairie farms
have been accustomed to do. It is absolutely essential
to adopt a judicious system of rotation of crops in con
nection with a system of mixed husbandry, in order to

142 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

produce bountiful crops of wheat. Neat cattle, sheep,
or swine must be raised in connection with wheat.
And large crops of wheat cannot be grown where we
see half-starved stock, as the manure made by lean ani
mals, that are required to subsist on straw and hay only,
will swell out the kernels of grain but little more than
if the straw and hay were applied directly to the soil.
Nothing will be added to straw and hay during its
passage through stock into the manure heap and event
ually to the field. The grand object in feeding grain to
domestic animals, is to secure a richer manure than
can be made of straw and hay.

GANG PLOUGHS AND CULTIVATORS.

In many wheat-growing sections of the country, gang
ploughs are employed for preparing the ground for a crop
of winter wheat. In other localities, " Ide's "Wheel Cul
tivator," which is represented by the acccompanying
illustration, is considered one of the most economical,

FIG. 80.— Ide's Wheel Cultivator.

convenient, and useful implements for a farmer.' This
style is manufactured by Messrs. Tracy & Greenwood,
Newark, Wayne Co., N. Y., in the midst of a famous

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 143

wheat-growing region, where thousands of this kind of
two-horse cultivator are employed instead of a plough.
The teeth of this cultivator are made of steel, with the
lower ends spread out so as to form a broad, flat edge, in
such a form as to be self-sharpening. The excentrics gauge
the depth at which the teeth are to enter the ground.
By means of levers, the teeth can be elevated six inches
above the surface of the ground, in a few seconds ; or
they can be adjusted to run at any desired depth, from
one inch to six inches. It is an excellent implement for
putting wheat ground in order ; and there are numerous
other instances where this cultivator may be used with
eminent satisfaction and efficiency.

The wheels make it run very steadily, even on rough
land. This style of cultivators is employed to a large
extent in Central New York and in Canada, for culti
vating summer fallows ; and they save an immense
amount of labor. In ten seconds the frame and all the
teeth can be elevated several inches above the surface
of the ground, so that the implement can be transported
conveniently from place to place, while resting on the
wheels. The teeth are strong, and with decent usage,
such a cultivator will last a long time, and perform an
untold amount of service. It is a very unusual occur
rence to see such a cultivator clogged with sods and
stubble.

ABOUT SUMMER FALLOWS.

The time has been when summer fallows were very
much in vogue ; and most of our best farmers thought,
that, in order to raise a good crop of winter wheat, the
land must be summer fallowed arid ploughed, not less

144 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

than three or four times ; and, sometimes, I have known
farmers to plough summer fallows five times before the
1st of September. And those farmers that were most
accustomed to summer-fallow their fields for a crop of
wheat, cherished the idea that every ploughing increased
the crop of grain sufficiently to remunerate for the labor
performed.

Where land is infested with noxious weeds, or is filled
with the seed of pernicious plants, it may be advisable
to summer-fallow. But I think the better way is to
cultivate a crop of Indian corn, instead of summer-fal
lowing the ground. If the field be overrun with elder
bushes, Canada thistles, dock, daisies, or weeds of this
character, apply a heavy dressing of manure, late in the
spring, and grow a crop of Indian corn. By ploughing
the ground late in the spring, the corn will get the start
of the weeds, and maintain the ascendency, during the
growing season, with but little hand labor. Head about
Summer Fallows in the second volume of my Young
Farmer's Manual.

ALDEN'S QUACK RAKE.

The illustration herewith given, represents an imple
ment constructed with reference to the wants of farm
ers in localities where quack grass, or couch grass, has
taken possession of the soil. This implement was in
vented by Alden & Co., Auburn, !N". Y., in a region of
country where this pernicious grass abounds to a great
extent.

The teeth are made of iron, about three-eighths of an
inch thick and eight inches long, each one having a nut
on the upper end. The wood should be of the firmest
kind of hard-wood timber, about five feet long and two

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 145

by three inches square. The implement is guided by a
pair of thills which are used to guide Alden's Horse
Hoe, as shown in this illustration.

The manner of using this rake is as follows : After
the grass sod has decayed, use the rake as a harrow is
employed. About every three or four rods across the
field, stop the horse, draw the rake back, and thus clear
the teeth of the numerous roots which have been gath
ered by them in their passage through the soil. Let the
ground be raked over and over, until every quack root

FK;. 31.— Alden's Quack-Grass Kake.

has been collected and dropped in a row on the surface
of the ground. (See a cut and description of quack
grass, and another quack rake, in my second volume of
Young Farmer's Manual.)

WHEAT AFTER SPRINQ CROPS.

A farmer of Orleans County, K Y., wrote to the
" Cultivator " thus : " There appears to be great need of
doing something to induce farmers generally to sow less

146 THE WHEAT CULTUEIST.

wheat after spring crops. Not but what good crops are
sometimes grown in that way ; but because the course
pursued by a large portion of wheat-growers, makes it
necessary to make a good summer-fallow, in order to be
at all sure of raising a good crop of wheat — say of from
25 to 30 bushels to the acre. This necessity is very
strongly shown by the large amount of poor wheat now
on the ground, and that has been harvested during the
last two or three years. Probably three-fourths of this
wheat was sown after spring crops ; and the principal
part on land that, if well summer-fallowed, or sown on
a good clover lea, would have given a good crop. But,
by being put in rather hurriedly and late, as it almost
always has to be, when sown after spring crops, and, as
is more especially the case now, when labor is scarce and
high, wheat does not generally get a sufficiently strong
and vigorous start in the fall, to enable it to withstand
all of the vicissitudes of a bad winter and spring, and
bring it forward sufficiently early to escape the midge
and rust. Not but good crops of wheat can be grown
after spring crops, and be made very profitable, if sown
on land sufficiently dry and rich ; but because the prin
cipal part of the land thus sown is lacking in one or
both of these important requisites. Consequently, while
I do not wish to stop all farmers from sowing wheat
after spring crops, for there is some very good wheat
grown in this way, I would only have it sown where the
land is sure to produce good crops ; and I would be very
glad to see all of our wTheat land put in a condition to
produce heavy crops without summer-fallowing. But
we have to deal with circumstances as they actually
exist, not as we would have them.

" Now, the real practical point for the farmer to con-

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 147

sider, and that should control his decisions in regard to
what crops to raise, is, that wheat has a good many ene
mies and adverse circumstances to overcome, to gener
ally produce good crops ; and these can only be over
come and guarded against by a good strong growth in the
fall ; and that the principal part of our wheat lands are
not in a condition to give wheat such a start when sown
after spring crops, though a good summer fallow, or a
clean one, or two-year old clover lea, would give a
heavy crop. And though it may seem like lost time to
keep land in an unproductive state, while making a
summer fallow, yet there are many reasons why a heavy
crop on a summer fallow is better and more profitable
than a light crop, or partial failures, after spring crops.
Prominent among these is the fact that, in sowing after
spring crops, the land has to be prepared twice in the
same season, seed found for both the spring and fall
crops, and the ground harvested over twice, while both
crops may not be as valuable as one heavy crop of wheat,
that may be grown on a summer fallow in the same
time. Another advantage is, that a summer fallow
gives a good chance to clean land that is foul. There are
many pests to grain crops, like wire grass (Poa com-
pressd) quack grass (Tritioum repens), and Canada
thistles (Cirsium ar verose\ that seem to grow all the
better for the cultivation usually given when wheat is
sown after spring crops ; but which the thorough culti
vation in making a good summer fallow, in the usually
hot and dry months of July and August, will be very
likely to subdue — at least to a sufficient extent to pre
vent their injuring the succeeding crop of wheat." If
land is at all disposed to be w^et, summer fallowing will
not improve its productiveness.

148 THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST.

SUMMER FALLOWING FOR WHEAT IN OLD VIRGINIA.

J. W. Hoff, M.D., Wirt Court House, Va., writes:
u Wheat is sowed on fallow ground, and after corn crops.
The latter is put in with the old shovel-plough, and the
former generally with the harrow. The varieties raised
are the red chaff, the white wheat, and the Mediterra
nean. The Mediterranean is considered to be the surest
crop ; but the yield is not so great as, and the flour is
inferior to, white wheat and red chaff. Guano is not
used, nor any other manures, save, now and then, a few
wagon-loads of barn-yard manure to the acre ; so that it
is hard to tell what our lands would do if properly ma
nured and fertilized. Under the present mode of cul
tivation, the average yield per acre, of clean wheat, is
about 8 bushels ; although some land will bring from
20 to 30 bushels per acre ; and I believe that the greater
portion of our tillable land would, if properly fertilized
and cultivated, bring, upon an average, 20 bushels per
acre. The rust damages the wheat in this section of the
country more or less every year. In 1850 it caused
almost an entire failure of the wheat crops in all North
western Virginia. Early wheat suffers less from rust
than late wheat. To avoid the rust, farmers should sow
their wheat in the early part of September, when the
season is favorable. Of the varieties of wheat mentioned,
the Mediterranean is less liable to take the rust. Whe
ther this is owing to any peculiarity in the growth of
the wheat, its nature, or whether it be from its ear
lier growth and maturity, is not yet decided ; but it is
generally believed to be owing to its earlier maturity."

A farmer in New York wrote against the practice of
summer-fallowing, and stated that land should be ploughed

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 149

but once for a crop of winter wheat ; to which T. L.
Meinikheim, Surry County, Ya., replied, in the " Cul
tivator," thus :

" In the summer cf 1856, I had a ten-acre lot, which
was completely overrun with sorrel and wire grass.
The soil, a loose sand. I wished to seed to wheat in
autumn, but was told that the land was so full of acids,
that unless I limed it, I would get no wheat. Being un
able to procure lime for less than ten cents per bushel,
and then be obliged to go fifteen miles for it, I concluded
to try to expel, instead of correcting the acids. When a
boy, I had heard an old Long; Island farmer, wrhen speak-

t/ ? O

ing of a drought, remark, that ' when the land becomes
thoroughly dried out, it becomes sweetened.' On the
strength of that, I started my plough, ploughing, harrow
ing, and reploughing from June until October. I was
told I was ' killing ' my land ; but as land is cheap here, I
thought it ' wouldn't matter ; ' at all events, it would kill
the grass too. One acre of the field I ploughed but twice ;
the other nine acres were ploughed five times, and har
rowed ten times. In October I manured the whole field
with barn-yard manure, thirty cartloads per acre, ploughed
it down, and seeded to wheat and timothy, and liar
rowed until the field had the appearance of a garden
seed-bed; the one acre included.

" Now for the result. The nine acres yielded ten
bushels per acre of fine plump wheat, sold at $1.70 per
bushel, and netting me $4.25 per acre, besides the in
creased facility of cultivation. I can now have it ploughed
at $1 per acre, when before it was hard work at $2 per
acre. The one acre ploughed but twice, yielded three
bushels of poor wheat, worth but $1 per bushel, costing
me $2.73 per bushel. Over the nine acres there was

150 THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST.

quite a ' tolerable catch ' of timothy ; over the one acre
it never came up sufficiently to be visible. Instead of
the soil ' drying out,' it actually became more moist
after each ploughing."

REMARKS. — The reader must recollect that the soil
alluded to in the foregoing paragraph was a very light,
sandy soil, and in a poor state of fertility. By proper
cultivation, with a dressing of rich barn-yard manure and
red clover, the yield of wheat could be increased two
fold, with less labor than was required to produce such
a light crop as the writer has reported.

THE OBJECT OF SUMMER FALLOWS.

J. J. Thomas, associate editor of the " Cultivator
and Country Gentleman," writes thus in relation to
summer fallows : " Of late years we see but few sum
mer fallows — they seem to have i gone out of fashion '
with the wheat crop ; still they have their uses, and we
will give a brief statement of the same.

" The object of summer fallowing is threefold — to
clean, to deepen, and to mallow the soil.

" 1. Clean culture is desirable ; because weeds detract
from the perfection of the cultivated crops grown at
the same time on the same soil. The useless plants
take up the elements which would otherwise be taken
up by the useful — a trite statement, but one too little
heeded by the farmer. Hence the summer fallow is
employed to free the soil of weeds — (a weed, it should
be remembered, .is ' any plant out of place ') — by the
destruction of their growth and of their seeds which
may be contained in the soil. A true fallow is bare of
all vegetable growth — it rests from the production of

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 151

plants of any kind. This character should always be
given them as far as possible. The ploughing should be
performed early — the sod carefully inverted — if sandy,
turning flat — if clayey, lap furrows — and doing the
work as regards moisture, when it will be most effective.
Rolling will be beneficial on most soils — after this, the
harrow thoroughly employed, and again the wheel-cul
tivator or gang-plough, so as to destroy the weeds which
may appear, as well as to excite the germination of
those which lie dormant in the soil, that they also may
be destroyed.

" 2. Deep culture is beneficial because it enlarges the
capacity of the soil to supply nourishment to plants.
A deep, free soil will allow the fine rootlets of growing
crops to extend through it at pleasure ; and such a soil
is filled with their roots in a manner surprising to every
one on a first examination. Numerous healthy roots
insure a vigorous growth of that part of the plant above
ground — such as is never observed on a hard and shal
low soil. We believe deep ploughing has never failed
to benefit well-drained soils (not naturally too porous
and light already), unless the subsoil was of a very pe
culiar character. In such cases, deepening will prove
beneficial if gradually performed — an inch or two may be
brought to the surface at each ploughing without injury.

" 3. Fine culture — the thorough pulverization of the
soil — is also necessary to its full productiveness. The
ground should be open to the influences of air and
moisture — should be free to the shooting of the most
minute rootlets of the growing crop. The ameliorating
effects of fallowing are in part due to the thorough dis
integration of the soil by mechanical working and long
exposure to atmospheric influences. Little addition of

152 THE WHEAT CULTUBIST.

fertilizing elements may be made, but those lying inert
concealed in the debris of rocks, or waiting admixture
to excite into action, are reduced or enlivened, and thus
add to the power of the soil. A mellow soil attracts,
as well as takes up, more moisture than a hard one. It
is thus more likely to be in a state fitted for receiving
benefit from the air, from its own ever-working forces,
and from the mechanical stirring and manipulation it
receives.

" Thorough culture, lastly, is the only profitable way
of managing a summer fallow, or any part of the farm.
To plough carelessly, with half-turned furrows and fre
quent balks ; to leave the field for weeks to grow up
to grass and weeds ; to plough but four or six inches
deep where one owns good soil much farther down, is
some distance from the r-iyht way — from the true uses
of the summer fallow."

ADVANTAGES OF SUMMER FALLOWING.

On tliis subject, " Colman's Rural World " says : "-
"It is well known that ploughing benefits land.
This is especially the case with clay land, which is
apt to have suffered from treatment, of which wet
ploughing is a noted example. . The sun and frost have
an ameliorating influence. But the influence is confined
mainly to the surface. Hence, frequent ploughing, in
its course, exposes all the soil; and even the subsoil,
which has never seen the light, can then with great bene
fit be brought up. That is the time to convert this raw
clay soil or any under-soil, into mellow, useful ground.
" Land .can be fallowed and lie idle one year with
profit. The soil is so thoroughly improved, that in this

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 153

respect alone it pays. The weeds are exterminated,
which is another point scarcely second in importance,
and in some farms is of the first importance. It gives
a chance for deeper tillage, preparing the heretofore un
appropriated soil, which serves as so much addition, or
manure, to the tillable ground. Further, fallowing the
soil prepares it for a succession of crops without manure,
equal to the benefit of a considerable quantity of ma
nure without this preparation. Besides, it gives a most
excellent chance to dispose of manure. The rawest
manure can be used in such a case to the best advan
tage, the soil acting upon the manure, and the manure
upon the soil, by fermentation and mutual chemical
effect. Lime can also be used with profit ; so can salt.
In the fallow is the farmer's great advantage, when his
farm ' is run out ' and has become weedy, as it general
ly will be after many years of cultivation. The labor,
though it occupies time, is easy. Land requires rest
once in a while to recruit its energies ; and stirring the
soil is one of the most effective means of doing it, if done
during the rains and heat of a whole season."

SUMMER FALLOWING AN EXHAUSTING SYSTEM.

Summer fallowing is an exhausting system of cultiva
tion. The entire soil is occupied more or less with roots
of some kinds of plants, which, when the ground is ex
posed to the influences of a burning sun and summer
showers, in connection with repeated ploughings and har
rowing, reduces every tiling that rain and sunshine can de
compose, to nourishment for plants. The soil that is
being summer-fallowed does not dry out as soon as if there
were a crop on it. If a strip a few rods wide have a

7*

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

crop growing on it, and another be summer-fallowed, the
latter will be quite moist in hot weather, while the for
mer feels dry to the touch. Consequently, the moisture,
heat, and frequent stirring greatly facilitate the de
composition of such portions as contain mineral sub
stances that enter largely into the composition of grain
or grass. By this means, plant-food accumulates much
faster than if the soil were shaded by a growing crop.
Soda, lime, magnesia, potash, and silica, which are essen
tial to produce a good crop of wheat, are rendered avail
able to plants in greater abundance by summer fallow
ing. We know this is so from the fact that a summer
fallow always produces a larger crop of grain. This is
the result of summer fallowing for a few successive
years. But, after three or four years have passed by,
there will be a reaction. Summer fallowing will fail in
its efficacy. This fact teaches us, that the fertility of
the soil cannot be maintained long by naked fallows.
It is better for all soils to be shaded. Their fertility can
be maintained longer and at less expense by growing
some kind of crops which shall be worked into manure,
than by cultivating a naked fallow. See second volume
of my Young Farmer's Manual.

WINTER FALLOWING FOR WHEAT.

A practical wheat-grower wrote to the " Country
Gentleman," that in America the climate is particu
larly w^ell adapted for the making of good winter
fallows. In fact, winter fallows may be made more
serviceable than summer ones are in England ; for, by
commencing as soon as the crop is off, there are three
months of better weather for killing weeds and sunning

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 155

the soil than any in that country. Of late years, sum
mer fallows have been nearly discontinued in England,
rye and vetches being grown as a crop to be eaten on
the land by sheep, on the heavy clays, and turnips or
other roots on all friable farms. Formerly, the fallows
were worked chiefly in June, July, and August. But
here, they can be attended to better after a grain crop
is off, in August, September, and October ; and if left
at the latter part of the last-mentioned month, so that
it is impossible for any water to lie soaking it, there will
be a splendid seed-bed in the spring, equal to any of
the beds so carefully prepared by the wealthy gentle
men's gardeners in Europe. The farmer having plenty
of stock, can haul the dung where it is required for
producing a crop of roots ; and thus, with such a long
period in the early part of fall and latter part of sum
mer to prepare for everything, his ground will be far
ahead of the Englishman ; because, the latter cannot
harvest his grain till nearly two months later than the
American ; and consequently, is unable so effectually
to clean it, more especially as the sun is much weaker
there than here. Again, the frost, here, pulverizes much
more effectually than there. Yet, there are hundreds
of acres of winter fallowing there, to one here. They
have an average of ten dollars per acre per annum, rent,
to pay, which Americans know nothing of.

By adopting the system of preparing the soil for a
crop of wheat during autumn and winter, the grain
might always be put in quite early, leaving ample op
portunity for cultivating roots.

Generally, the weather is very showery for some
weeks after the breaking up of winter, so that plough
ing and harrowing are much delayed in consequence of

156 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

there being too much moisture to have the land work
well. It may be fine and do admirably for a day or
two, when a wet day prevents going on with the job ;
and a second day is lost, while the soil is drying. A
great deal of delay might be avoided by preparing in
the autumn, and attending to the watercourses, if it is
IOAV land, so that no water lies upon the soil ; when it
will be found, after this winter fallowing, that oats, peas,
or any spring grain, will do much better drilled in at
once, the first day the land is dry, than if put in on
ground which is hurriedly cultivated, leaving the stones
j nd stumps to be in the way at harvest, or treading and
packing down the soil to its great injury. Winter fal
lowing effectually and generally carried out, where the
soil is compact and heavy, would regenerate agriculture.
ISTo business succeeds without forecast, and no class use
less forethought than the farmer. Suppose a store
keeper only paid attention to half his customers, and at
seasons of the year almost shut up shop, would he be
more unwise than the farmer who loses the whole of
the fall, and does not prepare his land for a crop of
spring grain ?

A great deal of good judgment should be exercised
about winter-fallowing very light soils, which never bake
in hot weather. When there is a large percentage of
alumina and lime in a soil, so that a furrow-slice rolls
over more like a huge slab of putty than the dirt of a
fertile soil, when the land is being ploughed, the fertil:
ity of the soil can be wonderfully improved by winter
fallowing. Read about Fall Ploughing in my second
volume of Young Farmer's Manual. Light soils are
sometimes injured more by winter fallowing than they
are benefited. But, whatever may be the character of

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 157

the soil — whether light or heavy — water should never be
allowed to stand, from day to day, on any portion, as
standing water drowns the soil, and impairs its produc
tiveness far more than most people are accustomed to
suppose.

DEEP PLOUGHING FOK WHEAT.

In a late number of the American Farmer, Rochester,
N. Y., the editor penned the following excellent sugges
tions in regard to deep ploughing for wheat, which coin
cide with my own views very well, except that the
point with reference to keeping the best soil on the sur
face, is not made as clear as it should have been. Let
the soil be pulverized as deep as practicable ; but let the
mould — the best soil — be retained at the surface. The
writer says : " The importance to the farmer of under
standing the habits and peculiar characteristics of the
plants he cultivates, as wTell as the nature and quality of
his soil, is frequently illustrated. Let us take the wheat
plant for instance, and we find, by almost common con
sent, it is best provided for in a shallow seed-bed.
Very deep ploughing is thought to be not only unneces
sary, but absolutely injurious. The young plant seems
to need a firm under-straturn not far from the surface to
imbed its roots in, and with this advantage they withstand
the ' throwing out ' produced by alternate thawings and
freezings, better than when the soil has been recently
stirred to a very considerable depth.

" No one at this time of day can overlook, or be ignor
ant of the great advantages to the soil generally, of deep
ploughing. 1st. It opens a much larger amount of soil
to the range of roots, giving much more liberal pastur
age than they could otherwise get.

158 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

" 2d. It increases very largely the supply of nutriment,
by allowing the access of air, and by the process of
weathering, acting upon the mineral elements of the
soil.

" 3d. It preserves an equal quantity of moisture in the
soil. "We seldom have a rain so great as to produce an
unhealthy stagnation of water about the roots of plants
set in a soil seven or eight inches deep, and, on the con
trary, we seldom have a drought of so long continuance
as to extract all the moisture to that depth.

" These, and other known advantages from deep
ploughing, we might dwell upon ; and apart from the well-
known fact above alluded to, it would hardly be supposed
that any crop, of whatever character, would be exempt
ed from the good influences of the practice.

" We must make a proper distinction, however, be
tween a natural subsoil, indurated and rendered imperv
ious to the action of the air by centuries of rest — its orig
inal hardness and impenetrability aggravated by a long
course of continuous treading, in ploughing the surface
soil — and that firm, mellow body of earth, which is pro
duced by deep cultivation. •

" It is this firm, yet generous subsoil, which forms so
valuable a matrix for the roots of the wheat plant, and
enables them to resist the loosening effects of alternate
frosts and thaws during winter. This important dis
tinction, it will be observed, allows nothing to be
detracted from the argument in favor of deep ploughing.
It is only when the previous working has been, indeed,
most thorough, that the wheat reaps a due advantage
from the shallow ploughing. The understratum, though
somewhat compacted in comparison with the loose sur
face soil, is so enlivened by the former breaking up,

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 159

that the tender rootlets take firm hold and keep their
place.

The advantage of this comparative firmness of the
substratum is apparent in the practice, now so common,
of seeding corn land to wheat, without any ploughing
beyond what has been given to the corn. The action of
the tines of the wheat drill, or any such scratching of the
surface as will give the seeds a slight covering, is found
to answer all necessary purposes even on tolerably tena
cious clays. It is insisted, indeed, after much expe
rience, that this is the most successful practice for corn-
land seeding."

DEEP AND SHALLOW PLOUGHING FOR WINTER WHEAT.

On this subject, a writer in the "Cultivator and
Country Gentleman " thus speaks of deep and shallow
ploughing for wheat. He says :

" I have heard some farmers argue that winter wheat
requires a deep, mellow soil ; and to prove their theory,
they, would adduce instances in which the roots of
wheat plants have been followed downward several feet
deep. I have my mind on an instance where a well-
digger traced the roots of a wheat plant over four feet
into the earth. There appeared to have been in former
years, in that place, a large hole or excavation, which
had been filled up with surface soil, and had never be
come very compact ; and the wheat struck its roots
downward almost as far as the stems grew upward.

The theory of ploughing deep for winter wheat
would be a good one, if we did not have the frosts of
winter to contend with. The roots of the wheat plant
are not elastic, like India-rubber. If they were, winter

160 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

wheat would not be very much injured by the freezing
and thawing of the soil.

" Every intelligent farmer knows that when the soil
freezes it is expanded ; and as the expansion must
nearly all be upward, plants are sometimes lifted from
one to two inches, i. <?., the surface of the upper soil is
from one to two inches further above the subsoil than
it is when it is not frozen. Of course, this expansion
lifts the plants with it, and if the roots have struck
downward farther than three or four inches, they must
be severed between the frozen and unfrozen soil. But
in case most of the roots have shot out in nearly a hori
zontal direction, the plants and roots will all rise and
settle back bodily, as the soil freezes and thaws, and but
very few of the roots will be broken off.

" ISTow, when the soil is ploughed deep for winter
wheat, the roots must necessarily strike deep downward
in order to obtain sufficient nourishment, unless the
entire soil is tilled with vegetable matter and maimrial
substances for nourishing the young plants. But when
the large proportion of vegetable matter and manure
are near the surface, the roots all spread out nearly in a
horizontal direction, forming a kind of mat or tender
sod, which all rises in a body when the earth freezes,
without severing any of the roots, except those few that
have struck downward beyond the super-soil."

IMPORTANCE OF SUBSOILING.

The hard, impervious stratum beneath the fertile
mould needs to be thoroughly pulverized, so that the
roots of all kinds of cultivated plants may strike deep
and feed on the vast stores of mineral pabulum that

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 161

have been locked up for unknown ages. Almost all of
our cultivable fields could be rendered vastly more pro
ductive by a thorough subsoiling. The deeper the soil
the more productive it is likely to be, whatever may be
the crop, except where the subsoil is already so porous
and light that the roots of plants find little or no diffi
culty in striking as far downward as the tops extend
upward. Almost all our wheat fields, when the soil
rests on an impervious and calcareous substratum, should
be subsoiled until a mellow seed-bed is prepared, six
teen or eighteen inches in depth. Subsoiling should
always be performed with a suitable plough, and not
with an implement that was made expressly for plough
ing the surface soil. Some kinds of soil will be well-
nigh ruined if turned upside down. Others will not
be injured by deep trench ploughing. Every farmer or
gardener should understand the character of his soils
before he ploughs them.

A correspondent of the " Germantown Telegraph "
makes some observations on suBsoiling worthy of con
sideration : " We can readily see that the effect of sub
soil ploughing and trenching will vary with the char
acter of the subsoil ; if the latter is hard and compact
it will probably arrest the downward passage of the
water containing the valuable portions of the surface
Foil, which upon being again brought to the surface will
of course enrich the surface soil ; but if, on the other
hand, the subsoil is light and loose and of a texture not
calculated to retain the saline constituents brought from
above, they will pass through it, and when it is turned
up it may for a time decrease the crops — for the only
benefit gained seems to be that of deepening the surface
soil, which even of itself is an important one. This

1(32 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

may in a great measure account for the varied success
which always attends subsoil ploughing, and a more
careful attention to the difference may be the means of
preventing much disappointment."

FIG. 32.- Gilbert's Subsoil Plough.

The accompanying illustration represents an improve
ment in ploughs, which is employed, with satisfactory
results, in preparing the land for wheat, where the soil
is of such a character as to require the subsoil to be
kept beneath the thin layer of fertile mould on the sur
face of the ground. This plough has been introduced
by the inventor, P. M. Gilbert, Kewanee, Illinois, in
some of the wheat-growing sections of the United States ;
and farmers on our lake slopes, when the surface soil is
thin, will find that it will be greatly to their advan
tage to use such a plough, rather than to turn all their
mould below the subsoil.

It will be perceived that this plough has a subsoil
attachment, which can be adjusted to run any desired
depth in the bottom of the furrow made by the main
plough.

In my second volume of the Young Farmer's Man-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 163

ual is an illustration of the usual style of subsoil
ploughs, accompanied with suitable remarks about sub-
soiling different kinds of land. Consequently, my notes
in this place are brief, on the subject of ploughing.

REMEDY FOK THE LODGLNG OF GRAIN.

It has been assumed that the stiffness of the straw
of cereal grain and the roughness and serrated edges
of the leaves of all cereal plants, are due to the presence
of the silica in the formation of the various parts of
the plants just alluded to ; and it has been shown by
chemical analysis that the straw and leaves of plants
that are rich in silica are exceedingly stiff and hard.
Wheat straw generally, being much harder and harsher
to handle with the bare hands than oats or barley straw,
it has been assumed that the straw of this kind of grain
contains a larger proportion of silica than the straw of
oats or barley, which is always much softer when han
dled by those who are binding the grain in bundles.
Pierri, a distinguished French chemist, has reported
some interesting experiments touching^ the subject of
applying preparations of silica in a soluble state to the
soil where the plants are to be grown, for the purpose
of furnishing material that would render the straw so
rigid and stiff that it would maintain an erect position,
and thus greatly enhance the yield of grain per acre.
This chemist ascertained that the leaves of wheat con
tain seven or eight times as much silica as the joints of
the same stalks to which both belonged, and the por
tions of the straw between the joints yielded nearly
twice the amount of silica that was found in the joints.
Arguing from these data, some writers have concluded

164 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

that by applying silicated fertilizers, the leaves will be
developed more in proportion than the stalks ; and as
large leaves will shade the lower parts of the stalks,
instead of strengthening or stiffening the straw, a dress
ing of silica will exert an enervating influence ; and the
growing plants will maintain an erect position longer
and better when no such silicated manure is applied.
It has also been assumed that those grain stalks which
bear the largest leaves are more liable to lodge than
stalks having short and small leaves. This observation
is a correct one ; but the extraordinary size of the leaves
of wheat is not attributable to an excess of silica in the
soil, as silica, even when present in large quantities in
the soil, does not produce unusually large leaves with
out rendering them correspondingly rough and stiff. It
will be found, when grain lodges badly, that the leaves
are large and much softer than the leaves of standing
grain. Every practical farmer is familiar with this fact ;
and it shows conclusively that there is a deficiency
of silica in the soil in proportion to the amount of
other manurial material. If, for example, wheat be
sowed on a light mucky soil where there is little or
no sand or clay, the growing grain will be liable to
fall down before the kernels are matured. There
will be also an abundance of material to form large
leaves and stalks; but as there is a deficiency of sil
ica to impart stiffness to the straw, a driving storm
of rain prostrates .the growing plants so that they can
never gain an erect position. The question then re
curs: What may be done by way of cultivation or ap
plying fertilizing material to stiffen the growing straw
so as to keep it erect until the grain is fit to harvest ?
Throwing all chemical knowledge aside, and relying on

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 165

practical observations in the field, we learn that certain
causes produce certain effects, whether those effects are
attributable to silica or to the presence of some other
substance that enters into the formation of the straw
of cereal grain. The facts stand out with remarkable
prominence ; and whether chemists are able to explain
the phenomena on principles strictly philosophical or
not, practical farmers may avail themselves of the ob
servations and apply the knowledge to the augmenta
tion of the crop of grain by cultivating and dressing
the soil so as to produce stiff straw that will maintain
an erect position till the grain is fully ripe. When
cereal grain is grown on a sandy soil where wood-ashes
have been scattered in liberal profusion, the straw is
always exceedingly stiff. Almost every practical farm
er has observed how rank and stiff the straw of wTheat
and oats will always grow where a brush heap or log
heap has been burned to ashes. On many wheat fields
in all parts of the country, the grain growing where a
coal-pit was formed, perhaps forty years ago, will stand
erect, the straw being very stiff', while the straw on every
side of the old coal-bed is too limber to maintain an
erect position. When wood-ashes have been spread
upon the soil in large quantities grain seldom lodges,
especially if there is only a small proportion of sand,
or gravel, or argillaceous or calcareous matter in the
soil. Where a ditch is cut through a mucky soil rest
ing on a subsoil of clay or sandy, loam, and only a
small quantity of this material is mingled with the sur
face soil, the growing grain will maintain an erect posi
tion much longer than the grain on either side where
there is no clay or sand mingled with the muck. With
these facts before our minds, a farmer who has only a

166 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

smattering of agricultural chemistry, understands what
he may do with the assurance of success, by way of pre
venting his cereal grain from lodging. If the soil be
light and filled with humus, attach a double or triple
team to a strong plough, and turn up a new soil, which
will furnish to the growing plants the desired material
for making stiff straw. If the grain lodges on sandy
land, let the ground be dressed with a liberal supply of
marl or clay. Does the grain fall down where there is
a preponderance of clay, apply a dressing of muck, sand,
or peat. Whatever the soil may be, or whatever dress
ing may be applied, let it be borne in mind that wood-
ashes, either leached or unleached, will make stiffer and
brighter straw, and larger and heavier kernels of grain,
than would have grown on the same ground had no
wood-ashes been applied. These are incontrovertible
facts which are not required to be established by agri
cultural chemistry. Those farmers, therefore, who sow
their wood-ashes on their fields, where the growing
grain is liable to fall down before it is ripe, will usually
realize a larger profit per bushel than they are accus
tomed to receive when they sell their ashes for cash.
Ashes may be sowed at almost any period after the
growing season has commenced ; but the effect will be
more satisfactory if they be sowed soon after the seed
grain is put in.

How TO OBTAIN STRONGER STEMS.

Prof. J. B. Lawes, of Kothhamsted, Eng., says that he
has tried the experiment of sowing seed early — the last
of August — and feeding with sheep during winter and
spring, checking thereby the leaf and stem, and extend-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 167

ing the roots, hoping thus to obtain a plant which would
resist wind and rain, and have stiffer straw. The effort
met with little success. "At one time," he says of
other experiments, " I was in hopes that we might by
some chemical compounds increase the strength of the
straw ; but I have been entirely unsuccessful, and do not
anticipate there is much to be done by other experi
menters." In regard to thin seeding for this purpose,
he says that by keeping the plants further apart, so as
to admit more light, a stronger stem may be obtained,
but at the expense of increased labor in \veeding, and,
generally, a decrease in the quality of the grain.

WHAT THE SOIL REQUIRES.

It is safe to assume, at the outset, that the atmosphere
is all right. Our finite minds cannot conceive how any
improvement may be made in the chemical constituents
of the atmosphere, for the purposes of vegetation. With
all our knowledge of chemistry, we are not able to effect
any change in the atmosphere, that will be of any prac
tical advantage, or injury, to growing crops. But we
can modify the soil. By adding certain substances to it,
the most barren earth and unproductive soil can be
rendered exceedingly fertile and capable of producing
beautiful crops. The inexhaustible quantity of plant
food floating in the atmosphere is ever in an available
condition for promoting the growth and development
of plants. In respect to availability of plant food, there
is a marked difference between the plant food in the air
and the vegetable nutrition that is locked up in the soil.
The plant food in the atmosphere is sure to nourish the
growing plants, whenever the tender leaves open their

168 THE WHEAT CULTUBIST.

ten thousand mouths to drink in the delicious morsels
which are to aid in building up the stems and unfold
ing the various parts of the plant. The expanding
leaves are always bountifully supplied with available
nourishment. But it is not so with those parts of the
plant that derive their nourishment from the soil. Grow
ing plants may send their numerous rootlets into the
earth for food, when the untold number of hungry mouths
may be completely enveloped in atoms of just such sub
stance as is required to promote the luxuriant growth
of plants ; and still those plants may famish, droop, and
die, simply because the vegetable nutrition was not in
an available condition to promote the growth of the
plants. Human beings are sometimes cast away on the
briny ocean, where they famish and die for want of a
refreshing draught of water, when nothing but a vast
sea is spread out before them.

Analytical chemists are capable of analyzing soil with
such remarkable accuracy that they can detect a thou
sandth part of one grain of nitrogen, or phosphorus ;
and yet their analyses, when made with the utmost pre
cision, may not always furnish any reliable data to aid
the practical farmer in the cultivation of his fields.

CARBONACEOUS MATERIAL.

The vast quantities of suet stored about the kidneys
of beef cattle, mutton sheep, and well-fattened swine,
are composed largely of carbonaceous matter. The
most excellent specimens of sugar are composed almost
entirely of carbon. Charcoal is only a mass of almost
pure carbon ; and the costly, beautiful diamond, is com
posed chiefly of carbon. Let either of these substances

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 169

pass through a chemist's hands, and he pronounces them
carbon. But what will they accomplish towards build
ing up the animal frame ?

We feed our children with sugar, and the carbonaceous
material in it nourishes them. The carbon in suet sup
plies large quantities of nourishment to carnivorous
animals. But charcoal and the diamond, whether
baked, or boiled, or fried, or broiled, or consumed with
out any preparation, will no more nourish the animal
frame than salt water will quench thirst.

These illustrations will suffice to show what the
soil requires in order to render it fertile and productive.
In order to be productive, the soil must be well supplied
with available plant food. This is one of the funda
mental principles of vegetable physiology. If a soil be
wanting in plant food, the first important thing to be
done on the part of the husbandman, is to supply the
deficiency. But if a soil contain plant food in abundance,
and if the food be not available, the duty of the hus
bandman will be to adopt such a system of manage
ment as will unlock the sealed-up treasures, and thus
enable the growing plants to appropriate the material
beneath the surface to the production of necessary
human food.

The question then returns with renewed emphasis —
wJiat does the soil require to render it fertile and
productive f

Aside from the mechanical condition of the soil —
which comprehends thorough pulverization — there must
be a bountiful supply of nitrogenous matter and phos
phoric acid in an available condition, where the numer
ous rootlets of growing plants can take tip such sub
stances.

170 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

In numerous instances, the chief element wanting to
make a soil productive, is lime. But it is folly, and many
times injurious to the soil, to apply a dressing of lime
when lime is not the thing required. The only way in
which a farmer can determine whether lime is required
in a soil, is by numerous experiments on his own
land.

Ashes are needed in almost every soil, on account of
the amount of potash required to form a stiff, healthy
straw. See my remarks about ashes in the latter part of
this book, in the chapter on insects and diseases of wheat.

WHAT A BARREN SOIL LACKS.

Daniel Lee, one of the most scientific writers of
America on Agricultural Chemistry, writes :

"Every observing farmer knows that it is far easier to
produce a large growth of straw than a great yield of
grain. This comes from a lack of knowledge of the
things which form the seeds of cereal plants. Phos
phorus and ammonia, or available nitrogen and phos
phoric acid — the things wanting in oat straw to make
the seeds of this plant — are not very cheap nor abundant.
Guano contains more of them than any other fertilizer
now in the market. Bones also abound in these ele
ments. Limestone that contains the remains of shells
and animals, also possesses more or less phosphoric acid.
But where a field is so badly worn that it will not bear
over twenty bushels of oats, it had better be seeded with
clover, and limed, salted, plastered, and ashed, as well
as manured, to a moderate extent. This, with subsoil
ploughing, will soon bring it up, while the crop of clover
will pay all the expenses.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 171

"Deep ploughing and clover, with its long tap-roots and
numerous leaves, are admirably adapted to renovate a
poor soil.

" In most of the wheat-growing districts, the rotation
is limited to wheat and clover as a general rule — two sea
sons in clover and one in wheat. Sheep and horses eat
most of the clover. In soils where lime and gypsum do
not abound, they are applied, in greater or less quantities,
to suit the particular case or views of the owner of the
land. Mr. Elisha Harmon, of Wheatland, a large and
excellent farmer, has one field that has borne a good
crop of wheat every other year for fifteen years, without
any diminution of the biennial yield. The alternating
crop is clover. Wheatland, according to the late census,
yields considerably more wheat per acre than any other
town in the State. It is nearly covered with plaster
beds, and its lime rock and soil abound in organic re
mains. These skeletons contain more or less of the
elements necessary to form new plants and animals.
There can be little doubt that if we should give to a
field all the constituents of the crop we wished to grow,
in a soluble form, and in due proportion, we might ob
tain a large yield every year of any plant. Where the
elements of wheat are abundant, it is believed that they
might be organized every year on one field, as well as
every second or third year.

" The wheat plant contains lime, soda, and chlorine.
Soda and chlorine form common salt, which, like the
salts of lime and potash, are quite soluble, and liable to
be washed out of cultivated soils. The frequent appli
cation, in small doses, of these constituents of wheat to
wheat fields, must be advantageous, irrespective of rust.
It is believed that the production of a bright, hard, and

172 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

glassy stem, is a pretty sure preventive of this evil,
whether it be a disease of the plant, or a parasite, or
both. We infer that soluble silica, or such sand as forms
glass, has much to do in making a bright, glassy straw,
for the reason that the ashes of wheat straw yield, on
analysis, from 67 to 81 per cent, of silica. As the sand
in the soil that furnishes this silica is quite insoluble,
unless combined chemically with potash, or soda, or
both, we see the great value of salt to yield soda, and
of wood-ashes to yield potash, not only for wheat, but
for all grasses. By mixing salt with recently-slaked
lime, in the proportion of two parts of the latter to one
of the former (which should be moistened, and again
mixed with muck or mold equal in bulk to the lime),
the chlorine in the salt will leave the sodium or soda
free, and unite with the lime, forming a soluble salt
called chloride of calcium. Being soluble, this salt will
supply wheat and other plants with whatever lime and
chlorine they may need. In one hundred pounds of
common salt there are forty pounds of soda, which, being
set free by lirne in a moist soil, or compost, will com
bine with silica (silicic acid), and form a soluble salt
called silicate of soda. The soluble silicates of soda and
potash are partly decomposed in the stems of grasses,
leaving insoluble silicates. Leached ashes obtained
from plants are made up in a good degree of insoluble
silicates of potash, soda, lime, and iron, with a little car
bonic, sulphuric, and phosphoric acids."

DIFFERENT KINDS OF MANURE AND WHEAT.

Boussingault, a distinguished agricultural chemist,
instituted several interesting experiments to ascertain

THE WHEAT CULTUBI8T.

173

what effect fertilizers of different kinds would have on
the chemical composition of the grain, particularly in
the production of gluten ; and he ascertained that cer
tain kinds of fertilizing matter produced grain contain
ing a large percentage more of gluten than other
specimens of the same kinds of grain, raised on soil
exactly alike, and which was in close proximity, but
fertilized with a different kind of manure. The large
proportion of gluten and starch in wheat, renders wheat
flour eminently superior to the meal of other cereal grain
for bread, cake, biscuit, and other articles of human food.
Indian corn affords a large percentage of superior starch ;
but. is deficient in gluten, for which reason Indian meal
will not make so light bread and biscuit as wheat flour.
The accompanying table will show the result of the ex
periment :

BRAN, AND
OTHER MATTER.

STARCH.

GLUTEN.

Human urine

25.6

393

25.6

Bullocks' blood

25.5

41.3

34.2

Night soil
Sheep's duno*

25.5
24.3

41.4

42.8

31.1

32.9

Groat's dung

247

424

329

Horse dun0*

247

61 6

13.7

Pigeon's dung

24.6

63.2

12.2

Cows' dun°"

257

623

120

No manure

24.1

66.7

9.2

The variation appears to be almost solely between the
starch and gluten, as other portions differ but little.
The percentage of gluten in white wheat raised in the
United States, is stated to be 23 or 21 parts in every 100 ;
and the amount of starch, sugar, gum, and water, about
76 or 77. Wheat is valuable in proportion to the
amount of gluten it will yield in making bread and cake.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

Certain kinds of wheat will yield much more than
others ; and the same grain, when grown for several
successive seastms in a given climate, will yield more or
less gluten, according as it is raised on a wheat soil — a
soil containing a large proportion of clay — and manured
with that kind of fertilizing material which tends to in
crease the quantity of gluten.

The table shows that ground fertilized with human
urine produced wheat containing more gluten than the
grain grown by the application of any other fertilizing
matter. This suggests the great importance of saving
all such liquid, and applying it to the soil, to increase
the yield of this excellent grain, instead of allowing it to
remain where it will be an offensive nuisance to the in
mates of the dwelling-house. By having a few loads of
muck, peat, finely-pulverized alluvial soil, sawdust, or
some other good absorbent, where such fecal matter may
be received, a large quantity of superior manure may be
made during the year, for top-dressing wheat. Almost
every kind of soil where wheat grows needs a small
quantity of excellent manure.

HOME-MADE POUDRETTE FOR WHEAT.

Poudrette, when unadulterated and properly applied,
is one of the most valuable manures for wheat that can be
employed, because there is such an abundance of grain-
producing material in the raw fertilizing matter of
which poudrette is made. Very few families in Amer
ica make any effort to utilize the large quantities of
human excrement which are allowed to accumulate
until the putrid mass becomes an offensive nuisance.
With proper management, every family might aecumu-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 175

late a quantity of poudrette every year sufficient to
produce all the wheat required for their daily bread
through the entire year. It is true that Jhe fecal mat
ter of a single person amounts to only a small quantity
per day. We will suppose the average accumulation
will not exceed one pound. At this estimate, the quan
tity collected in one year would amount to three hun
dred and sixty -five pounds for each person, of superior
fertilizing material, which will produce as much wheat
as the same number of pounds of Peruvian guano, pro
vided the former be properly composted. It seems
quite unnecessary to enlarge, in this place, on the man-
urial value of human excrement and human urine, as
every person of ordinary intelligence must know that
such raw material abounds largely in just such substance
as the growing wheat-plants must have in abundance,
in order to develop a bountiful yield of grain.

The question then recurs, how may such offensive
material be utilized in an advantageous manner so as to
promote the growth of the wheat crop ? I answer, by
having the privy properly constructed, so as to save
both the solid and the liquid portions, and render the
mass inodorous, so that the compost may be easily ap
plied to the soil. If the privy is properly constructed,
there will be little difficulty in handling the fecal mate
rial with a shovel.

The accompanying cut, Fig. 33, will convey a fair
idea of a convenient manner of making a privy for the
purpose of saving the manure. The illustration hardly
needs an explanation. It will be perceived that the
building is supported on brick pillars. Stone, or durable
wood posts, would subserve a satisfactory purpose. A
water-tight box, with sides about a foot high, should be

176 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

placed beneath the building, and dry muck, or dry pul
verized clay should be mingled with the daily accumu
lations. By allowing the box or sink to extend beyond
the side of the privy, it will not be found difficult to

Fio. 33. — Poudrette manufactory.

shovel over the compost in any part of the box. A
water-tight lid should be placed over the box to exclude
rain and snow. It is not necessary to place the box as
far under the building as it is represented in the figure.
Always keep an abundance of muck, dry clay, or
mellow earth on hand, so as to absorb all the manurial
properties that would readily escape into the air. Keep
out ashes and lime, as these substances will injure the
manure. A thin dressing of such compost will produce
a heavy growth of wheat. Poudrette should always
be applied as a thin dressing on the surface, and covered
with soil. (Read my remarks on this kind of manure
in the second volume of the Young Farmer's Manual.)

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 177

WHY NITROGENOUS MANURES ARE REQUIRED FOR

WHEAT.

Although an application of superphosphate of lime
will grow a large crop of turnips with the aid of a very
little organic manure, and red clover will grow luxu
riantly on a medium- conditioned soil, with the aid of
the same application, or a little plaster, yet no grain
crop will reach the maximum on such a soil, no matter
how rich you make it in all the mineral and inorganic
elements, without a liberal application of nitrogenous,
well-saved stall manure, or its equivalent in Peruvian
guano or ammonia salts. J. B. Lawes, in his long series
of experiments, ascertained conclusively that where
every mineral element was in the soil necessary for a
maximum crop of wheat, the yield of wheat on an acre
was doubled by the aid of two hundred pounds of
sulphate of ammonia alone ; and Indian corn being
a great feeder, it is in much greater need of more
nitrogen (ammonia) than the more dainty wheat plant :
in fact it may be truly said, the more ammonia the
more corn, provided the soil is well drained and tilled.
As neither the stalks nor grain of cereal plants con
tain nitrogen in anything like the proportion in Avhich
it is found in peas, beans, clover, and other legumi
nous plants, Mr. Lawes has come to the very reasona
ble conclusion that wheat, barley, rye, timothy, etc.,
destroy nitrogen during the process of their growth, or
rather that nitrogenous compounds are used up and
destroyed in making other matters in the soil into solu
ble plant food. Liebig says that quicklime applied to
the soil, particularly to clay, dissolves the silicates into
soluble plant food. If this is so, auplus forte raison,

8*

178 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

we should expect that the salts of ammonia would per
form the same office to all the insoluble matters in the
soil necessary for the maximum growth of the plants it
supports.

The result of these experiments should teach grain-
growing farmers the great importance of also growing
red clover and other leguminous plants, which collect
most of their nitrogen from the dew, rain, and air, and
yet retain it in their tissues to twice the amount that it
is found in the cereal grasses. Thus, clover, peas, beans,
etc., whether ploughed under in the green state or fed
to animals and the manure applied to the soil, are nearly
thrice the value of manure made from the cereal grasses.

On the light, sandy soils of Georgia, the cow pea is
grown as a manuring plant, and ploughed in green ; as
peas and beans contain three times as much nitrogen
as wheat or other cereals, the Georgia planter proves
the truth of chemical analysis in his own success. The
clover plant being of the same order as the cow pea
(leguminous), consuming little, but affording a great deal
of nitrogen, so necessary to all cereal crops, every farmer
who grows grain, or even timothy and other narrow-
leaved grasses, should also grow clover without stint.
But while the cereals require a soil richer in nitrogen
than in the mineral elements of plant food, yet a liberal
supply of superphosphate of lime will also add to the
incipient growth of cereals, and to the stalks but not to
the grain of Indian corn, and to turnips and all legu
minous plants the minerals are especially beneficial.
Mr. Lawes wrote to a farmer thus : " When the alkalies
and phosphates alone are used, the pasture is a mass of
clover and trefoil ; but when ammonia is used, is all
grass." (See " Maine Farmer " on this subject.)

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 179

MANURING WHEAT, BY JOHN JOHNSTON.

Join i Johnston, of Seneca County, New York, whose
authority on wheat-growing has ever been considered
unquestionable, wrote to Colonel Johnson thus : " What
success I have had in raising wheat is mainly from ma
nuring. Before I ever thought of draining, by manur
ing my driest land, I raised excellent wheat crops. Now,
by having all my land dry, a great deal less manure will
answer. On dry land manured, the wheat, or at least
the greater part of it, gets forward in spring, so as to
escape the midge ; at least in common seasons. It does
so with me ; and I am more and more convinced, that
where a farmer has a good crop of straw, it will pay
him well to feed all the sheep he can, even if he feed
them each one dollar's worth of oil cake meal, and get
the pay only in the manure. But it is scarcely possible
that the sheep will not pay it. If he shears them, they
will at least give him two pounds of wool more per
head ; and then, the carcass, for either keeping over, or
for wintering another season, is, I firmly believe, worth
a dollar. I have often fed merino lambs not over seven
ty cents' worth of oil meal during winter, and good hay ;
and sold them in spring, say April and May, at five dol
lars each, when, if they had been fed in the common
way of feeding, they would not have been worth more
than two dollars, if that.

" Then, only think of the difference in the value
of the manure ! I tell you, sir, if your society (The
New York State Agricultural Society) can only in
duce the farmers of the State of New York to feed
their stock plentifully of grain, or oil cake, and make
their land dry by under-draining when it is wet,

180 THE AVHEAT CULTUKI8T.

we shall make better crops of wheat than the aver
age yield was, at any time, since I was a resident
of the State. There is no guess-work about this,
for with me, it has proved true ; and it cannot fail
to be so with others. It is true that we must ex
pect some failures. But if farmers will do their duty
to the land, their failures will be fewer and farther be
tween than ever heretofore. I have seldom seen a fail
ing crop of wheat when it got a good root in autumn.
I had a small piece of land, say not quite two acres, that
never was manured. In 1856, the wheat on that part
of the field was quite light, and the other part' of the
field (twenty -six acres) excellent ; and on the first of
October, 1856, I gave one-half of the piece a light ma
nuring of rotten manure from the cattle-yards, say at
the rate of about ten common two -horse wagon loads to
the acre — the manure showed immediately on young
clover. I summer-fallowed the field ; and sowed with
wheat early in September. The wheat was no sooner
up, than that part manured showed plainly, from the
part that was never manured. Some may say, why did
he not manure the whole of the piece when he was
about it ? I answer, that I left a part of it to convince
my tenant (as I don't work much of my farm myself,
now), and others who may see it, the necessity of mak
ing and saving all the manure possible. (Nothing will
make people believe like seeing.)"

MANURING WITH GUANO.

R. T. Hubbard, of Buckingham County. Virginia,
writes, in relation to the practice of applying guano to
the soil for wheat, as follows : " Within the last five
years, several farmers in this and the adjacent counties

THE WHEAT CULTUJBI8T. 181

have sown guano upon their wheat land ; and, while J
have heard of some disappointment, the testimony pre
ponderates in favor of guano as a valuable fertilizer. This
manure condenses great power in a small bulk ; and
hence its p'ortability gives it a great recommendation
with all who properly appreciate the value of labor and
time. The quantity generally sown upon wheat land
is 200 pounds to the acre. I believe that most of those
who use guano in Virginia have acted upon the plan — •
strongly enforced a few years ago — of ploughing in the
guano deep, then sowing the wheat, and covering it by
the harrow or one-horse ploughs. The reason assigned
in favor of burying the guano deep, is the tendency of
its ammonia to escape rapidly. To guard against this
tendency, plaster may be mixed with guano in propor
tion of one-fourth of the former to three-fourths of the
latter ; thus combined, the sulphuric acid of the plaster
will unite with the ammonia of the guano, and retain it
for the gradual nourishment and progressive develop
ment of the growing crop. So far as my limited experi
ence has enabled me to judge, I am opposed to plough
ing in guano very deep. Instead of ploughing it under
to the depth of eight or ten inches, with ploughs drawn
by two or three horses, I prefer to plough it in with one-
horse ploughs, and to cover the guano only three or four
inches. In this way I believe the guano becomes more
speedily and more thoroughly incorporated with the soil
than at a lower depth, and that the effect upon the
wheat crop is more beneficial. I am aware that this
method has been objected to upon the ground that, al
though the effect of guano may be very apparent and
very salutary when thus applied, it is more evanescent
than when covered deep. On the contrary, I think that

182 THE WHEAT CULTURI8T.

the effect of guano is not only more decided and bene
ficial when it is ploughed in superficially, but that its
effects are equally, if not more, permanent. Ammonia
is one of the most valuable constituents of stable manure ;
yet the almost invariable practice — a practice sanctioned
equally by experience and observation — is to plough in
this kind of manure superficially. I have heard of no
one in Virginia whose success in the use of guano has
been more encouraging than that of Mr. Willoughby
Newton, of Westmoreland, who has been convinced by
experience that guano exerts a more powerful influence
when ploughed in superficially than when ploughed in
deep, as recommended by others. This manure aug
ments the crop of wheat, and insures a good stand of
clover ; but in our country its effect is not supposed to
continue more than twelve or eighteen months beyond
the period of application."

FURTHER TESTIMONY ABOUT GUANO.

E. G. Booth, Nottaway County, Virginia, writes thus :
" Guano and other fertilizers are so generally used now,
and so much more attention bestowed on improvement
of land, that the product has been greatly increased
within the last few years. I have not used guano ex
tensively, but sufficiently so to express the confident
conviction that it would quadruple the product on poor
land. The proportion of increase is not so great on rich
land. The plan generally adopted in this section is to
turn it under with a two-horse plough. Intelligent
practical farmers are now preparing to harrow it in with
the wheat. I consider it such a powerful stimulant that
it will act well when applied in most any way, except
top-dressing. It is too volatile for that."

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 183

BURYING MANURE DEEP OR SHALLOW FOR WHEAT.

Notwithstanding all that has been written on the sub
ject of burying manure shallow, in preference to covering
it deep, there are still some farmers who will contend
that it is preferable to scatter the manure in a deep fur
row, to simply covering it with a thin stratum of earth.
It is far better to cover manure only two inches deep, for
winter wheat, than to bury it in a furrow six inches
in depth. I may repeat what I have stated in another
part of this book : that manure for winter grain should
always be kept near the surface of the ground, so that
the coronal roots of the wheat plant (or the winter rye,
or winter barley plants) may spread out horizontally,
rather than strike downward nearly in a vertical direc
tion, as horizontal roots will keep the young plants from
being lifted out by the freezing of the soil. (See the chapter
on Manures, in the second volume of my Young Farmer's
Manual.)

For the purpose of testing the advantage of burying
manure shallow, some farmers in Pennsylvania tried an
experiment in applying manure to their wheat ground.
One farmer contended that manure should be turned
under deep with the lirst ploughing ; and the other that
it should be buried shallow, with the second ploughing.
To settle the point as near as possible, these two agreed
to try one-half of each of their fields each way, and let the
the rest judge by vote which was best. In both cases
one-half of the manure was hauled out as soon as the oats
were off', and ploughed under deep ; then the remainder
of the field was ploughed to the same depth, well harrow
ed and rolled ; the balance of the manure was then
hauled out, spread, and a portion (about one-fourth) of

184: THE WHEAT CULTUBIST.

each field ploughed in shallow (six inches deep), and the
remainder of the manure was allowed to remain on the
surface till near seeding time, when it was also turned
under shallow.

The two fields were visited by a committee, and a re
port of each visit prepared. The whole of the reports
summed up is about this : that throughout that portion
where the manure was turned under by the second plough
ing as soon as spread, the wheat was always the best in
appearance ; the straw is better, and the grain is heavier
and plumper. The decision wTas, that the manure should
be turned under about six inches deep with the second
ploughing, and as soon as spread, or as soon after it is
spread as practicable.

REMARKS. — If a farmer will reflect for a moment,
common sense will convince him, that the fertilizing
material should be deposited, as nearly as practicable,
on a horizontal line with the seed, so that the young
roots may derive nourishment from it, soon after the
plants begin to grow. When manure is spread on a grass
sod, or clover sod, whether wheat is to be raised or any
other grain, the land should be ploughed shallow, for the
purpose of keeping the manure as near the surface as
practicable.

SHALLOW PLOUGHING FOR WHEAT.

The Editor of the " Genesee Farmer " recorded the
following remarks, in relation to the culture of wheat.
But the reader must bear in mind that he has refer
ence to wheat on light soils. Every intelligent farmer
knows that it would not improve the productiveness of
heavy, clay soils to roll the surface, or tread it with
sheep. The allusion made by the writer to ploughing

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 185

clover sod shallow for wheat, corroborates what I have
advocated in this book — that a shallow stratum of mould
should be prepared on the surface of the land to induce
the roots to spread horizontally as much as possible, for
the purpose of resisting the action of frost in heaving
out the young plants. The writer says :

" A wheat soil must be compact. If it is not so natur
ally, mechanical means should be employed to compress
it. Treading light wheat land in the fall or early in the
spring with sheep, is frequently beneficial, and a good
heavy roller is decidedly advantageous. Crosskill's Clod
Crusher, compressing land, as it does, similarly to the
treading of sheep, is found very useful on sandy wheat
fields in England. We are earnest advocates of deep
ploughing and thorough pulverization of the soil, but
these must not be carried to excess in wheat culture. It is
easy to make the light land too fine and loose for wheat.
When wheat is sown on a clover sod after one ploughing,
it is not advisable to plough it too deep ; if the sod is all
covered and a good ' seed-bed ' obtained, that is enough.
Subsoil and plough deep for corn and root crops ; and, if
the ground be summer-fallowed, let it be subsoiled for

^j "

wheat also ; but if wheat is sown at one furrow on a
clover sod turned under immediately before seeding, we
should seldom go more than six inches deep. The best
large field of wheat we ever saw in England, was on a
calcareous loam that had been two years in red clover,
grazed with sheep, which, a considerable portion of the
time, were allowed a pound of oil-cake per day. It was
ploughed about three inches deep, just before sowing, and
a bushel and a half of seed drilled in per acre, one foot
apart in the drills. The yield was fifty-five bushels per

186 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

WHEAT AFTER POTATOES.

From a letter penned by J. W. Hutchins, a practical
farmer of Templeton, Mass., the following extracts are
taken on this subject, which will corroborate the point
that has been repeated and again reiterated, that in order
to raise wheat successfully the ground must be thoroughly
fertilized with rich manure at least one or two seasons
previous to the time of putting in the seed. The writer
says : " In some parts of New England there is con
siderable prejudice among farmers in regard to the cul
ture of wheat. Many having tried once or twice to raise
this kind of grain and failing, declare that wheat can
not be grown successfully except on certain farms. I,
however, believe that wheat can be cultivated with
profit by most farmers in New England, although it re
quires some experience to raise a good crop. In saying
this, I do not wish to be understood that wheat can be
raised with satisfactory profit on all kinds of soil, for it
cannot. Still, I do believe that most farmers in the
New England States can, by judicious management, and
they ought, to raise wheat for their own families. Wheat
ought to be grown because it is an excellent article of
food ; and when successfully cultivated, it is more profit
able than any other grain. Moreover, a crop of wheat
exhausts the soil where it grows, less than a crop of oats
or barley ; and grass seed when sowed for stocking down
the land, will germinate and grow better than when
sowed where other cereals are growing. Having had
considerable, experience and good success in raising
wheat and other crops, perhaps it may not be amiss to
record some of my observations and practice, for the
benefit of my brother farmers ; although I feel that I am

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 187

just a beginner, and by no means master of the science
of agriculture, which is the greatest of all sciences.
And as every science is developed by small beginnings,
why may I not add my mite of knowledge to aid those
who may be inquiring after truth ?

" The seasons, of course, will exert more or less influ
ence on all kinds of crops. Still, in order to raise boun
tiful crops of any kind, farmers have duties to perform ;
and if they expect to succeed and thrive, it behooves
them to ascertain what these duties are. I seldom fail
to raise a bountiful crop of wheat, and hardly ever real
ize less than twenty bushels per acre ; and I have raised
as many as thirty-five bushels per acre. Last season I
raised, on two and a half acres, and from four and a half
bushels of seed, seventy-five and a half bushels of grain
by weight. My mode of procedure is as follows : I
usually raise a crop of wheat after potatoes. When I
first break up a piece of land, I almost invariably plant
Indian corn and manure in the hill with wood ashes,
etc. The next season the land is heavily manured with
barn-yard manure, and planted with potatoes. No
manure is applied in the hill, except gypsum. I have
raised but two poor crops in eleven years ; and some
seasons my ground has produced four hundred bushels
of potatoes per acre. Land thus managed, has been
planted two successive seasons. By the numerous opera
tions of ploughing, hoeing, and digging the potatoes, the
manure is thoroughly rotted, and mingled with the soil,
instead of being left in large lumps to evaporate and
thus lose its strength. By this management my land has
been enriched and the fertility equalized, and' is thus in
an excellent condition to produce both straw and grain.
In conclusion, I would say to farmers, if you have ma-

188 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

nured your land bountifully, plough deep and put in your
grain early ; and do not be afraid of planting the seed
too deep. Keep your old-fashioned, iron- toothed har
rows oft' the land where seed wheat has been sowed ;
because this style of harrow does not work the grain
into the soil as deep as the seed should be buried. And
more than this, the more you harrow mellow ground
with such a harrow, the harder it becomes. Procure a
good cultivator harrow, as such implements work like a
charm, leaving the ground light, and bury the seed as
deep as it should be covered. I sow spring wheat of
the French Tea variety."

GROWING WHEAT AND TUKNIPS.

" No bone-dust, no turnips ; no turnips no wheat ;
No wheat and no turnips, no cattle no meat ;
No turnips, no cattle, nor manure in the yard.
Makes bills for the doctors, and farming go hard."

If there is any one practice among American farmers,
for which they deserve sharp rebuke, it is for permitting
such immense quantities of bones to be exported for the
improvement of the agriculture of foreign nations.
Thousands of tons of bones are collected annually in
Chicago, Buffalo, New York, and other populous cities,
and shipped to European countries to fertilize the land
for raising turnips, wheat, fat cattle, and sheep. And
yet, American farmers, in stupid quietude, look on and
say : " It don't pay to collect bones, and apply them to
the soil."

It will pay. They have not te'sted the application of
ground bone. There is not a meadow nor a pasture in
the land — with very few exceptions — that will not be

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 189

greatly benefited by a dressing of ground raw bone.
Thousands of acres of the best farming land in New
England are in a low state of impoverishment for the
want of a liberal dressing of raw ground bone. Such
fertilizing matter is the very life of the soil. European
farmers understand and appreciate this fact. They
know it pays to ship bones from America to enrich
their farms. The value of every ship-load of bones
that is picked from our land cannot readily be computed
in dollars and cents to the agriculture of our country.
England delights in her own fatness produced on the
choice cheese of American dairies, while we mutter and
grumble over a pot of the whey. Europeans rejoice
over the rich, sweet American butter, while we are so
unaccountably stupid as to be satisfied with the butter
milk. Our farmers dig and delve, and rake and scrape
their grain-fields, meadows, and pastures to get phos-
phatic fertilizers to send to Europe to produce big crops
of turnips, and then grumble and denounce their own
land as good for nothing, because their turnips refuse to
grow as they do in Eastern countries. The truth on
this point is, American farmers must save and apply
more manure to their impoverished land: especially
must they save bones for growing a crop of turnips. As
soon as we can produce a bountiful crop of turnips we
can grow wheat. Wheat and turnips in England go
hand in hand. And when the wheat soils of America
are rendered sufficiently fertile to produce a crop of tur
nips, we may have the eminent satisfaction of seeing
bountiful crops of choice wheat, where now the yield
will scarcely defray the expenses of harvesting and
thrashing the crop. Sometimes a farmer will have to
CAiltivate for several }^ears before he can produce wheat.

190 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

WHEAT AFTER PEAS.

A crop of peas is one of the most advantageous crops to
precede winter wheat. In many sections of the country,
where winter wheat is cultivated to considerable extent,
a crop of early peas is preferred, as a preparatory crop,
where winter wheat is to grow. But, a thin dressing
of well-rotted barn-yard manure is usually prepared
during the summer, and ploughed in, after the peas are
harvested. In some instances the manure is hauled
to the field as soon as the peas have been re
moved, and is ploughed under, and the wheat put in
as soon as it is practicable to do it, after the first of
September.

Another mode, which is preferred by some good
farmers, is to remove the peas as early in August as
practicable, and plough the ground from six to eight
inches deep ; and then, about the first of September,
spread the manure, very evenly and thin, over the entire
soil ; and then plough it under with a gang-plough, or
with such a cultivator as is illustrated on page 142 of this
book, adjusted to run about four inches deep, after
which the wheat is drilled in.

The preparation which the barn -yard manure receives,
when it is applied for wheat, after a crop of peas, is,
to haul the manure from the barn -yard in the former
part of the season, and pile it up in the field during
the summer, forking it over sometimes, in order to have
it well rotted and finely pulverized ; and after the ground
has been ploughed once with the common plough, and
sometimes crossed with the gang-ploughs, the manure is
neatly spread on the surface, and the ground thoroughly
harrowed, by which the manure is about all covered

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 191

with more or less earth near the surface of the ground.
This system of management usually insures a fair
crop of wheat. But, on certain kinds of soil, the prep
aration is not as it should be for a crop of winter grain.
Where the surface soil is thin — where there is only a
thin stratum of vegetable mould, special care should be
exercised to keep the mould at the surface, and not
turn it all seven or eight inches beneath a cold and un
fertile subsoil. I have observed, that some farmers
have failed entirely to produce a fair crop of wheat
after peas, because they did not observe this precaution,
to keep their best soil at the surface. There was only
a thin stratum of mould resting on a heavy, calcareous
clay, which was turned up to the surface ; while all the
manure and fertile mould were buried beyond the imme
diate reach of the young plants.

The ground, in such localities, should always be
ploughed shallow ; and the seed-bed should be deepened
by a regular subsoil plough, or with such an one as I
have illustrated on page 162. The best soil should be
kept near the surface ; and the fine manure should be
covered as lightly as practicable, for the reason which
has been assigned in the former part of this chapter.
(Read also the remarks under the Habit of the Wheat
Plant ; and How Freezing and Thawing Injures Grow
ing Wheat, on page 126.)

As a crop of early peas will mature in a short period
of time ; as the vines grow rapidly, and thus get the
start of weeds ; and as the crop takes up only a small
quantity of the wheat-producing material in the soil,
this crop can be raised with more profit than a crop of
oats, barley, or Indian corn, in some instances. A crop
of growing peas, when there is not an excess of moist-

192 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

ure in the soil, will often render a compact and lumpy
soil as mellow and lively as a friable loam. When the
peas are fed out to fattening stock, and the manure of
the animals sayed with care, and returned to the soil
where the peas grew, the pea crop will always be found
an excellent ameliorator of a heavy and poor soil'. A
crop of green peas will always be found fully equal to a
crop of red clover to turn under with the plough as a
renovator of a poor soil. Yet I would prefer a crop of
Indian corn for such a purpose, as the stalks will furnish
more vegetable matter than a crop of peas. (Read the
chapter on Manures in my second volume of the Young
Farmer's Manual.)

Peas are a very exhausting crop, when everything is
removed from the field and nothing returned to the soil

O

as an equivalent for the crop. But when the peas are
all fed out to stock, and their manure saved and applied
to the land, peas are an excellent renovator ; and where
the soil is heavy, a crop of peas should constitute a
prominent one in the rotation system, especially where
winter wheat is cultivated.

Joseph Harris, who resides in one of the finest wheat-
growing counties of New York, writes : " In preparing
heavy land for wheat, it is still necessary, in many
cases, to resort to summer fallows. On the light soils
we may take a crop of beans, planted in rows and thor
oughly horse-hoed, and sow wheat afterward. On
heavier soils I have seen an excellent crop of wheat
follow a crop of peas, which had been sown instead of
fallowing. The great drawback to the peas is that they
are aifected by the bug. But if fed out early to hogs,
the bugs do not injure them materially, while they are
very fattening and make rich manure. You can com-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 193

mence feeding them to hogs on the land, while the peas
are still green."

SHEEP IN CONNECTION WITH WHEAT.

Although bountiful crops of wheat may be produced
by the application of commercial fertilizers to the soil,
still the true way to grow wheat successfully is to keep
sheep and make mutton, and at the same time employ
their manure to maintain the fertility of the soil.
Bountiful crops of wheat can be grown in connection
with fatting neat cattle and hogs, or horses, provided
the animals get a liberal supply of coarse grain ; and
providing also their manure be saved with care and ap
plied to the soil. Farmers may set it down as an incon
trovertible fact, that they cannot grow wheat of any
kind successfully, without applying to the soil some kind
of fertilizing material that will supply an abundance of
grain-producing pabulum in the soil for the develop
ment of the wheat kernels. I will reiterate what will
bear repeating again and again, that if the land be ma
nured with strawy manure, the crops of wheat will be
mostly straw, with a small yield of grain. We cannot
cheat any soil by manuring with haulm, and think to
get a heavy yield of grain. If the ground be enriched
with grain-producing material, a farmer can hardly fail
to realize a fair crop. One of the most efficacious ways
to secure a bountiful yield of wheat would be to sow
wheat flour, or drill it in with the seed grain.

If I desired to produce the largest crop of wheat that
had ever been grown, after enriching the soil with a
liberal dressing of the best manure, I would sow thirty
or forty bushels of wheat flour per acre, drilling it in

9

194 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

with the seed grain. Such a dressing would operate
like magic in the production of a heavy crop of wheat.
I would not recommend the practice of sowing wheat
flour, for the purpose of producing an enormous crop of
grain ; I simply allude to this suggestion of fertilizing
the soil with wheat flour, for the purpose of showing
that in order to raise wheat there must be some material
in the soil that the wheat plants will take up and appro
priate to the development of the new grain. These
thoughts will show the young farmer what the soil re
quires.

Now, the question arises, how can a farmer employ
his grain as a fertilizer, and at the same time avail him
self of its cash value besides ? I answer, by making
mutton, and applying the valuable manure of his fat
sheep to his soil. When grain or meal is fed -to fat
tening stock, only a small part of it is appropriated to
the growth and development of the animal, while a
large proportion is cast out into the manure heap. This
is the material for producing a large yield of grain.
Manure that is made by fattening sheep will furnish
large supplies of just such materials as the wheat plants
must have, to yield a bountiful crop of grain. Conse
quently, if a farmer will combine sheep-fattening with
wheat-growing, he can scarcely fail to bring an ordinary
soil into such a state of fertility, in a few years, that he
can reap bountiful crops of wheat of a choice quality.
But sheep-raising and wheat-growing will not succeed
at all satisfactorily, unless sheep are kept in a growing
and thrifty condition by feeding large quantities of
coarse grain, and oil meal and turnips, or roots of some
kind. A farmer may just as well take the products of
his land and pitch them into the mill-pond, and think to

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 195

improve the productiveness of his land, as to attempt to
feed and fatten sheep without first selecting animals
that will fatten readily. Another consideration is, prop
er protection of sheep. Wet and cold weather is ex
ceedingly detrimental to sheep of any kind. Water
dripping through leaky sheds is very disagreeable and
injurious to sheep. They always hate a wet and cold
place, as much so as a neat cat hates a wet floor.

The leading idea in fattening sheep should be, to pre
pare a large supply of rich manure, especially when a
crop of wheat is desired. A flock of sheep will reduce
a large stack of straw to manure more readily than it
can be done with a lot of neat cattle. But the sheep
must have grain, and some oil meal mingled with the
grain, or with the grain meal. If sheep are young, and
have excellent teeth, and a grist mill is not conveniently
near, it will not pay to grind grain before feeding it to
sheep, as they masticate their feed remarkably fine. It
is a rare occurrence that any kind of grain or seeds of
noxious weeds pass through sheep without having the
vitality of the germs destroyed. For this reason whole
grain may be fed to sheep with satisfactory profit, when
the same grain could not be fed to neat cattle with
desirable results. I think farmers will understand my
idea of feeding sheep on coarse grain with a view to ren
ovating the soil for the production of wheat. There is
no other feasible and practicable manner of maintaining
the perpetual fertility of the wheat fields of America
than by growing red clover, fattening sheep, hogs, or
neat cattle, and raising a bountiful supply of turnips
for stock during the foddering season. By feeding
coarse grain, turnips, oil meal, red clover, and wheat
straw to sheep, and by applying their manure judiciously

196 THE WHEAT CTJLTIJRIST.

to the land, after a few years of skilful management the
productiveness of poor farms may be greatly improved,
and good land can be rendered much more productive.
Oil meal and coarse grain fed to sheep in connection
with some hay, cornstalks, and wheat straw, will make
a quality of manure that will produce wheat on almost
any kind of soil, whether it is light or heavy.

WHEAT AND CATTLE.

In the second volume of my Young Farmer's Manual
I penned some suggestions touching the importance of
adopting a mixed husbandry. That is the true way to
maintain the fertility of the soil, especially where rais
ing wheat constitutes a part of the products of the
farm. Intimately connected with the subject under
consideration are the remarks of the Editor of the
" Western Rural," who writes :

" Michigan farmers have a mania for growing wheat,
while they too much neglect other important and profit
able farm products. In 1860, Michigan produced
8,313,185 bushels of wheat — a little more than one-
twentieth of the whole amount grown in the United
States. Of cheese in the same year it produced only
2,009,064 pounds. The little State of Vermont, with
an area about two-elevenths as great, produced 8,077,089
pounds of cheese, but only 431,127 bushels of wheat.
That Vermont did not grow so little wheat because her
soil is not adapted to wheat culture, is shown from the
fact that the average yield of wheat per acre in Ver
mont, in the year 1864, as shown by the Report of the
Department of Agriculture for January, 1865, was four
teen bushels per acre, while in Michigan the average

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 197

yield per acre for the same year was but twelve bushels
Thus it is seen that although the farmers of Vermont
can grow fourteen bushels of wheat on the amount of
land from which Michigan farmers get twelve bushels,
yet the Vermont farmers prefer to give attention to
dairy products to the almost entire neglect of wheat.
Why is this ? Evidently because they find dairy farm
ing the most profitable.

" Michigan farmers do not manufacture cheese enough
to supply the home market, but give their labor and
land to the production of but twelve bushels of wheat
per acre. In the early days of the State, when wheat
was almost the only article that brought the farmer
ready money, when it was a sure crop, when the soil
was a virgin one, and when most farmers possessed but
little capital, there were doubtless good reasons why
wheat should be grown almost exclusively ; but we are
convinced that those reasons are not now so strongly in
force, and that there are other and strong reasons why
our farmers should give greater attention to dairy prod
ucts and stock.

" We do not object to the growing of wheat per se.
It is one of our most valuable crops. When a proper
rotation is pursued it can scarcely be dispensed with.
What we do object to, is the great attention given to
wheat-growing to the exclusion of other branches of
farming which are as profitable as wheat-growing, or
more so. As we said above, our farmers have a mania
for growing wheat, a mania which they pursue to such
an extent that their lands grow less and less fertile from
year to year. Growing wheat as most Western farmers
grow it, is a continual draught on the resources of the
soil with no adequate return ; and however rich a soil

198 THE WHEAT CULTUEIST.

may be at first, it will in time deteriorate under such
usage. Closer and plaster are the principal fertilizers
on most wheat farms. When their use is continued for
a series of years, the farmers begin to complain that
their land is ; clover-sick ' or ' plaster-sick ; ' that it
will not give profitable returns. Land so treated will
inevitably give out. It is every year deprived of many
of its most valuable constituents in the crops of wheat
which are taken off — constituents which are by no means
fully returned in the fertilizers, clover and plaster.
That our lands are losing their fertility, we see in the fact
that they now produce less per acre than the naturally
poorer soil of the Eastern States ; for in those States
such an exhausting system of cropping is not pursued.

" Now by giving to wheat no more than its due share
of attention, by keeping a large portion of land in
meadow, and pasture, and root crops, and feeding the pro
duce to animals either for the dairy or the shambles, farm
ers will surely reap as large immediate returns as when
wheat is the main crop — and we believe much larger —
and can, by aid of the large amount of manure which
they will manufacture, keep their land in excellent con
dition."

This is the key note to successful wheat-growing all
over the world — raising stock, making beef, mutton, or
pork, and applying rich manure to the soil. The sooner
farmers become so thoroughly convincad of this .fact,
the better it will be for their pockets, for the land, and
for the whole country. It is exceedingly unfortunate to
our country, that our valuable wheat fields, all over the
land, are depleted and almost ruined by a bad system
of farm management. Our successors will feel this slack
cultivation.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 199

FINK'S IRON CULTIVATOR.

The accompanying figure represents an excellent
cultivator, recently invented by J. Fink, Baldwinsville,
Onondaga County, N. Y., which possesses many points
of superior merit. The frame is made of iron, and the
teeth are of superior steel. The implement possesses a

FIG. 33.— Fink's iron Cultivator.

combination of desirable points, which constitute an
efficient - and convenient implement for cultivating
summer fallows, winter fallows, for scarifying stubble
ground, and dressing out crops in rows ; and besides this,
many farmers think it the most effective implement for
digging potatoes that is now in use. Where there are
more or less stumps, stubs, or rocks, to cultivate around
and among, a cultivator having handles will be found
more convenient than one without handles.

The wings are so arranged, that the teeth can be made
to cut a wide trough ; or they may be contracted so as
to cut only a narrow strip, either deep or shallow. As
the cut affords such an excellent idea of the implement,
the foregoing verbal description will be sufficient to con
vey a fair understanding of its construction and opera
tion.

200 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

GROWING WHEAT.

It has been often suggested, that wheat would yield a
much more abundant crop of grain, were the growing
plants cultivated with a horse-hoe and hand-tools. "We
have, however, no experiments to establish this point.
On the contrary, judging from the habit of the wheat
plant, I think that the less the soil is stirred after the
wheat is put in, the better it will be for the growing
crop. I will tell why. Every wheat plant sends out
numerous roots near the surface of the ground. If we
examine a stool of growing wheat on new land, when
the surface is covered with a fine, vegetable mould, we
shall find that there are more roots near the surface, than
can be found several inches beneath the surface. Cut
off those surface roots with a broad hoe, or with a
harrow, or cultivator, and nature will at once appro
priate all the energies of the growing plants to form a
new system of roots, near the surface. This fact teaches
us that the growing wheat plants do not need root-prun
ing. If a horse-hoe, or hand-hoes be employed to cut
up the surface of the ground between the rows, the sur
face, or coronal roots will be seriously mutilated, to the
injury of the plants. I think that all good farmers and
practical gardeners will coincide with me on this point,
that after the seed has been put in, the surface of the
soil should not be disturbed by implements of husbandry.
If noxious weeds and grass spring up among the growing
grain, let them be pulled up by hand, and laid between
the rows, where they will subserve the purpose of a
mulch to the wheat. Weeds may be pulled up, when
they appear among the wheat ; but they should never
be cut up with hoes. The soil should be so thoroughly

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 201

prepared, that the growing wheat will outstrip the
weeds, and maintain the ascendency until harvest time.
It is contended by some writers, that the efficiency of
the preparatory tillage is lost by the fine particles of
the soil coalescing, or running together, thus forming a
crust over the surface, which excludes the atmospheric
supplies of nourishment to the roots of the growing
plants. In numerous instances, particularly when the
soil is very heavy, long before the crop has reached the
period of perfect maturity, the soil will be found almost
as impervious to water and as firm as it was before the
ground was ploughed preparatory to sowing the seed.
This is frequently the case. When carting the crop
after harvest, the surface is sometimes so firm and in
durated, that the tracks of the teams and loaded wheels
can scarcely be traced. Instead of cultivating the
growing plants, prepare the soil as directed in the sec
ond volume of the Young Farmer's Manual, by the
author, under the head of Keeping the Best Soil at the
Surface.

HARROWING WINTER WHEAT.

The practice of harrowing winter wheat in the spring
of the year has been frequently recommended by some
practical farmers and certain agricultural writers, while
others have denounced this operation as productive of
more injury than benefit to the growing plants. It is
by no means difficult to explain why harrowing winter
wheat in the spring may prove beneficial in one in
stance and not in another ; and it is easy to show when
the young wheat plants may be benefited by harrow
ing and when a harrow would do far greater injury than

9*

202 THE WHEAT CULTUEIST.

good. When wheat is growing on a light and dry soil,
where the seed was sowed broadcast and harrowed in,
as many of the young plants would be found rooted
near the surface, a harrowing would be liable to do
greater injury by tearing up large numbers of such
stools of wheat, than the scarifying of the land would
benefit the crop. Again, when the seed has been put
in with a grain drill, say two inches deep, and the sur
face of the land seems to be covered with a hard crust
of earth, a light harrowing, when the ground is suffi
ciently dry to be ploughed, would prove of great benefit
to the young wheat plants. But the operation should
be performed with a light harrow, having numerous
small teeth, rather than with a heavy implement pro
vided with only a few large teeth. When winter wheat
has been put in with a drill about two inches deep, all
the primary roots will be found at that depth below the
surface of the ground, until after the growing season of
the succeeding spring has so far advanced as to produce
a system of secondary roots near the surface of the
ground. This fact suggests why winter wheat — if har
rowed at all — should be harrowed very early in the
spring, before the growing season has commenced. The
object of harrowing so early is twofold : one is to pul
verize the hard incrustation that has been formed on
the surface, so that there may be a thin stratum of mel
low ground between the primary roots of the wheat
plants- and the surface, instead of a crust of calcareous
earth, which is almost impenetrable by the secondary
roots of the young plants. This would be eminently
essential to the perfect growth and development of the
wheat plant, were there no secondary roots to appear
after the young plants have attained a growth of a foot

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 203

or more in height. 'The second object of harrowing the
soil is to form a mellow seed-bed at the surface of the
ground, around each plant, through which the second
ary roots may spread with facility, when that period in
the growing • season has arrived for the young plants to
put forth their secondary roots. Roots of trees, bushes,
vines, or roots of grass or plants that produce grain,
spread with the utmost difficulty through clods, or a hard
crust of almost any kind of ground. But when there
is a liberal supply of calcareous matter in the hard
lumps, or crust of earth, roots will not spread through
the soil in such a condition much sooner than they will
enter soft stones.

Still another object in harrowing winter wheat is to
bury the grass-seed, or clover-seed, wrhen the land is
stocked down in the spring of the year.

A few years ago, a correspondent of the " Cultiva
tor " wrote thus : " Myron Adams, of East Bloomfield,
New York, has for many years harrowed over the whole
of his wheat fields every spring, pulverizing the crust
and greatly benefiting the crop. If the ground is to
be seeded with clover, it is harrowed in at this time.
The whole amount torn up by the roots has been found
by examination not to exceed the amount of a bushel
on ten acres. The wheat looks rather unpromising
when thus dusted over with earth ; but the first shower
washes it off, and leaves it clean, fresh, and vigorous."

WHEAT. ON SOD GROUND,
i

Raising a crop of wheat on sod ground in some sec^
tions of the country is practised with satisfactory success^
while in most instanceSj all efforts to produce a fair crop

204 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

of wheat on inverted sod have ended in complete fail
ures. In Monroe County, ~N. Y., one of the noted lo
calities for producing fair crops of winter wheat, many
excellent farmers were accustomed to raise wheat on
sod ground, by preparing the land in tjie following
manner :

About the first of September the sod is neatly plough
ed about eight inches deep, with a lap furrow, after
which a roller is passed over it, when a thin coat of
good barn-yard compost is spread evenly over the surface,
and is either well harrowed in, or is turned under very
shallowly with the gang-plows, which usually cut from
three to four feet in width at one through. The
wheat is then put in about the fifth or tenth of Sep
tember.

It will be perceived by this system of management
with the soil, that the surface of the seed-bed is prepared in
exact accordance with the requirements of the habit of
the wheat plant. Read the remarks under the head of
the Habit of Wheat, on a preceding page.

By passing a roller over the ploughed land, the furrow
slices which lay up loosely, are pressed down firmly
together. Then, by scarifying the surface with gang-
ploughs, or cultivators, so as to pulverize the surface to
the depth of about three or four inches, and fertilizing
the surface with a rich compost, so that most of the roots
will spread out horizontally, instead of striking down
ward vertically, the young plants will be well prepared
to resist the sinister influences of the cold weather, which
arise from the upheaval and settling back of the surface
of the soil.

But I would not, as a general rule, recommend the
practice of attempting to raise wheat on sod ground, un-

THE WHEAT CULTUHIST. 205

less the land is very free from noxious weeds of all kinds,
and grass that will not decay readily, and the soil in an
excellent state of fertility. When the land is at all foul,
and any kind of grass has taken possession of the soil
which will grow up after ploughing, before the wheat
can come up, a farmer may about as well sow his seed
wheat in a pasture field, with the expectation of growing
a fair crop of grain. Wheat will not thrive at the same
time where noxious grass flourishes.

SOWING WHEAT AMONG INDIAN CORN.

In some parts of the West, where the soil is so fertile
that farmers entertain the erroneous notion that its fer
tility is inexhaustible, the practice is in vogue of sowing
seed wheat among the growing corn, and covering the
seed with* the horse-hoe and hand-hoes, in the latter part
of summer, or even in September. A farmer writes to
one of our Western papers, that " sowing wheat among
standing corn is an excellent practice when done by
competent workmen. The most successful plan will be
found to plant the corn in rows five or six feet apart,
and the hills in the rows two feet apart. The plough-
ings, horse-hoeings, and dressing with the steel-tooth
cultivator, will all require to be done in one direction
across the field, and not in right-angular rows, as is the
common practice ; and before the wheat is sown, the
ground should be made level with a steel-tooth cultivator
or harrow. The time for seeding should be the last of
August ; the quantity sown per acre, two bushels — and
the seed should be ploughed in, putting the whole field
into lands the width of the rows of corn. The stalks
may remain on the ground during winter, and about

206 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

the first of March be chopped down, and allowed to re
main on the surface."

I perceive serious objections to this system of seeding.
The first is, the great injury done to the growing corn,
by the teeth of the tools and horse implements, which
will tear up the roots of the corn, to the great injury of
the crop. Indian corn needs no root-pruning. Horse-
hoes cannot be employed between the rows after the
plants have put out their tassels, without seriously in
juring the roots, which often extend two or three feet
down the stems. Sowing seed wheat among growing
corn may be well for- the wheat plants, but it will be
exceedingly injurious to the crop of Indian corn.

Another consideration of some little account is this :
When sowing wheat among growing corn, the large and
broad leaves of the growing plants will gather many of
the kernels, and thus prevent their falling to tlie ground
in diie time to take root before winter. And much of
the grain would be destroyed by exposure to alternate
wet and sunshine, while the kernels are lodged in the
stems of corn.

SOWING- WHEAT ON CORN STUBBLE.

The practice of sowing wheat on corn ground, in
autumn, used to be more in vogue than it is at the
present day. In the Middle and Eastern States, farm
ers were accustomed to sow winter wheat in autumn,
after a crop of Indian corn had been removed ; but the
practice is now nearly abandoned. A writer in the
" Ohio Farmer1' states, that "it is still the practice with
a few farmers, on the rich lands of Ohio, and other
States, to sow land to wheat in the fall, on which corn

THE WHEAT CULTDKIST. 207

has been grown the same season. A sod is turned over
for corn, upon which manure is spread, if the land is
not rich enough without it, and as soon as the corn is
cut and stooked in the fall, the land is harrowed to
level the corn rows, and the wheat is drilled in. The
stooks of corn are placed in rows as far apart as pos
sible, and the drill runs close to them, leaving un
seeded the space occupied by the stooks, which are set
in as straight rows as possible, so as to leave as little
land unseeded as possible. The land is seeded down
to such grasses as are desired at the same time the
wheat is sown.

"It is said that good crops of wheat are grown in
this way, but only on lands that are in good fertility,
and where the corn has been well cultivated. It saves
one season in time, and one ploughing, which are objects
of importance ; but the unseeded strips where the corn
stooks are placed, make this system less satisfactory than
it would be, if the entire field could be seeded down at
once. The unseeded strips, however, may be harrowed
early in the following spring, and seeded down to the
same grasses that were sowed on other parts of the field,
and after harvesting the wheat the entire field would be
uniform."

There is a plausible objection to sowing winter wheat
after corn, where the crop of corn is not removed from
the ground before the wheat is sowed, which is this : after
the wheat has come up, the blades are exceedingly ten
der ; and by driving teams and wagons over the grow
ing plants to remove the grain and the stalks, and by
the bruising and crushing of the leaves by the feet of
laborers, when husking, the growing wheat is materially
injured, so that the yield will be several bushels of grain

208 THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST.

less, per acre, than if the crop of corn had been removed
before the seed was put it.

Some farmers contend that driving over growing
wheat and treading the tops down in autumn, does
not injure the growth of the plants. I will not occupy
space, in these pages, to argue the case, to show that
the poaching of the ground by the feet of heavy teams,
the crushing of the leaves, which are the lungs of the
young plants, with the loaded wheels, and the break
ing of the roots of the growing plants, all result in
serious injury to the growing crop, for I know, that
whatever mutilates the growing plants, must have an
influence in retarding and diminishing the fructification
of the grain. The better way is, to defer sowing winter
wheat ; and after the corn crop is removed, plough the
land in late autumn, and sow spring wheat the next
season, instead of winter wheat. I am satisfied that
more grain can be raised by sowing spring wheat, than
to try winter grain, and tread the tops half to death,
while husking the corn and removing the stalks.

ALDEN'S THREE-HORSE CULTIVATOR.

This style of cultivator, which represents a wheel
cultivator manufactured by Alden & Co., Auburn,
IN". Y., is a strong, three-horse implement, extensively
used in the wheat-growing sections of New York, Ohio,
and Canada, for preparing ground for both winter and
spring grain. It is a very strong implement ; and not
very easily broken. The teeth consist of iron standards
bolted firmly, and braced securely to the sills of the
frame ; and the cutting edges of the teeth are made of
plate steel, with a cutting edge on each end. After one

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 209

end of the plates is worn out, the ends can be changed
by simply taking out a small bolt, which secures the
plates to the cast-iron standards, and turning the dull
ends upward. This arrangement provides an econom-

FIG. 34.— Alden's Cultivator.

ical tooth for such heavy cultivators. The teeth can be
adjusted to run at any desired depth in a few seconds;
and all the teeth and the frame can be elevated above
the ground several inches, for convenient transportation.
This cultivator is employed extensively by grain-grow
ing farmers for cultivating stubble ground after harvest,
for the purpose of rooting up grass and young, noxious
weeds, and covering the seeds of troublesome plants,
so that they will readily vegetate, and thus facilitate
future extermination. Besides this, the teeth can be
put down so as to run six inches deep, thus pulverizing
the entire ground quite as effectually as the work can
be performed with a plough.

210 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

With three strong horses, or with a yoke of oxen and
a span of horses attached to such a cultivator, which
cuts a through four or five feet in width, one man will
be able to prepare a number of acres in a day. The
three-horse cultivator requires a strong and heavy team.
I would advise a man to be perfectly satisfied that he
needs a three-horse cultivator before he orders one.
But there is no danger that a two-horse cultivator will
be too large and heavy.

How TO KAISE WHEAT ON A POOR SOIL.

I fancy that numerous readers will say : " JS"ow, my
land is poor, the soil thin and unfertile ; how may I
raise a fair crop of wheat ? " Well, you can't expect
to do it in one year, nor in two seasons. In order to
bring poor land into the proper condition to give us
good crops of wheat, we must adopt a better system of
culture. The land must be worked to a greater depth,
be more thoroughly pulverized, and have suitable fer
tilizing material liberally applied. Where necessary,
the surface must be underdrained to the better warming,
draining, and aerification of the soil. When we ac
complish this, we shall find that as good crops will be
realized as in former days ; and those destructive insect
enemies, which are the dread of all wheat-growers, will
be defeated, especially where we adopt a system of ro
tation, raising crops for feeding stock, and manuring
with *especial reference to this crop, and growing from
a less area a greater amount of grain or other crops.
We must adopt an alternation of growing the cereals
with the leguminous and root crops, and feed them out,
applying the manure made therefrom to the soil. Such

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 211

crops should be raised for feeding as will furnish the
elements for the richest manure, such manures being
found the most economical for application to the soil.
It will scarcely be necessary to say that wheat may
be grown on a variety of soils, as there exists a great
diversity over the region in which it is a leading
crop.

Farmers all over New England may just as well raise
their own wheat as to purchase their flour at such an
extortionate price ; and often be so scandalously imposed
on by those who sell a poor article for -a large price.
The whole system of wheat growing may all be summed
up in a few words, namely : Cultivate well, and manure
bountifully. Usually the best preparation of the land
for wheat, is a dressing of rich, well rotted, or com
posted, barn-yard manure. Unrotted manure tends to
produce a heavy growth of straw, which will be liable
to rust, and yield less grain. The best practice is to
apply it late in autumn, simply harrowing it in after
the land has been well ploughed. By spring it is well
decomposed. Where it is desirable to apply the manure
in the spring, scrape the hog-yard for it with broad
hoes, and use heaps of fine manure previously collected ;
and if the soil be compact and heavy, add well-rotted
chip manure. On soils in which there is a great amount
of vegetable matter, never apply any barn-yard manure,
unless it has been thoroughly composted or rotted. On
land where there is usually a great growth of straw,
wood ashes, either leached or unleached, applied in lib
eral quantities, will have an excellent influence in pro
ducing a bountiful crop of grain. After ten years of
thorough cultivation and manuring, the heavy crops
of wheat will appear.

212 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

ROUGH VERSUS SMOOTH WHEAT FIELDS.

Many of our best farmers have of late been accus
tomed to contend, that the rougher the surface of the
ground, where winter wheat is growing, can be left after
the seed is put in, the more advantageous the rough
land will be to the growing plants in protecting them
from the severity of the winter. The " Western Rural "
states that " Every experienced grower of wheat knows
that this rule is more frequently disregarded than it is
observed. A moderately rough surface in the wheat
field has many advantages over a smooth one ; for in
stance, it keeps snow from being blown away, and thus
affords protection fo the young plants from the alternate
thawing and freezing which is so destructive to their
vitality. In spring, after the snow has disappeared, the
rough surface affords shelter to the plants from the cold
winds which prevail during the early part of that sea
son. In every wheat field may be seen in spring, plants
growing in little hollows, sheltered by lumps or banks
from the cold wind, but enjoying the benefit of the sun's
rays. The difference between the growth of these plants
and others which have not the benefit of shelter, is re
markable. Smooth, level surfaces are liable to become
a mass of soft mud, when the spring thaws take the frost
out of the ground, and much wheat on smooth surfaces
is heaved out by the sudden change from frosty to mild
weather. It need scarcely be stated that a surface may
be too rough and lumpy, as well as too smooth and
level. A mean between the extremes of roughness and
smoothness is the best state of the soil for the wheat
crop." A proper preparation of the soil will be found
more satisfactory than a rough surface.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 213

GROWING WINTER WHEAT ON CLOVER SOD.

Different management is required to raise winter
wheat on red clover sod, than is necessary for spring
wheat. There is one great error to be avoided in pre
paring the ground, which is, turning all the mould,
clover-stalks, and vegetable matter, eight or ten inches
below the surface. This is the usual practice ; but it is
decidedly wrong for winter grain. The dense growth
of the clover has exerted a very ameliorating influence
on the surface of the soil, simply by shading it, to say
nothing of the direct fertilization by means of its large
roots and decayed straw. This nicely pulverized soil
at the very surface, and all the vegetable matter af
forded by the decay of the clover, needs to be kept near
the surface of the ground, where it will promote the
growth of the young wheat plants before winter. The
leading idea is to perform the ploughing in such a man
ner, that whatever fertilizers may aid the growth of the
wheat before winter, whether it be in the form of de
cayed clover, or barn-yard manure, the whole may be
within three or four inches of the surface, so that all the
roots of the wheat will be spread out, making a com
plete mat in a shallow stratum of soil.

The best soil must be kept on the surface. A thin
coat of well-rotted barn -yard manure should be ploughed
under, in connection with the clover-stalks, not deeper
than just specified ; and the subsoil plough should fol
low the common plough, in every furrow. Twice in
each furrow is much better than once. See how to sub
soil, with illustration of a subsoil plough on a previous
page, and also in second volume of my Young Farm
er's Manual.

214 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

The " Cultivator and Country Gentleman " says :

" Sowing wheat on a good clean clover lea is undoubt
edly the best course to pursue, as nearly all the benefits
of a clover crop for the season, except for growing seed,
or for fall feed, may be had before it is taken for wheat.
The best piece of wheat in this section is on a clover
sod turned over and sown within ten days after plough
ing. But farmers will not generally have such a clover
sod to spare, until they come into the practice of seed
ing to clover with spring crops, instead of ploughing
under the stubble and sowing wheat."

Joseph Harris, Editor of the " Genesee Farmer,"
Rochester, E"ew York, writes in relation to raising wheat
on clover sod, that :

" In England, wheat is generally sown on a one or
two year old clover sod, the land being ploughed imme
diately before sowing. As a general rule, this practice
does not succeed here, because, for one reason, we sow a
month earlier than they do in England, and a clover
field ploughed here the last of August is generally so
dry that the seed wheat does not germinate evenly ; and
it is found, too, that the wheat is overrun with weeds
and grass the next season. I think, however, if our
land were cleaned the way it should be before it is
seeded to clover, and eaten down by sheep during the
summer, wheat might be raised here with one plough
ing, as in England, especially if we used a little Peru
vian guano at the time of sowing. In Western New
York, manure is seldom applied directly to wheat ; some
say it is injurious. But I apprehend that, on most
farms, the wheat would be very grateful for a little good,
well-rotted manure, either ploughed in or spread on the
surface just before sowing. Wheat needs something to

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 215

give it a good start in the fall, and a little well-rotted
manure, not ploughed in deep, would be very accepta
ble. A dressing of Peruvian guano, say one hundred
and fifty pounds to three hundred pounds to the acre,
would perhaps be better still. It will pay if we get one
dollar and fifty cents per bushel for wheat. At one dol
lar per bushel the profits from the use of guano will be
very slight, and may be on the wrong side of the
ledger.

" Gypsum, or sulphate of lime, seldom does any good
on wheat in Western New York, although it has a very
good effect on clover, and sometimes on peas. Some
good farmers sow a bushel of plaster (gypsum) per acre,
on the wheat in the spring ; but it is done, not to ben
efit the wheat, but for its effect on the clover sown with
the wheat."

PLOUGHING IN CLOVER FOR WHEAT.

Clover is an excellent crop to precede wheat. The
heaviest crops of wheat I ever succeeded in raising, were
sown on clover sward. In ploughing under clover I prefer
waiting until it has perfectly matured. Many prefer
ploughing when it is in full bloom, but this does not
coincide with my experience. It is true that there is
apparently a greater amount of vegetable matter upon
the ground at the time of flowering, but it is too sappy,
and disappears very soon after being turned under, in
consequence of a too rapid fermentation taking place.

The objection may be raised to ploughing down a
crop of clover, that it is an expensive mode of manuring ;
but this, I think, is incorrect; for the expense should
not be counted at a higher figure than the interest on

216 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

the cost of the land, with the value of the clover seed
added ; and it is impossible to manure as cheaply and
at the same time as effectually in any other manner.

Thaer, in his work on the Principles of Agriculture,
after enumerating a number of crops suitable to be
grown before wheat, concludes by saying, " Lastly, the
best way of obtaining good crops of wheat, is to sow the
grain on broken-up clover land ; " and he further recom
mends that the clover should be ploughed a month pre
vious to sowing the wheat. The recommendation coin
cides with the practice of many of the best farmers in
England, who prefer sowing wheat on a stale furrow,
under the impression that land which has become some
what compact in consequence of having had time to settle,
is more congenial to the growth of wheat, than that which
has been recently ploughed. It is also thought important
not to have the ground too finely pulverized, as the grain
is supposed to stand the winter better when the land is
somewhat cloddy on the surface. This is also the opinion
of many of the most successful wheat-growers in the in
terior of this State, and it also coincides with my own
experience. The reason for preferring a cloddy surface
is, that it does not so readily form a crust after showers,
and the clods, as they crumble to pieces during the
winter and spring, supply fresh, mellow earth to the
roots of the plants. — J. Harris.

MANURING THE SURFACE FOR WINTER WHE

vr.

In preference to mingling the manure thoroughly with
the soil, as deep as it is ploughed. By ploughing the soil
to a good depth once, and by working only a few inches
in depth of the surface — rendering it fine and mellow —

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 217

and by spreading finely pulverized compost on the sur
face, and simply harrowing it in about, the time the
grain is sowed or drilled in, the roots, for the most part,
will strike out horizontally, or nearly so, and will be
come so thoroughly interwoven with each other near the
surface, that they are not drawn out at the surface, as
they are when they strike down nearly vertically ; but
the entire soil rises and settles back in the same manner
as sod ground does, without heaving out the plants.

I have made particular inquiry of those farmers who
have adopted the practice of manuring on the surface,
in every locality where I have travelled during the past
season, and I have found that in most instances they are
satisfied that winter grain will not suffer so much injury
from freezing and thawing, when the manure is well
rotted and spread thin on the surface, and harrowed in
about the time when the grain is put in, as it will if the
manure is ploughed under.

Growing wheat on clover lay is practiced in many in
stances. When the clover is in full bloom it is turned
under with the furrow about six or seven inches in depth,
during the latter part of July ; and if the clover is the
large kind, which is considered preferable, it is not
ploughed in until the former part of August. Of course,
circumstances will determine the most proper time for
ploughing it under. If the clover is pastured for several
weeks in the spring, it will not have attained its full
growth until after the middle of summer has passed.

If the ploughman be expert, and can turn a well pro
portioned furrow, and make his work uniform, one
ploughing for a clover sod is sufficient. But it should be
done one month before sowing, to impart to the surface
a suitable mellow condition for the seed, and also that

10

2T8 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

portions of the sod may break up and remain on the sur
face, by the action of the seed harrows, thus securing the
same object sought by the second ploughing.

RAISING WHEAT ON MUCKY SOILS.

In many places, where a black, mucky soil, several
inches deep, rests on a heavy subsoil, by turning up two
or three inches of the latter in autumn, and mingling it
thoroughly with the soil, draining if necessary, and ma
nuring, a very good wheat soil may be formed in a few
years. Where the muck is so deep that the clayey sub
soil cannot be reached with a plough, and clay can be
obtained within a distance of half a mile, it will pay to
apply eighty or a hundred loads per acre. The best
time to spread it is late in autumn, or in winter, that it
may be acted upon by rains and frosts. Still, if applied
in the spring, and ploughed in, the effect will be good
on the crop the same year. Portions of fields frequently
are very heavy, while other portions are composed, for
the most part, of vegetable mould. The practice of the
writer has been to haul mucky soil and spread it on the
heavy clay ; and in all cases, the application has pro
duced an equal, or better effect for wheat, than a liberal
application of good barn-yard manure. As there is a
great difference in muck, this might not always be the
case. Compact, heavy soils contain a large amount of
wheat-producing material ; but they need to be made
light and porous, so that the roots of the wheat plants
can permeate the entire soil as deeply as it has been
pulverized.

On some kinds of soil, a dressing of muck will exert a
marvellous influence in producing a heavy crop. Yet,

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 219

on some kinds of land, it will not pay to cart muck for
ty rods. Experiments must be made, to determine
when muck will operate as a valuable fertilizer, and when
it will not.

The very act of exposure of this swamp muck, has
caused an evolution of carbonic acid gas : that decom
poses the silicates of potash in the sand ; the potash con
verts the insoluble into soluble manure, and lo ! a crop.
The growing crop adds its power to the geine. If all the
long series of experiments under Yon Yoght, in Ger:
many, are to be believed, confirmed as they are by re
peated trials by our own agriculturists, it is not to be
doubted, that every inch of every small knoll, on every
farm, may be changed into a soil in thirteen years, of
half the number of inches of good mould.

MANURING- SANDY SOILS FOR WHEAT.

In the summer of 186T, I was exploring certain parts
of South Jersey, at "Weymouth ; and I found on the
farm of Mr. S. Colwell, that excellent crops of wheat
had been growing on light, sandy loam soils, where a
man could paw a hole a foot deep with the heel of his
boot, with little difficulty. Mr. Colwell stated that
his system of management was as follows, in preparing
the ground for the crop just alluded to : A liberal dress
ing of barn -yard manure and muck was applied to the
land, ploughed in, and Indian corn planted. The next
season Indian corn was sowed for feeding domestic
animals. In autumn the ground was ploughed and
winter wheat drilled in. As nature has made abundant
provision for the draining of the cultivable fields in this
part of the State, the freezing and thawing of the soil

220 THE WHEAT CFLTHRIST.

during the winter months, does but very little injury
to the growing wheat. On such light, loamy ground,
which never requires under-draining, spring wheat can
be produced with much more profit than winter grain,
if the. seed be put in at the very beginning of the growing
season. If such light loam be top-dressed with clay not
more than half an inch in depth, the argillaceous ma
terial in the dressing will impart a firmness to the light
land, which is eminently essential for the production of
a bountiful yield of this kind of grain. When a dress
ing of clay is applied to such loamy ground, or to a soil
where light, black muck is the predominant character
istic, it can be carted during the winter months, when
laborers and teams can find but little employment. In
some localities the clay can be hauled on a sliding
vehicle and spread on the snow. Should the clay be
"distributed in clods weighing eight or more pounds each,
two or three frosts and showers of rain will usually dis
solve the lumps, so that, when partially dry, the clay
may be spread evenly with shovels, and afterward har
rowed into the soil, or mingled with the surface soil by
a two-horse wheel cultivator, which some wheat-growers
prefer to a plough for preparing the ground for a crop
of wheat, after the field has been thoroughly ploughed.
A dressing of marl, or muck, on such land, in addition
to the clay, cannot fail to produce a bountiful yield of
wheat, or of almost any other cereal grain. Farmers
who make and apply large quantities of compost, such
as Mr. Colwell is accustomed to prepare for his fields,
find that they can grow excellent crops of wheat, even
on our lightest loams. But the fertilizers applied to
light soils should be rich in grain-producing material,
and covered with a cultivator, rather than ploughed in.

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 221

WHEAT ON LIGHT SANDY LOAM.

In order to raise a fair crop of wheat on sandy loam
soils, it becomes necessary to exercise no little judgment
in preparing the soil in the best manner for this kind of
grain. The element lacking mostly is alumina, which
is found in the loam. In many instances, the sandy loam
is only four to eight or ten inches in depth, resting on a
deep stratum of excellent yellow-clay loam. By bring
ing up two or three inches in depth of this yellow-clay
loam, and mingling it with the fine sandy loam on the
surface, a fine seed-bed will be prepared for wheat.
Then, by adopting a rotation of crops, such as Indian
corn one season, oats or barley, potatoes and turnips,
and red clover one or two seasons, with a dressing of
rich sheep manure, a bountiful crop of fine wheat can
be raised with little difficulty.

On certain fields, the sandy loam is sometimes so deep
that it will not be practicable to reach the substratum
of clay loam with a common plough, or even with a sub
soil plough. But bear in mind the suggestion, that the
sandy loam requires a little clay to give the soil solidity
and firmness. The correct mode of procedure in such
instances, is, to plough the sandy loam in late autumn,
turn under a coat of red clover if convenient, or a thin
dressing of compost, or both, unless the soil is unusually
fertile ; then when the ground is frozen, cart or haul on
muck and clay, and spread it thin over the entire field.
Fifty two-horse loads of muck, and fifty more two-horse
loads of pure clay, or heavy clay loam transported from
some distant clay-bed, and spread evenly in the winter,
would . make a seed-bed for wheat of fine tilth, which
could scarcely fail to render a light sandy loam eminently

222 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

productive. In the spring, let the ground be thoroughly
harrowed, or scarified with a two-horse cultivator, with
out ploughing ; and wheat will grow heavy and stand up
remarkably well.

An important consideration is to be able to cart the
clay and muck in the winter, when teams and vehicles
will not pack the mellow seed-bed ; and also when the
labors of the field are not urgent. It is seldom con
venient to perform this kind of work during the growing
season. Besides this, one grand point to be secured is,
the ameliorating influence of the freezing and thawing
of the clay, by which coarse clods are all reduced to a
fine tilth. When teams and laborers have but little to
do, time can be very profitably employed in carting
earth to top-dress wheat fields. The dressing of clay, or
clay loam, will render the soil more productive for other
kinds of grain and grass, also as well as for wheat.

SEEDING WITHOUT PLOUGHING.

Light soils are frequently ploughed to their serious
injury, for a crop of wheat. My father and his neigh
bors as well as myself, have raised the most bountiful
crops of wheat, that any of us ever produced, on land
that was simply harrowed thoroughly. We were all
satisfied that the crops were much heavier than they
would have been had the ground been ploughed. I
have in mind numerous instances, in E"ew Jersey, in
which the soil was a deep light loam, covered with a
very thin mould, where all the vegetable matter was
turned six inches below the surface. The result was,
that the crop of grain was amazingly light ; whereas, had
the ground simply been worked with a wheel cultivator,

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 223

or harrowed thoroughly, the crop would have been much
heavier, with half the labor. Were I to manage the
light, sandy loam soils- of the United States, where the
surface soil and the subsoil are not compact, I should
seldom use a plough in preparing the ground for any
kind of crop. Such a cultivator as is illustrated on
page 142, would be a far more satisfactory implement for
preparing the soil for wheat, or for any other crop, than
a plough. The object is to keep the best soil at the
surface. With a cultivator, it can be readily done. But
with a plough, the fertile mould is worked downward
farther and farther beneath the surface.

Of all soils to be cultivated, or to be restored, none
are preferable to the sandy light soils. By their porous
ness, free access is given to the powerful effects of the
air. They are natural in that state, to which trenching,
draining, and subsoil ploughing are reducing the stiifer
lands of England. Manure may as well be thrown into
water, as on land underlaid by water. Drain this, and
no matter if the upper soil be almost quicksand, manure
will convert it into fertile, arable land. The thin cover
ing of mould, scarcely an inch in thickness, the product
of a century, may be imitated by studying the laws of
its formation. This is the work of " Nature's apprentice
hand ; " man has long been her journeyman, and now
guided by science, the farmer becomes the master work
man, and may produce in one year quite as much as the
apprentice made in seven.

PASTURING WHEAT, IN AUTUMN OR WINTER.

Many years ago, we used to see it recommended in
agricultural papers, " to pasture off wheat in late

224: THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

autumn." . But for more than twenty years past, in
which these observations and inquiries have been made
on this subject, I have not met «with a single instance
which afforded any assurance that the practice is at all
beneficial. On the contrary, everything argues against
it. Vegetable physiology is against it, because the
leaves of plants are their lungs. Therefore, if they be
cropped oif, the growth will be checked. And if the
growth be checked in late autumn, the plants cannot
endure the severity of the cold in winter. Scientific
agriculture is decidedly against it ; because every good
wheat-grower knows how important it is that the young
wheat plants should become firmly rooted before winter
sets in, so that they may not be lifted out so readily, and
that they should acquire a large growth, for the purpose
of mulching the soil in cold weather. The practice also
of our best wheat-growers has proved it to be a very
wrong system of management ; and no good farmer who
has tried it once or twice, will be induced to practise it
again.

My own experience has always been, that the larger
the leaves of wheat are allowed to grow, the more they
will mulch the ground, the firmer the plants will be
rooted, and the more effectually they will resist the in
fluences of intense cold, and of alternate freezing; and

/ O

thawing, not only during the winter, but in the spring.
If animals of any kind be allowed to crop off the
growing plants, their teeth often sever the tender
stems close to the ground. Thus the crowns of the
growing plants will be exposed to the influences of the
weather, and in many instances effectually killed. Be
sides this, heavy animals will injure the roots of large
numbers of the stools, by treading on the plants where

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 225

the ground is soft. The great injury done to the plants
by the feet of animals will often cause more damage to
the wheat than the injury arising from cropping off the
stems with their teeth.

Pasturing wheat is not to be commended under
any circumstances. If there is too large a growth of
leaves and stems, let the seed be put in later in the
season, rather than to pasture the wheat with any kind
of stock.

MULCHING WINTER GRAIN.

Every observing farmer knows .that in autumn, or
winter, soil that is entirely bare will freeze up solid,
while that in meadows, or pasture fluids, will not be
frozen at all. JSTow, why is it so ? Why will the beaten
track of the highway be frozen up solid enough to bear
a loaded wagon, while the grassy sides may be ploughed
or spaded ?

Again : when a portion of a field is covered with a
thick coat of grass or clover that has not been fed off
nor mowed, why will such soil remain unfrozen, except
in very cold weather ? Because the coat of grass pre
vents the rapid radiation of heat from the surface of the
earth. A soil that is bare, or nearly so, radiates heat
very rapidly during the cold nights of winter ; and it
will freeze much deeper than if protected by somei
mulching material that will check the rapid radiation
of heat from the surface.

Those farmers who have turned their attention to
this subject, cannot have failed to notice how much
more red clover is lifted out in pastures that have been
fed off close in late autumn than where the surface is

10*

226 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

protected by a good coat of stems and leaves. And the
same is true of winter wheat. Wherever it has been
covered during most of the winter with snow it will
not be lifted out, nor winter-killed very much, if at all.
But, when the seed was sowed late in autumn, and the
leaves have made only a short growth, the soil will
freeze very deep and the ground will be many degrees
colder where the roots of the wheat are than if the sur
face were protected. Where there is a thick coating of
the leaves of wheat, or straw, over the surface, the
plants will be injured but little.

Intense cold injures the wheat plants in two ways.
One is, by lifting them out of their bed, and severing
the roots ; and another, by severe chilling, just as the
buds of peach trees are injured by intense cold. There
fore, the more we can protect the wheat plants from
piercing winds and intense cold, the better crops of
grain we may expect to raise. When wheat was sowed
so late in the fall that the leaves do not cover the sur^
face of the ground, it will be an excellent protection to
spread straw over the entire field, as soon as the seed is
put in the ground, and let the wheat plants come up
through the straw. But great care must be exercised
in spreading it, lest it be applied so thick as to smother
the plants. A covering half an inch thick, where the
ground is not excessively wet, will be found an excel
lent protection on those fields that are not shielded from
the cold winds by a forest, belt of trees, or an elevation
of the ground. But, a coat of straw will not prevent
wheat being lifted out by the frost on wet ground. If
the straw were worked into manure, by fat sheep or fat
cattle, and covered with a cultivator, the effect would
be more satisfactory.

THE WHEAT CULTURI8T. 227

SALT FOE WHEAT.

Although my own experience is not in favor of the
application of salt to growing wheat, or to the soil
where wheat was sowed, I have reason to believe that, on
some kinds of soil, a dressing of salt has been, and may
be again, of great value to the growing crop. Yet, as
a general rule, I think salt will exert such a trivial in
fluence on the productiveness of the land, that the small
increase will not defray the expense of purchasing and
sowing four to- eight bushels of salt per acre. The only
reliable way to satisfy any one on this point is by exper
iment. If alternate strips be dressed with salt ; and
the straw keeps erect better, or the yield of grain should
prove to be heavier than where no salt is applied, no
more reliable proof will be required, to establish the
value of salt as a fertilizer.

Many farmers will insist that a dressing of salt will
exterminate, or prevent the ravages of the wire-worm.
But I do not believe that one hundred bushels of salt
on an acre will have the least influence in repelling
wire-worms, cut-worms, or any other worms, as the ex
ceedingly small quanity that would come in contact with
the whereabouts of such worms, would not destroy vege
tation of any kind.

J. J. Mechi states that he knew a farmer in North
amptonshire, whose wheat crops could scarcely ever be
kept from lodging, until he sowed a liberal dressing of
salt in his fields. He even went so far as to salt the
manure in his yards. He says it is a most singular fact,
that while salt tends to preserve animal substances, it
will decompose vegetable matter quite rapidly.

Every farmer must test the efficacy of salt on his own

228 THE WHEAT CULTUJBIST.

soil, if lie would learn its value ; for salt has been em
ployed so extensively as a fertilizer, with no apparent
effect, that it is useless to recommend it, unless a farmer
is satisfied that an application of it will pay. We
know a dressing of manure will pay. Now if a farmer
has such assurance that salt sowed on land will pay, I
recommend a liberal dressing of salt on such land.

CHARCOAL DUST AS A FERTILIZER.

Charcoal is composed almost entirely of pure carbon ;
and when small fragments are exposed to the influences
of the weather, they undergo very little change during
a long term of years. Still the roots of growing plants
will lay hold of the small pieces of charcoal, and appro
priate the substance contained in the coal to the growth
and development of the stems, leaves, and seeds of grain,
fruit, and vegetables.

Experienced chemists assure us, charcoal, and particu
larly charcoal dust, has the power of attracting and
fixing large quantities of ammonia, a substance which
enters largely into the formation of useful plants, and
of retaining this fertilizing material when buried in the
soil, until the fine fibres of the roots of growing plants
require it for promoting their growth. Charcoal has the
power of attracting and retaining other gaseous substan
ces besides ammonia, which are highly beneficial to
growing wheat plants, as well as grass, vines, trees, and
shrubs.

Every observing farmer who has been accustomed to
raise wheat cannot have failed to notice the luxuriant
growth of cereal grain round about the places where
charcoal has been burned, even more than thirty or forty

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 229

years ago. The growing stems of wheat that are pro
duced on such old charcoal-beds are seldom affected
w^ith rust ; and besides this, the straw is always much
stiffer than that which grows where there is not a dress
ing of charcoal. Before charcoal can promote the growth
of plants of any kind, the particles must be thoroughly
decomposed, and reduced to a liquid condition. For this
reason, previous to the application of charcoal dust as a
fertilizer to any kind of soil, the coal should be run
through a mill that will reduce the small pieces to fine
powder. And even when charcoal is thus finely com
minuted by some mechanical means, the action of the
fertilizing matter on vegetation will be very slow.

It is said that charcoal possesses the power of ab
sorbing ninety times its own weight of ammoniacal
gases. This fact suggests that charcoal dust, which
may be procured in large quantities, at simply the ex
pense of carting, in and around many of our populous
cities, should be scattered in the stables of domestic
animals, after having been ground very fine, where it
will absorb large quantities of the choicest fertilizing
material, which, if mingled with the soil, would impart
a rich store of pabulum to the roots of growing crops.
But whether a farmer would be warranted in purchas
ing charcoal, grinding it to powder, scattering it in his
stables, and applying it the soil, is a question that can be
decided satisfactorily, only by well-conducted experi
ments. The probability, however, is that it would not
pay, for the reason that the decomposition of the frag
ments of the coal would be so exceedingly slow, from
year to year, that the beneficial effect would not be a fair
equivalent for the expense incurred. Where a farmer
can procure charcoal dust for the carting, he can well

230 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

afford to haul it two or more miles for the purpose of
applying it to certain kinds of soil.

Where the soil is deep, mellow, vegetable, black loam,
or muck, it would not pay to cart charcoal dust to apply
as a fertilizer, because there is an abundance of carbon
aceous material already in the soil. But where the soil
consists chiefly of a sandy loam, a gravelly loam, or is a
heavy soil of any character, it will pay to cart charcoal
dust to mingle with stable manure, to be applied to the
soil where cereal grain, in particular, or grass, or any
other crops, are to be produced.

As to the proper quantity of charcoal dust to be ap
plied to an acre, there is no rule for determining how
much may be used with profit. There is no danger,
however, of applying too much. The larger the quan
tity the better. On those soils where charcoal dust will
not be of any advantage to growing crops, a bountiful
dressing will exert no injurious influence. The larger
the quantity spread around all kinds of fruit trees, the
smoother and fairer the fruit will be.

In many fields where cereal grain is grown, the old
coal-pit beds should be carted and spread on those parts
of the field that are not rich in carbonaceous material.
Charcoal dust, finely pulverized, is an excellent material
to mingle with the soil where fruit trees of any kind are
being transplanted. From five to ten bushels per tree
would be a liberal dressing. For an immediate fertiliz
ing effect on the growing crops of almost any kind of
soil, it would be more satisfactory to reduce the coal to
ashes, and sow what remains, broadcast over the field,
while plants of grain or grass are young and tender,
as wood ashes are an excellent material for grain and
grass, trees and flowers, fruits and vegetables of all kinds.

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 231

R. Ranson, Aslitabula County, Ohio, writes, touching
pulverized charcoal, as follows : "I tried another experi
ment in 1860. My lands are coarse or loose gravel of
rather poor quality. I sowed an acre of winter wheat
(the blue-stem) preparing my ground as follows :

" The field was sown with barley in the spring pre
vious ; yield small (eighteen bushels per acre). I turned in
the stubble the last week in August, harrowed it over, then
took about eighteen bushels charcoal crushed tine, and
top-dressed a strip through the middle of the acre over
about one-third of its length ; I then sowed on my
wheat broadcast and harrowed it over twice. The
result was, the heads when ripe were at least twice as
long as where no coal was put on. I harvested all
together ; the yield was forty-three bushels. I think
by applying about fifty bushels of coal to the acre
as a top-dressing, made fine by grinding in a common
bark mill, it would increase the yield at least four hun
dred per cent., if the soil is poor.

"He further states he used burned clay and ashes
in the fall of 1860, at the rate of about one hundred
bushels of burned clay, taken from a fallow where tim
ber had been uprooted several years by heavy winds.
The soil on which the timber grew was burned together
with the old roots and clay entwined, and perhaps some
muck ; the whole, ashes, clay and muck, after being
burned as above, were hauled off in a wagon and put
upon the wheat field as a top-dressing, and harrowed in
with the wheat. The land was poor quality of gravel ;
the yield was about five hundred per cent, over the re
mainder of the field where no clay was put. I think
there is no fertilizer ahead of this as a top-dresser." See
Mixing Soils, second volume of Young Farmer's Manual.

232

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

HOLBKOOK'S DEEP-TILLER PLOUGH.

The figure of a plough shown in this place, represents
a " deep-tiller" plough, which has been recently invented
by Governor Holbrook, of Massachusetts, and manufac
tured by F. F. Holbrook, Boston. The form of the mold-
board is such as is required for deep ploughing. When

r's^ate^s5=^=:g=- ~,

^S3*r^«3§s^

FIG. 35.— Holbrookes Stubble Plough.

ploughing stubble, farmers frequently desire to plough
narrow furrows, ten to twelve inches deep. With most
of the ploughs, it is extremely difficult to plough more
than eight inches in depth ; and scores of ploughs are
not properly constructed for ploughing over five or six
inches in depth.

I have devoted a vast deal of thought to the proper
construction of the mold-boards of ploughs, both for
deep and for shallow ploughing ; and it affords me satis
faction to record in this place, a tribute of superior
merit to this plough, which is exactly the implement
required in numerous sections of the country, where it

THE WHEAT CULTUBIST. 233

is desirable to bring up a little of the rich, clay loam to
the surface, to be mingled with the light soil or vegetable
mould. In New Jersey, as well as in other States, the
soil, in many sections of the country, consists of a light,
sandy loam, resting on a fertile, clay-loam subsoil,
about ten or twelve inches below the surface. For
almost all kinds of crops, especially for wheat and
other cereal grain, it is important to turn up a few
inches in depth of this subsoil. With a common plough
it is difficult to do it. But with one of Governor
Holbrook's deep-tiller ploughs, one span of horses will
open a furrow twelve inches deep, and continue to
plough at that depth, provided the plough is adjusted
to cut only five or six inches wide. Read the chapter
on Ploughs and Ploughing, in both volumes of my
Young Farmer's Manual.

HOLBROOK'S RIGHT AND LEFT PLOUGH.

The accompanying illustration of a plough represents
a style of ploughs manufactured by F. F. Holbrook,
Boston, Massachusetts, which are gaining favor among
farmers, on account of their convenience in enabling a
ploughman to commence on one side of a field, and
plough back and forth, until the field is finished. By this
manner of ploughing, the entire field can be finished
without a dead furrow. Besides this, the surface of the
land is kept level, which is not the case when ground
is ploughed in lands. Some farmers prefer this style of
ploughs for another reason, which is this : when plough
ing land for any kind of grain that is to be drilled in,
they can hitch the team to the drill twice, or more, in
a day ; and put in the grain as far as the ploughing is

234

THE WHEAT CULTUBX8T.

completed, thus finishing the operation of seeding as
fast as the ploughing progresses, which is often desira
ble. Besides this, when grain is deposited in soil just
ploughed, or recently pulverized, the seed will usually

Fir,. 36.— Holbrookes Eight and Left Plough.

germinate sooner than when it is sowed in ground that
has been ploughed several days, or so long a time that
the surface has become somewhat dry before the seed
is put in the soil. The right and left plough is also an
excellent side-hill plough. Mr. Holbrook manufactures
several other kinds of ploughs, which give excellent
satisfaction for performing the operations for which they
were particularly constructed.

'1HE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 235

CHAPTER III.

How TO SAVE SEED WHEAT.

"Oft have I seen the chosen seeds deceive,
And o'er degenerate crops the peasant grieve,
Save where slow Patience, o'er and o'er again,
Culled yearly, one by one, the largest grain."

DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

JUDGING from the suggestions previously recorded, in
regard to seed wheat, one would suppose that we might
dispense with all details relating to the manipulations
of saving the seed. But I consider the manipulations
more important than anything I have recorded, as the
directions herewith given are an epitome of all the rest.
If a farmer will follow the directions here recorded,
when securing his seed wheat, from year to year, he
will feel so well satisfied with his efforts to produce
a bountiful crop of fine grain, that he will never suffer
himself to resort to the slip-shod and unprofitable and
unfarmer-like manner, which prevails all over our coun-
try.

Let it be borne in mind that earliness of maturity is
the most important consideration in saving seed wheat.
Of course, then, seed should never be taken from a
locality where the crops are backward in regard to
maturity.

It is not only important to select for seed, the grain
that matures first on one's own farm, but from those

236 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

fields in any other locality in the town or county. My
farm was some five or six hundred feet above the level
of Cayuga Lake. The wheat growing on those fields
near the shore of the lake, usually ripened ten to four
teen days earlier than the wheat on the upland. I al
ways secured my seed from those farmers near the shore,
for the first crop ; then, at the next harvest time, patches
of the growing grain, a few rods square, on the knolls
and highest points of the field, were staked off on my
own farm and allowed to stand until the grain had
matured perfectly. The grain that grew on such ele
vated parts of the field, would mature sometimes a week
before the grain growing on low parts of the same field
was fit to harvest.

Such seed grain should always be harvested by itself:
stacked or stored in the barn by itself; thrashed by
itself; and secured in a bin or barrels by itself. It is
folly to attempt to grow a bountiful crop of wheat un
less all these directions are followed out, year after year,
with scrupulous exactness. When the unthrashed crop
of grain is stored in a building, the sheaves should never
be put in the bottom of the mow, unless unusual care
be exercised in removing the grain that may be placed
above the seed grain, to prevent grain that is not fit for
seed, from falling down among the seed bundles.

Another important consideration to be kept in mind
is, to procure seed that grows on high, dry, and rather
heavy soil, rather than to choose grain that was pro
duced on a light, mucky soil. Grain that grows on a
light, mucky soil, is seldom as light colored as that which
was produced on a fertile clay loam. We always find
the choicest and the whitest wheat where there is a
liberal proportion of clay in the soil. In every locality,

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 237

farmers should spend a part of a day, at harvest-time,
travelling about the country, for the purpose of seeing
where they can secure the earliest seed wheat.

I believe that farmers, almost universally, pay little
or no attention to the time when seed ripens. If it is
only ripe and bright seed, perhaps not one farmer in
a thousand would even think, whether it ripened in
August, or in November.' We cannot expect that any
seed which has come to maturity very late in the sea
son, will produce a crop as early as the same kind of
seed will, which ripened in August. By collecting and
planting those seeds that ripened very late in the season,
we can soon produce a variety that will not ripen at all,
unless the season were unusually long and favorable.

For this reason, we select, as far as practicable, those
ears of Indian corn for seed which ripen first ; and by
following up this practice, from year to year, we. pro
duce a kind of seed that will mature in the shortest pos
sible period of time ; while on the contrary, if we select
those ears for seed that came to maturity last, and con
tinue that practice for a few years, we shall have all
roasting ears in October, and no sound corn. My expe
rience on this subject goes to establish this position

A correspondent of the " Prairie Farmer " wrote to
that paper thus : " There is, perhaps, no branch of the
farmer's business which is conducted more hap-hazard
than the selecting of seed. Many do not realize the im
portance of selecting the best of seed. To such I pro
pose to offer a word of advice. All small grain may be
classed together ; for what holds good of wheat is also
true of barley, rye, or oats. I verily believe, that a
large share of the failure of wheat, in Northern Illinois,
is due to the fact, that the farmer simply goes to his bin

238 THE WHEAT CFLTURIST.

and cleans over the required number of bushels he wishes
to sow. Often, very often, this grain is sown without
being cleaned at all. Want of time is urged as an ex
cuse, because the ground is left until it is fitted for the
seed. If it is a law of nature that like produces like,
what can be expected of such a process but a constant,
certain deterioration ?"

CHOOSE THE HEAVIEST KERNELS.

The heaviest, cleanest, most perfect berry should be
sown always, of all small grain. One way to obtain
this kind of seed is as follows : Clean your barn floor ;
place your grain in a heap at the opposite door to the
one at which the current of air enters ; then with a small
hand-scoop throw out your grain against the wind, so as
to fall a little short of the other end of your floor. Of
course the heaviest grain will be that which flies fur
thest ; and this will be clean also. If the screen in your
fanning-mill has meshes wide enough to admit of the
small grains of wheat passing through, you may succeed
in cleaning your wheat fit for seed, also your rye ; but
for oats and barley this will not be the case, as the small
grain cannot pass through the screen.

On this subject of selecting seed wheat, a writer in
the " Mark Lane Express " has said : " The varieties of
w^heat are now so numerous, that much difficulty arises
in making a proper choice. Whatever variety may be
chosen, the farmer ought to select the best sample of it
that he can meet with. I would as soon use an inferior
ram to my flock, or an inferior bull to my herd, as to
sow an inferior grain, be it from whatever well-known
stock. I have derived great advantage from changes

THE WHEAT CULTTJKIST. 239

of seed, brought from a considerable distance on every
side, to the extent of hundreds of miles. But, it was
from seed on which I could depend. My favorite
•change is, from a cold, chalky, district to a mild, loamy
soil. In a majority of cases, a change is good on every
soil, and under every variation of climate."

VITALITY OF SEED WHEAT.

The old story in relation to the wonderful vitality of
wheat taken from the coffin of an Egyptian mummy, 3,000
years old, has been reiterated by the press, until intelli
gent farmers will not give it any kind of credence. It
is sheer folly to repeat such an improbability ! I do not
believe a word of it. (See p. 107, Egyptian Wheat.)
Wheat was undoubtedly taken from a mummy ; but
% there was not a shadow of evidence, that the grain was
3,000 years old. Indeed, the evidence is conclusive,
that some shrewd Arab — as they understand how eager
white and civilized people are to obtain curiosities — put
the package of wheat in the mummy, only a few years
previous, as seeds of maize, a plant of recent origin and
known in America before it was ever seen in the Old
World, were found in the package.

Scientific men in Europe, have made numerous ex
periments to test the vitality of seeds, all of which tend
to show, that cereal grain will lose its vitality in a few
successive years.

In the year 1840 the British Association for the Ad
vancement of Science, appointed a committee to investi
gate the length of time during which seeds retain their
vitality. The committee consisted of Professors Dan-
bury, Henslow, and Lindley. They made sixteen re-

24:0

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

ports ; the last being for the year 1857, at which time,
so few seeds were found to retain their vegetative powers,
that it was deemed necessary to consider the object
attained.

The results of their investigation are well known,
and are exceedingly interesting. Thus, they found that
in their hands, the celebrated mummy wheat which had
been claimed to have come down from the time of the
Pharaohs, had no such vitality as had been claimed for
it. After a. few years, it entirely loses its vegetative
powers. Some seeds, as lettuce, become worthless after
a couple of years. Others, as melons, endure for a
comparatively long period. A few of the most interest
ing of these results I give. They found that the great
est age at which seeds germinated are as follows, viz. :

Maize, . .
Oats, . . .'
Spring Wheat,
Rye, . . .
Barley, . .

3 yrs.
8 "
3 "
3 "
3 "

Cabbage, 3 yrs. +

Hibiscus, 27 "

Carrot, 8 "

Beet, 8 "

Lettuce, 3 "

Only two kinds (Colutea and Coronilla) vegetated after
a lapse of forty-seven years.

The vitality shown by some seeds is wonderful ; and
the probability is, that certain kinds of seeds retain
their vitality much longer in one climate than in ano
ther. I once sowed some timothy seed, which I raised
on my own farm, which was six years old, bright and
plump when it was sowed. But, not a seed vegetated,
although it was sowed on new land, where the soil fa
vored the vegetation of every seed. I also sowed a sack
of Russian flaxseed, which appeared bright and heavy ;
but not one single plant ever appeared.

THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST. 241

Professor Lindley says : " There are many cases on
record which establish conclusively that, under favor
able conditions, the vitality of seeds may be preserved
for indefinite periods. ' Not to speak of the doubtful
instances of seeds taken from the Pyramids having
germinated,' melons have been known to grow at the
age of forty years ; kidney beans at a hundred ; sensi
tive plant at sixty ; rye at forty; and there are now liv
ing in the garden of the Horticultural Society raspberry
plants raised from seeds 1,600 or 1,700 years old.

u The seeds of charlock buried in former ages spring
up in railway cuttings ; where ancient forests are de
stroyed, plants appear which had never been seen before,
but whose seeds have been buried in the ground. When
some land was recovered from the Baltic Sea, a carex
was found upon ik, now unknown in that part of Europe.
M. Fries, of Upsala, succeeded in growing a species of
Hieracium from seeds which had been in his herbarium
upward of fifty years. Desmoulins has recorded an
instance of the opening of ancient tombs, in which
seeds were found ; and on being planted they produced
species of scabiosa and heliotropium."

A RELIABLE RULE.

Seeds and grain often lose their vitality ; and we
cannot determine by the external appearance of a seed
or kernel of grain, whether its vitality is gone, or not.
It is, therefore, always wise to keep on the safe side, by
sowing wheat that has not been kept over more than
one winter. Wheat that is sown in autumn, should
not be the product of the previous year ; but grain that
grew the same season. Spring wheat should be the pro-

11

24:2 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

duct of the previous year. Therefore, when seed wheat
or seed rye is obtained from seed stores, or from any
other source, if the grain were not raised the previous
year, a handful of the kernels should be tested, before
the grain is sowed in the field, for the purpose of deter
mining whether the seed will germinate. There is no
reliable rule concerning the vitality of any kind of seed
grain. In one instance, every kernel of seed may vege
tate, when it is ten, or more years old. On the con
trary, a large proportion of seed only three and four
years old, may, and may not vegetate.

LARGE vs. SMALL KERNELS OF GRAIN FOR SEED.

" Yet, the success is not for years assured,
Though chosen is the seed and fully cured,
Unless the peasant, with his annual pain,
Renews his choice, and culls the largest grain."

DBYDBN'S VIRGIL.

We perceive by the suggestions in the preceding coup
let, which was penned several hundred years ago, that
the importance of choosing the largest kernels was
understood in those days, as well as now. But, whether
the precept was observed in selecting seed, is a question
involved in some doubt, as cultivators of the soil are
exceedingly apt to neglect the saving of all kinds of
seed. Besides this, many intelligent farmers and gar
deners contend that it makes no difference whether the
small kernels of the tip end of an ear, or any others, be
planted ; and, to prove it, they refer to experiments re
corded by C. L. Flint, secretary of the Massachusetts
Board of Agriculture, in which it is stated, that it has
been proved by experiment that the yield of Indian corn

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 243

from the kernels on the tip end of the ears, was greater
than from seed on the middle of the ear.

No doubt Mr. Flint recorded the experiment in good
faith ; but I have no confidence in the result of it. I
do not believe it was fairly conducted. It is contrary to
reason, common sense, the experience of good farmers,
and opposed to the established laws of vegetable physi
ology, that a small, ill-formed kernel should produce
more and better grain than would grow from the best
ones on the ear. All good farmers, in ages past, and
even at the present day, have been instructed to plant
the best kernels — to propagate from the best kind of
everything — because " like produces like," as well in the
vegetable as the animal kingdom.

In our efforts to improve our domestic animals, we
always choose the very best as a breeder — one that pos
sesses the most good points of form, symmetry, and con
stitution. By this means our nocks and herds have been
brought to their present degree of perfectibility. Now,
let us suppose, for example, that we are told by a man,
who is considered good authority, that, by selecting the
meanest and shabbiest-looking nags that can be found,
or by breeding from the veriest scrub of a cow and
skalawag bull, we may obtain animals superior to any
thing that we have ever raised ! Every sensible man or
woman would say, at once, that the idea is a palpable
absurdity. When we breed from ill-favored animals, we
never expect to get offspring superior to their progenitors ;
because it would be unnatural for an animal, or for any
kind of seed, to impart to its issue or product, excellencies
which itself never possessed. If we can raise more and
better grain from the small, ill-formed kernels on the
little end of the ear, than from the largest and fairest,

244 THE WHEAT CIJLTTJRIST.

then we may sift out all the small grains of oats and
wheat for seed, instead of selecting the largest and
plumpest with so much care, as good farmers consider to
be essential to a large crop.

There are many theories and experiments recorded and
promulgated, by men who ought to know better, in re
gard to planting small, half-ripe seed, or rearing animals
from inferior breeders, all of which tends to mislead be
ginners in agriculture. Any old, superannuated grand
mother, in her second childhood, knows better than to
recommend planting inferior seed, if we would raise an
abundant crop. Scientific writers have done an untold
amount of harm by sanctioning such palpable absurdities
about the comparative excellence of good and inferior
seed. Let our young farmers not be misled by the
teachings of scientific writers, when reason and common
sense both assure us, that such teachings are erroneous ;
and, if followed out to the letter, the result will be a
serious failure and a grievous disappointment.

HOW TO PRODUCE A N~EW VARIETY OF WHEAT.

The true way to obtain a new variety of wheat is to
go to the field of some excellent farmer, who sustains
a fair reputation for raising superior wheat, when the
grain is ripe, and select one, two, or more heads for
seed. You can select, if you choose, one or two that
appear to be quite unlike the great proportion of the
heads. The ultimate product of this peculiar head, or
heads, of grain will be the new variety sought. If you
select a few heads of the best in the field, the product
will be only an improved variety of grain. Reject such
heads as are not well filled out with plump kernels.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 245

Those also that do not have chaff of a uniform appear
ance should not be selected, as chaff of different colors
and forms and partially bearded is a certain indication
of a hybrid grain. The aim should be to start with a
pure variety, if possible. Then prepare the ground by
thorough pulverization and manuring, as for a carrot-
bed, and plant the seed about the middle of September
in the latitude of New York city. Make a hole two
inches deep with one finger, or with a wooden dibble,
and one foot apart in rows each way, with one kernel
in a place, and cover the seed with mellow, rich soil.
See that fowls do not scratch up the grain, nor bite off'
the tender blades after they have grown two or more
inches long. If the ground is rich, every kernel will
produce a stem that will tiller so extensively as to occu
py the entire ground with large heads of grain. Next
season, and the two following seasons, weed the wheat,
and reject every head that appears a trifle different from
all the rest of the ears. In a few years the identity of
the variety will be permanently established, and the
quality of the grain and its productiveness will be so
greatly improved that one bushel of seed will yield sev
eral bushels more of superior grain per acre than can
be grown on the same soil from ordinary seed.

After a valuable variety of wheat has been well estab
lished, if proper care be exercised in selecting the seed,
from year to year, there is no more danger that an ex
cellent variety will degenerate, than that the South
Down breed of sheep will run out, when bred and
reared with care, from year to year.

The " North British Agriculturist " says on this sub
ject :

" In every field of grain there are to be seen ears differ-

246 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

ing in size, in form, and in general appearance from
those growing beside them. Some of these can be
recognized as the ears of established varieties ; but a few
will be distinct from any of the kinds in cultivation.
Farmers usually bestow little attention on the different
kinds of ears which may be sometimes seen growing in
the same field, and which can be best observed during
the cutting and harvesting of the crop ; but if one farm
er in a thousand would undertake the collection of
such ears with the intention of sowing the seed, and thus
propagating the kinds, the number of varieties would
soon be considerably increased, and the kinds in culti
vation would be improved by this selection of the best
ears. Those who intend to collect ears of one or more
of the cereals should proceed methodically, not only
when selecting, but in keeping the ears of the apparently
different kinds distinct at the time of gathering them, so
that each kind can be sown by itself, and the produce
from the seed of the selected ears collected and stored
for future sowing. During the time of selecting ears,
small bags formed of cloth should be carried, and as the
ears are separated from the stalks, they should be placed
in one or other of the bags. Care should be exercised
to prevent confusion and intermixing of the seeds.

Every circumstance should be noted at the time, such
as the field of grain in which the ears were gathered ;
the characteristic features which the ears presented in
growing, such as size, form, whether the ears are close
or open, and the color of the chaff and straw, chaff
smooth or downy, and other points deemed worthy of
being recorded. A written description should be placed
with the ears put into each bag for after reference, as it
is seldom advisable to trust to the memory as to facts.

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 2-iT

The bags containing the ears should be hung in an open
place away from mice or other depredators until the
period of sowing the seeds.

The amount of trouble which the propagating of vari-
ties entails, renders it advisable for experimenters not
to attempt too much at one time. Only those who are
resolved to bestow minute attention during the whole
period from the time of selecting the ears until the quan
tity of grain produced admits of its being distributed,
should undertake the selection of ears for propagating
the variety.

KEEPING VARIETIES PUKE.

In propagating new varieties, constant attention is es
sential to keep the variety true to the kind selected,
more particularly if it has originated in what is termed
a sport, either the result of cultivation or hybridiza
tion — the pollen of the ear of one variety fertilizing
the seeds contained in the ear of a different kind. This
hybridization is sometimes effected by experimenters,
but accidental contact is the more frequent cause of the
sports which appear in cultivated plants. Every variety
of grain in cultivation will occasionally show ears differ
ing from those which possess the characteristic appear
ances of the variety, while some varieties show red or
brown ears, and ears with and without awns. The
higher the manurial condition of the soil, the tend
ency to sporting appears to increase in force. As the
soil should be made rich on which the seeds of the select
ed ears are grown year after year, this tendency to sport
is certain to appear; and as the propagating of the select
ed variety is proceeded with, constant care is essential to

248 THE WHEAT CULTUBIST.

cull out the ears which differ from the original stand
ard of the selected ears. If the variety is the result of
hybridization, this culling is all-important.

The ears will differ considerably in appearance, some
resembling the kind from which the fertilizing pollen
was derived, and others more closely resembling the
variety which the pollen fertilized. Uniformity is es
sential to entitle any grain to the term variety ; and this
uniformity can only be secured by constant care in se
lection. After the type becomes fixed, sporting and
degenerating will almost wholly cease, provided ordinary
care is taken by the propagator. But every established
variety should be kept up by occasional selection of the
best ears.

In an industrial point of view, the propagating of a
new prolific variety of any of the grains is of immense
national importance. Any new variety which would
yield from one to four bushels of additional grain per
acre over the ordinary varieties in cultivation would tend
thus far to raise the resources of our own soils. In this
direction an extensive and most inviting field is open
to all cultivators. Were agriculturists to study more
closely the operations of horticulturists, much benefit
would result to all. Fanners generally not unly under
value, but wholly disregard what horticulturists have
done for agriculture.

The pleasure, and in exceptional cases the profit, to
be derived is so considerable, that the propagator of new
varieties will generally be amply rewarded for the time
occupied in conducting the various operations of select
ing, sowing, and reaping new kinds of grain. Those
farmers who are anxious to improve the varieties of
grain in cultivation — wheat, oats, or barley — should adopt

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 24:9

the same means as those so successfully followed out by
horticulturists — hybridizing, and more especially by se
lecting the best ears, and growing the seed so obtained
until sufficient quantities are secured to seed consider
able portions of land preparatory to disposing of a
portion of the seeds raised from the selected ears. The
improvement of the domestic animals and birds has been
mainly effected by selection, and the same principles are
equally applicable for the improvement of the various
varieties of the cereals in cultivation. This field of ex
periment is open to all, and the persevering may cal
culate upon success. Where so much can be effected
with even an ordinary amount of attention, the experi
menter who possesses a knowledge of the cereals, and
also of vegetable physiology, is certain to reap a good
harvest. (See North British Agriculturist on the
subject of selecting new varieties.)

PROCURING EARLIER SEED WHEAT AT THE NORTH.

Mr. J. W. Clark, of Wisconsin, writes on this subject
as follows : " Why should we suppose southern seed will
give us earlier wheat, when we know our own wheat or
corn cannot ripen so early farther north as it does in our
own latitude ? Do not middle latitudes bear nearly the
same relation to the south as northern ones do to them,
and so in proportion of intermediate differences of dis
tance and temperature ?

" We have good reason to believe there was no such
thing as Dent corn grown in latitudes 42° to 44° north,
fifteen years ago. But when Brigham Young and his
dupes were scattered from Missouri — Yellow Dent, and
subsequently White, in consequence of the Yellow suc-

11*

250 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

ceeding — was introduced into these latitudes in Wis
consin and elsewhere, by some of his, or rather Joe
Smith's followers. The climate of those latitudes was
then much as at present ; yet it required full five years
to acclimate this favorite and now general variety of
the northwest, before it matured sufficiently early to
ripen ere severe frosts set in and could be relied upon
as a staple crop. Wheat being subject to the same
forces of climate, must be therefore influenced in the
degree that its new place of growth is dissimilar, or more
or less favorable to vegetable development. Mr. Clay's
and his neighbor Mr. Howard's experience, though the
opposite of each other, both tend to prove that corn
cannot mature so early when first grown from southern
seed ; and the writer used seed from Maryland two
years ago, and under the most favorable condition of
soil and culture, yet not a kernel of it ripened. If
five years are requisite to acclimate corn removed only
five or six degrees farther north, and seed raised in
Mississippi does not ripen till October in Kentucky,
and that grown in Maryland will not ripen at all in
latitude 43° north, why are we to expect Kentucky
wheat to ripen" in Western New York, and the same
latitude west or east of it, earlier than native-grown
seed ?

" If it should be alleged that wheat, unlike corn in this
particular, does not require either so high a heat or so
long a season to mature it, the fact is admitted ; but
what is the inference ? Is it, that because wheat ripens
early, and before the hottest weather has more than half
passed, in Tennessee or Kentucky, it will ripen equally
early five to ten degrees farther north ? If this be the
supposition, it must surely be without good reason or

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 251

theory — the same thing. What can such an inference
mean in the light of the fact that peas, strawberries,
etc., that have been grown in Georgia and the Carolina?.
are seen in abundance in the JN'ew York market several
weeks, more or less, before the same and similar varie
ties are even out of blossom eight or ten degrees farther
northward. The peas were nearly ripe at the south in
consequence of being subject to a sufficiency of heat by
a given date, and they were not yet formed in the pod
at the north, by reason of not having been subject to
any such sufficiency of heat as was necessary to a like
result at the same date.

" If wheat seed is taken from south to north, it does
not carry any vital force in the seed germ that can
modify or resist the force of northern temperatures. On
the contrary, northern temperature, or climatic forces,
must control the character of the next seed crop, by
wholly originating and controlling the growth of the
entire plant. Supposing northern fall wheat to be just
restarting to grow with vigor at the opening of the Erie
Canal, similar fall wheat will be then half-leg high in
Tennessee, and this because it was subject to a sufficiency
of heat weeks before our northern wheat received any
such adequate supply of that thermal element.

" To procure seed from the south will not only not
accelerate, but retard the harvest, because such seed will
have been acclimated by and be adapted to a higher
degree of heat at -such and all, or nearly all, stages of
its growth, than it can receive in a far northern situation.
Having grown under a higher thermal forcing influ
ence, it will not grow, till after several years of accli
mation, with equal vigor and rapidity with a lower heat
or less forcing.

THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST.

" But procure seed from Canada, Sweden, or any more
northern locality, where the temperature in the average
is colder, and the time of first growing later in the
spring, c.nd harvest still later, in consequence of the
lower average of summer heat, and the more time
needed to supply the heat required ; take seed wheat
from such a situation to one where the growing season
commences earlier by reason of the requisite heat being-
earlier present, and it will not only commence its growth
as much earlier as the germinating degree of heat ear
lier surrounds it, but will ripen much earlier generally,
as the average heat is higher by reason of having been
subject to the whole amount of the great thermal ele
ment necessary to its maturity in a shorter or less period
of time. Thus, on this question, theory and facts ap
pear to adjust themselves consistently together ; and our
decided conclusion is, that from farther north is the di
rection seed wheat or corn, or in fact any cereal, should
be, procured, if the object be to secure earlier maturity
in the -resulting product. Cereals that ripen early far
north, will naturally and with general certainty mature
earlier when cultivated considerably farther south."
Read Climotology of Wheat, pp. 57, 79.

No FACTS TO PKOVE IT.

Old wheat-growers will contend earnestly, that facts
are against this theory. If they are, I have not had the
good fortune to meet those facts. If it can be shown
by well-conducted experiments that seed wheat should
be procured in a southern latitude, then we will believe
it. But, in order to establish such an assertion, excel
lent seed must be obtained in every instance, and the
test made fairly, for several successive seasons.

THE WHEAT CULTUBIST. 253

DEGENERACY OF WHEAT — CAUSE AND KEMEDY.

From time out of mind there appears to have been
a prevalent opinion among wheat-growers that varie
ties of wheat deteriorate, becoming in a few years so
unproductive that other kinds are sought and culti
vated. Allusion to this subject is made in Yirgil,
penned more than two thousand years ago, and the
writer speaks of having seen the peasant grieve over
the degeneracy of his grain, where .the heads had not
been culled with care from year to year. We have
always observed from boyhood that farmers have recog
nized this fact, and when alluding to it have appeared
to acknowledge that there is no remedy for it. When
writers have alluded to varieties of wheat cultivated in
different parts of our country, they have almost inva
riably mentioned kinds that once nourished, but "for
some unknown cause have degenerated." The English
Agricultural Society, several years ago, issued circulars
desiring information on this subject.

It cannot be denied that varieties of wheat do run
out. We well remember when a boy, that a kind of
winter wheat called Red Chaff, or Bald Wheat, was
cultivated quite extensively in that part of the State
where we were living ; but in a few years farmers dis
continued raising it, because, they said, u it had run
out." The same was true of the White Flint, Beaver
Dam, Wild Goose, and Hutchinson Wheat, most of
which yielded well when first introduced ; but after a
few years failed to return remunerating crops. The
identity of the variety appeared to be gone. The heads
were of various colors, and the kernels small, of differ
ent and varied forms, and the yield was less and less

254 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

from year to year, until farmers were satisfied that it
would not pay to sow that kind of wheat any longer.

The abettors of this theory of degeneracy, maintain
that the wheat plant has an inherent tendency to de
generate ; and not a few men, who have acquired some
thing of a reputation for being scientific, have also
endorsed this visionary theory, and have even affirmed
that " the science of botany and vegetable physiology
proves that wheat, or any other plant, when grown on
the same soil for a long succession of years, will con
tinue to degenerate until it is not worth raising." This
theory received the sanction of such men as Hon. Jesse
Buel, who moved the world with his agricultural wis
dom, and who acknowledged that " the tendency of
varieties to degenerate is not a vague opinion, but a
fixed fact, and that the duration of a variety in perfec
tion is generally computed at from fourteen to twenty
years, though this period is sometimes prolonged by a
change of soil or climate." T. A. Knight, the Presi
dent of the London Horticultural Society, writes: "I
believe that almost every variety now cultivated in this
and the adjoining counties, has long since passed the
period of its age when a succession should have taken
its place. It has long been known that every variety
cultivated, gradually becomes debilitated, losing a large
portion of its powers of producing grain fully equal to
previous crops."

We know this is not so. The science of botany and
vegetable physiology teaches no such doctrine. Rea
son, common sense, and the experience of the past are
all decidedly against it. It never has been and never
can be shown that there is any natural tendency in
well-established varieties of wheat, or any other grain, to

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 255

degenerate, any more than there is in the suggestion
that the human race grows imbecile and effeminate from
generation to generation. The theory has no facts to
sustain it. If properly cultivated and suitable care be
exercised in selecting the seed, varieties may be main
tained in all their primeval excellency and purity as
long as the vicissitudes of the seasons continue. We
grant that varieties do degenerate and lose their identi
ty, their " vital energies " and powers of reproduction.

We have due respect for the integrity of such writers
as were just alluded to. But when they recorded these
suggestions they simply reiterated what they considered
to be plausible theories that had been broached by other
writers, all of whom had made assertions touching the
degeneration of wheat. In this way many vague and
exceedingly erroneous theories have been promulgated
from year to year by scientific writers on agricultural
subjects. But mere assertion of a supposed fact does
not constitute a well-established theory on any subject.

On the borders of the River Nile, in Africa, one of
the finest regions in the world for the production of ex
cellent wheat, the same varieties are grown, from year
to year, without the least deterioration, that were culti
vated three thousand years ago. And the same thing
may be done in this country by exercising the same care
in the selection of the seed that is observed by the farm
ers in that part of the world.

It is a well-established fact that wheat will hybridize
when different varieties are allowed to grow in close
proximity. Of course, the product would be a mixture
of seed, in which the purity of the variety is gone.
Consequently, with a mixture of seed, a farmer would
find himself in the same circumstances with reference

256 THE WHEAT CULTUJ1I8T.

to the improvement of his wheat that he is when he
undertakes to improve his domestic animals by breed
ing from mongrels or from grade stock. It is well un
derstood that such animals — grades and mongrels —
when employed as breeders, never transmit the excel
lent points of desirable form and symmetry to their off
spring with reliable certainty, while pure-bred animals
never fail in this respect.

The same facts hold good in the vegetable kingdom,
with seed wheat in particular. When different varie
ties are sown in close proximity, and the product, which
will be an impure grain, is again employed -for seed, a
pure variety of choice wheat may be run out most effect
ually in a few years, so that intelligent farmers who
were only superficial observers would be ready to affirm,
without any hesitancy, that wheat does degenerate.
The cause of degeneracy, and the remedy, may all be
expressed in a few words. We have hinted at the cause,
namely : sowing different varieties near each other, so
that the grain will hybridize ; thrashing several kinds
together, and continuing to employ such grain for seed
from year to year. Herein lies the whole secret of the
degeneracy of varieties. If a pure variety be kept by
itself with suitable care, and cultivated on good ground,
and the grain never thrashed with other wheat, the pu
rity of a variety of wheat, with all its excellent charac
teristics, may be maintained intact as long as wheat
may be cultivated. There is no uncertainty about this
suggestion. The idea is in perfect keeping with the
established laws of vegetable physiology. Cultivating
any variety of grain in a slip-shod, slack, and perfunc
tory manner, will cause the best variety of wheat the
world ever knew to degenerate and run completely out

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 257

in a few years. On the contrary, if the seed be selected
every season with the same care that the originator of
the Weeks wheat observed for a decade of years, gen
erations unborn would cultivate the same varieties that
our fields now produce, without the least deterioration
in either yield or quality of grain.

FUKTHEK TESTIMONY ON DEGENERACY.

I herewith copy the following suggestions from the
" Independent :" " If there were an inherent tendency in
wheat to degenerate — as many people affirm there is —
how is it that no signs of degeneracy are manifest, so
long as a well-established variety is cultivated well, from
year to year, and kept by itself? No farmer was ever
heard to complain that his ' wheat appears to be run
ning out,' until after there has been great neglect in sav
ing the seed.

" Clean, pure, and well-ripened seed is sowed on the
best soil for many seasons, after which, many farmers
become indifferent about their seed, often sowing that
kind of grain which is nothing more nor less than a
hybrid. Mediterranean wheat — which is usually a red
variety — and the various kinds of white wheat, are
often thrashed together. The good, the poor, the well-
matured, and half-ripe and shrunken kernels, all go into
one bin ; and such grain is used for seed. Now, as
wheat will sport and hybridize when growing in close
proximity, how can we expect, with any degree of con
fidence, that good grain will be produced by very infe
rior seed ?

" In producing new varieties of strawberries and Irish
potatoes, a certain kind is often cultivated for several

258 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

successive years, and sometimes abandoned, as un
worthy of further efforts in endeavoring to establish a
new variety. Therefore, when farmers sow anything
and everything that is called wheat, letting it all grow
together, whether it ripens early or late, and cultivate
it poorly at that, and take no pains to sow the choicest
seed, or to keep a good variety distinct, what can any
one naturally expect, but rapid degeneracy of the grain ?
Degeneracy, or ' running out of varieties,' is the natural
and certain result of such bad management in the selec
tion of the seed, and cultivation of the crop, to which
we have alluded.

" We never hear that a good variety of Indian corn
has degenerated, until it has been planted near other
kinds, with which it has been allowed to mix. And, if
the same care were exercised in selecting the very best
kernels of a well-established variety of wheat for seed,
and keeping the seed grain separate, in a secure place,
we should have the unbounded satisfaction of seeing our
wheat fields produce, not only larger heads, plumper ker
nels, and heavier grain in much greater abundance per
acre, but no signs of degeneracy would appear, were the
same kind of grain raised in one locality generation
after generation.

" Historians inform us that the same varieties of good
wheat are now grown on the fertile soils on each side
of the River Nile in Egypt, with no signs of degeneracy,
that were raised there a thousand years ago.

" Instead of there being a natural tendency in wheat
to degenerate, if it is cultivated as it always should be,
and none but the best seed put in, there would be a
manifest tendency to improve from year to year. Every
experienced wheat-grower will acknowledge this. Farm-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 259

ers who never save their seed with care \\ill doubt
it."

The Commissioner of Agriculture recorded the fol
lowing fact in regard to the degeneracy of the Hunter
wheat, which corroborates what I have penned. He
writes : " Hunter's wheat, one of the oldest and most
esteemed varieties in Scotland, was discovered half a
century ago by the roadside in Berwickshire. Through
long culture and want of care this variety has greatly
deteriorated."

In searching agricultural documents for facts on this
subject, I have been greatly surprised to meet with so
long a list of once excellent varieties of wheat, entirely
run out, so that they are no longer cultivated. It is a
serious and grave accusation against American tillers of
the soil, that as a general rule, the wheat crop is neg
lected and shamefully abused ; and I often wonder that
we raise half as good crops as we now meet with.

WHEN TO Sow WINTER WHEAT.

Winter wheat may be sowed too early in the season
as well as too late. Every intelligent farmer will ad
mit this fact. There must be, therefore, a certain
period, midway between the too-early and the too-late
time, which may be fixed upon, as the most proper pe
riod of all the growing season, to put in the seed. In
designating any given period as the best time to sow
winter wheat, there are considerations of transcendent
importance to be observed, each and all of which will
be found to exert more or less influence on the wheat
crop. The growing wheat has destructive enemies to
encounter, which flourish only at certain periods in the

£60 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

growing season. The aim of the husbandman, there
fore, should be to have his wheat plants grow, as much
as possible, before, and after these enemies nourish and
commit their ravages on the growing plants. Besides
the insects destructive to wheat that must be encoun
tered in autumn, and those that it is desirable to shun
in the summer, before harvest, there are adverse circum
stances which must be foreseen and guarded against, as
much as practicable, among which I may mention
drought, wet weather, and the sinister influence of the
freezing and thawing of the soil in winter. In addition
to these things, the hcdnt of the wheat plant should
exercise a controlling influence in the mind of the
wheat-grower, in determining the most proper period
for sowing the seed for a crop of winter grain. The
wheat-grower must encounter hosts of formidable an
tagonists, in autumn, in winter, in spring time, and in
summer. To outstrip one. dodge the other, circumvent
a third, take advantage of a fourth, to run the gauntlet,
so to speak, from September till the next harvest, liter
ally surrounded by untold millions of insects that find
a rich subsistence on the germinating kernels, as soon
as they exhibit signs of vegetation, and that feed on
the tender blades, and extract the delicate juices from
the growing kernels, and to triumph over all the ad
verse circumstances and unpropitious influences of the
season, and to be able, by agricultural skill and judi
cious management, to develop a large field of plump
wheat, waving in the breezes like a sea of gold, is, most
assuredly, a laudable employment. When we consider
how many destructive enemies growing wheat has, and
what a wonderfully fastidious plant wheat is, in regard
to the vegetable nutrition that the soil affords, it seems

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 261

a mystery — not that farmers do not grow large crops of
this kind of grain — but that they are able to mature
any at all.

Now, then, for the best time to sow winter wheat.
In the first place, looking forward to the long and
dreary winter, we find that the strongest wheat plants,
those that are most firmly rooted and that have a sys
tem of luxuriant leaves, sufficient to cover the surface
of the ground, will endure the rigors of our northern

O "

winters with less injury. In consideration of this fact,
reason would seem to dictate putting in the seed very
early — even in the month of August. But there are
destructive enemies ahead. If the seed be put in very
early, so that the plants attain a large size in a few
weeks, countless hordes of insects, in the form of the
wheat fly, will nearly destroy the crop. As this enemy
flourishes between the two periods — early seed time and
late seed time — we must evade, if possible, its ravages.
Therefore, we must choose the late seed time ; and in
order to be prepared to resist the adverse influences of
winter, we must plough and harrow and manure the
soil, cultivate, pulverize, drain, and fertilize the seed
bed, and by repeated and most thorough mechanical
tearing and trituration, get the ground into such a fa
vorable condition for vegetation, that the young plants
will spring from seed deposited in the soil, after the
dreaded foes have run their course, and still have suffi
cient time to become rooted and topped before the
winter sets in. Here, then, we are able to fix upon a
point of time for every farmer in every latitude, with
the assurance that, if a crop cannot be secured by seed
ing, at that period, we must meet a failure.

When wheat is sowed so late in the growing season.

262 THE WHEAT CULTUKIBT.

that the roots acquire very little toughness, and the
leaves attain only a small size before cold and freezing
weather comes on, the growing plants will suffer such
serious injury by the intense cold, and freezing, and
thawing, and upheaval of the soil, that a fair crop of
grain will not be produced the next season. Our best
wheat-growers understand this point perfectly ; and our
horticulturists and pomologists know how eminently im
portant it is, that a plant finish growing and attain a pro
per ripeness and solidity of juices, and some tenacity of
fibre, before the tender plants are exposed to the destruc
tive influences of cold weather. In order, therefore, to
be still more definite and explicit, respecting the best time
to sow winter wheat, we may fix the time at this period,
viz., let the seed be put in as late in the season as it can
be, and still have sufficient time to throw out a system
of roots and leaves, sufficiently large to cover nearly or
quite the entire surface of the ground.

In this latitude, the great majority of wheat-growers
agree that about the 10th of September is the most de
sirable period to sow winter wheat. But, I think, that
every intelligent farmer, who understands the habit of
the wheat plant, will agree with me, that if the ground
be put in such excellent tilth, that the young plants will
attain the desired size before cold weather comes on,
the first or even the 10th of October will be found
a more desirable period for autumnal seed-time than any
time in September. But, let it be understood, that un
less the soil is in an excellent state of fertility — really
rich — friable, and sufficiently moist when the seed is
sowed to insure immediate germination, it will not be
safe to defer seeding to that late period. Let me assure
wheat-growers, however, that in practice, they will find

THE WHEAT CTJLTTJEIST. 263

it more profitable to make their soil doubly rich, and
pulverize it more thoroughly, and put in their seed as
late as the first of October, than to cultivate tolerably
well, manure moderately, and sow at an early date.

As we move south of this latitude, the period of seed
time should be fixed at a still later date in autumn. We
should keep in mind this one great fact, to put whip and
spur to the growing wheat plants between the period
when insects would injure its growth, and the influences
of winter. Then, the crop will be safe, so far as its sal
vation can be secured by choosing the most propitious
period for putting in the seed. But one of the most im
portant-considerations in the whole system of wheat cul
ture is to have the soil in the right condition, bounti
fully fertilized with such pabulum as will develop a
healthful and stiff straw and a plump and shining ker
nel.

It would seem that early sowed grain in autumn
would mature the next season just as many days earlier
than other crops, as the seed which was put in. But
experiments have shown that, in practice, we cannot
count upon any advantage, from early seeding, in se
curing an early harvest, as wheat sowed the middle of
September and the first of October, on the same kind of
ground, will mature at the same period the next season.
If we would have wheat ripen early in the season, an
early variety must be obtained, as early seeding will not
secure an early harvest.

The following extract taken from the report of a com
mittee appointed by the Kentucky Agricultural and
Mechanical Association, will be read with interest. The
Committee say :

"The fly, or as it is popularly known, the Hessian

264 THE WHEAT CULTTIRIST.

fly, which was not known in our country until the
war of the Revolution, was supposed to have been intro
duced here in the straw of the bedding of those merce
nary troops (the Hessians) whom our good mother sent
over here to cut our throats. Your committee know of
no remedy for this pest. It has been thought that late
sowing obviated it to some extent. This is, no doubt,
true. But there are several difficulties attending it.
First — late sown wheat is more liable to be winter-kill
ed than that which is early sown. Second — it is just
as liable to the spring crop of the fly as the other. And
third — if it escapes these, it is much more liable to that
worst of all difficulties, rust — indeed almost sure to be
materially injured. Then the question comes, what
shall we do ? It would probably be best not to sow
early or late, but take a medium, say from the 25th
September -to 10th October. Very early sown wheat
is very liable to be badly injured by the insect."

Moore's " Rural New Yorker," published at Rochester,
New York, in the centre of a fine wheat-growing coun
try, says : " If the question is presented to the farmer
whether he shall sow his wheat very early in the season
on soil hastily and imperfectly prepared, or wait until a
later period and expend more labor in the preparation
of the seed-bed, let him decide in favor of late sowing
and thorough preparation. Under most circumstances
early sowing is of no advantage, and often it is highly
injurious. The supposed benefit to be derived from it
is a large fall growth, and strong-rooted plants which
can endure the winter. But it is not always the largest
growth of top in the wheat plant in the fall which
makes the best root. Early sown wheat may have its
growth, by means of warm, wet weather, thrown largely

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 265

to the top and less to the root, than is desirable, and in
this case will not come through the winter as well as
that sown later, when the cool weather is favorable to
root growth and healthy development of leaf. We do
not advise late sowing on poorly prepared ground, and
that which is too much impoverished. Sow early on
such soil, if you must sow it in. poor condition. But it
is preferable to defer the seeding a week or two, and, in
the mean time, till and manure the land. A top-dress
ing of manure or straw, after the sowing, is worth more
for winter protection than a large development of the
plant leaf; and Western farmers that are in the habit
of burning large quantities of straw might find better
use for it in shielding their wheat fields.

" This year the Hessian fly has injured the wheat crop
to a greater extent than usual. Early sowing induces
their attack. Very early sowing, followed by a warm
autumn, sometimes causes the seed stalk to start before
winter stops the growth of the plant, and thus a portion
of its strength is wasted. We do not advocate extremes
either way in sowing wheat, but first, a thorough prep
aration of the soil, then the choosing, if possible, of
that medium period which comes after the heat and
drought of an early autumn, and gives time for a
moderate and healthy growth before winter."

Mr. David Wood, Yenice, Cayuga County, New York,
who is an excellent practical farmer, communicated to
me the following suggestions in relation to wheat cul
ture : — The best time to sow winter wheat with us is,
from the first of September to the tenth. If sowed be
fore that period the plants grow too large before winter.
Wheat that has attained a large growth in autumn, is
more apt to winter-kill than if the stems and leaves

12

266 THE WHEAT CULTURTST.

were smaller. If sowed later than this period, the
plants will not grow enough before winter to insure a
good crop of grain.

SOWING SEED WHEAT IN WINTER.

I once tried an experiment by sowing winter wheat
after the growing season had ended, and the ground
was about to freeze up. The soil was thoroughly pre
pared, by several times ploughing, and the last plough
ing was done about the middle of November. About
the fifth of December there were certain indications that
winter was about to commence in sober earnest. 1
then sowed the wheat, and harrowed it in ; and the next
day the ground froze up tight, and remained till the
next March. The wheat did not germinate until the
growing season had commenced.

The experiment was exceedingly unsatisfactory, as
not more than one-half the kernels seemed to vegetate.
I sowed seed at the rate of about two bushels per
acre ; but the young plants stood unusually thin on the
ground — not one of them tillered at all ; the straw grew
very coarse, the heads were short, the grain shrunken
and small, and the stems and leaves were so badly
affected with red rust, that I never cared to repeat
a similar experiment.

General K. Harmon writes in relation to the amount
of seed per acre and time of sowing, that there is
some difference in opinion as to the quantity required
to be sown to the acre : first, we must take into con
sideration the soil, its quality (for on that much de
pends), and the time of sowing — on clay loam soils, the
first week in September is the best time for this section

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 267

of the State. It is important to have it take a good
root before winter, and if sown earlier, the fly is very
apt to destroy some of it in the fall ; and if it should be
so large as to nearly cover the ground the last of Octo
ber, it should be eaten off by cattle or sheep, as it is
less liable to be injured by deep snows. Here one bushel
of seed to the acre, is as good as more on soils in good
condition ; if sown ten days later, add one peck more
seed per acre. On sandy, gravelly loams, the second
week in September is the most favorable time for sow
ing ; if earlier, the fly is very apt to affect it, so as to
diminish the crop. Wheat, on such soils, appears to suf
fer more from the fly, than on clay soils. On these
soils, one bushel per acre, and if the soil is not in good
condition, one peck more should be sown. The White
Flint spreads or tillers more than the common varieties ;
and when I have sown a bushel and a half the second
week in September, it was too thick, the straw fine, the
heads short, and the berry not as large and fine as it
would have been, if one peck less had been sown to the
acre. There is one advantage in sowing thick on soils
where it is subject to be affected by rust : it will ripen two
or three days earlier. That is an important consider
ation on soils unfavorable to the early ripening of wheat.

William R. Schuyler, Michigan, recorded the follow
ing suggestions in reference to the time of sowing winter
wheat in that State:

"It is evident from reports received from other sec
tions of the State, that in several counties the crop will
not be more than half the usual average. There is reason
to fear that early sown wheat will again suffer from the
fall attacks of this insect, unless, as is sometimes the
nase, it has been followed up and nearly exterminated

268 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

by its parasitic enemies. It is to be hoped that farmers
who last year finished sowing in August and the first
of September, will consult their true interests by defer
ring the work till a later period in the month. I am
aware that in endeavoring to escape one calamity it is
advisable, if possible, to avoid the opposite evil.

" On stiff, tenacious clay loams, especially when not
thoroughly underdrained, wheat sown after the month
of September, is liable to be injured by the winter and
spring frosts ; or if carried safely through the winter,
protected by its mantle of snow, it is more endangered
by the attacks of the spring fly, it not being sufficiently
vigorous to outgrow the effects of the injury. Late
sown sandy soils, also, when not properly tilled, are still
more exposed to the attacks of this spring generation.
In districts where the midge prevails, it is all-important
that sowing should not be at so late a period as to re
tard the ripening of the crop. It is a fact, however, no
doubt familiar to every careful, observing farmer, that
under the same conditions of the land there is scarcely
any difference in the ripening of wheat sown in the
first or third week of September. There seems, there
fore, to be a necessity for selecting a medium period for
sowing as the best protection against the fly, avoiding at
the same time other evils incident to the late sowing.

" A single frost is supposed to destroy all the insects
while in the state of the fly. There is, consequently,
no danger to be apprehended if the wheat is not sown
nor up until after an autumnal frost. In seasons,
therefore, when the fly is known to be prevalent, it
would doubtless be the safer plan to defer sowing until
even the last week in September, should not a sharp
frost in the mean time occur. In the climate of Michi-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 269

gan we seldom escape a frost through the month of Sep
tember. Last season was one of those exceptions that
will sometimes occur in general rules, the effects whereof
cannot be guarded against. If my recollection is right,
there was no perceptible frost throughout the month of
September, and I have no doubt that the present crop
of wheat was materially injured by the insect in conse
quence of the very warm and unseasonable weather in
October and part of November, the very early sown
fields, of course, suffering the most."

J. S. Gesner, of Canada West, in a prize article on
the culture of wheat, says : " I have found the last week
in August and the first week in September, to be the
best period for sowing winter wheat in this locality. It
is useless to sow any variety — except the Mediterranean
—in this vicinity, later in the season than the time just
mentioned."

J. Homes, of Chittenden, Yermont, writes : u I know
of no better mode to prevent the ravages of the midge
than early sowing, and even this sometimes fails. The
last week in August, or the first in September, I would
prefer, but this depends upon circumstances ; if the
weather is dry and hot, I would rather wait until Octo
ber. Some years since I made an experiment to test
early and late sowing. One piece was sowed the last
week in August, one the last week in September, and
one in the middle of October, on the same kind of soil,
and treated in every respect alike. There was no differ
ence in the time of ripening or in the quality of the
grain ; but the earliest sowed produced the longest
heads, consequently yielded more per acre.

Hon. Isaac Newton, Commissioner of Agriculture,
recorded the following facts touching the influence of

270 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

the frosts of winter on wheat that was sowed at differ
ent periods, and which had attained greater growth in
one instance than in the other. He says : " During the
winter, the first or September sowing of the premium
white Mediterranean wheat withstood the winter very
badly, and during the severe frost in the month of Jan
uary, it was entirely killed ; whereas the same wheat
sown in October withstood the winter much better than
the red bearded Mediterranean wheat, kept ahead the
whole season, and was harvested on the 27th of June.
This seems to be a wheat well adapted to this climate,
large berry, well filled and thin skinned ; produced
forty-eight bushels per acre. The red bearded Mediter
ranean wheat sown in October did not stand the severe
frost so well as the same kind sown in September, show
ing that the best period for sowing the red bearded
Mediterranean wheat is September, and for the premium
white Mediterranean, from Port Mahon, is October.
The Tappahannock wheat has been the earliest of all
the varieties experimented with, although it does not
seem to be so productive as some of the other kinds ;
still the fine quality of the grain, and its earliness, is
very much to be regarded, as an early variety is much
less liable to disease and other contingencies."

SOWING SPRING WHEAT EARLY vs. LATE.

I have observed, for many years past, that wheat-grow
ing farmers seem to be about equally divided, touching the
best time to sow spring wheat. A part of our farmers
contend that the seed should be put in very early in the
spring, even before the growing season has really com
menced. And if the soil is not sufficiently dry, plough

THE WHEAT CULTUlilSJT. 271

and sow in the mud, rather than not put in the seed
early. On the contrary, others contend, that it is better
to put in the seed quite late in the season, even after
sowing oats and barley. One party contends that spring
wheat should be put in before the ground is done freez
ing and thawing, as spring frosts greatly improve the
productiveness of the soil and increase the yield of
grain. Others insist that all these things are decidedly
injurious to the crop.

I think the abettors of these theories are both right
and both wrong. My own experience leads me to fix
upon an intermediate period for putting in spring wheat.

I am satisfied, that if the ground be put in order soon
after the growing season has commenced — as soon as
may be practicable after the soil has become sufficiently
warm to cause germination and growth — that the crop
of wheat will be more satisfactory, than if the seed were
sowed very early, or rather late. Whether other farm
ers will admit the assertion or not, I am satisfied that
cold, frosty weather often injures young wheat plants,
more seriously than most people are aware of. After
the young plants have appeared, and a cold, stormy pe
riod ensues, the leaves turn yellow, cease to grow for
several weeks, become stunted, and will never produce
so much grain, as if those same plants had received no
check in their growth. If the seed be put in late, the
growth is liable to be too rapid and too luxuriant ; and
the consequence is, that the crop is seldom so satisfac
tory, as if the seeding had been attended to a few days
earlier in the season. Late sowed wheat may — as it
often has — succeeded well ; but the same crop would
doubtless have been much better, had the seed been put
in a few days earlier. I do not think that the advocates

272 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

of late seeding have tested the result of seeding earlier.
As their land produced a bountiful crop, they conclude
that the yield is heavier than it would have been if the
seed had been sowed at a former period. Tlie proof of
the pudding is in eating it ; and not in chewing the string
of the pudding bag.

EARLY vs. LATE SEEDING IN MASSACHUSETTS.

An experienced wheat-grower in Massachusetts writes :
" I never had any luck in late sowing spring wheat, nor
did I ever see a good piece, sown as late as the 25th of
May. Last year was an exception to late sown grain,
which we seldom have. The drought injured early sown
grain full as much, if not more, than late sown in this
section. Even our late planted corn was a larger growth,
and was perfectly sound. Late sown wheat in ordinary
seasons, will not be as plump as that sown early. The
straw is more apt to be weak and to crinkle down by
the late rains, and will turn black, and is more likely to
rust, There is more risk in harvesting, to get it in a
good condition for the mow. Not so with early sown.
The kernel is plump, the head well filled, the straw
bright and stiff; and the grain will thrash a great deal
easier ; and you will have more bushels from a given
quantity of ground. The earlier it is sown, if the
ground is dry and the weather suitable, the better. I
had rather my wheat would be sown the 25th of March
if it could be got in as early, than to be put oft' till the
25th of May. We have had a heavy freeze on early sown
wheat, and no detriment at all. The 25th of April,
and from that to the 5th of May, is, in my opinion, the
best time to sow spring wheat."

THE WHEAT CULTUBIST. 273

A correspondent of the " Rural New Yorker" wrote on
this subject : " The reason why spring wheat growing is
attended with such ill success in Western New York is
that the fallow was not fall ploughed, and consequently
is sown too late in the spring." The great secret of
success in growing a bountiful crop of spring wheat is
the proper management of the soil, the main point being
to plough and fallow in the fall, or before the ground
is too hard frozen in winter, so that the wheat may be
sown as early in April as the spring rains will admit.

Many farmers who succeeded so early in growing a
crop of wheat from the scarified virgin soil in the early
days of Western New York, now think that the deteri
oration in that cereal is owing to the exhaustion of a
mysterious pabulum in the soil. Yet, to grow a good
crop of barley, requires a finer tilth and a less adhesive
soil than for wheat.

J. B. Lawes, the prince of England's experimenters
on the farm, avers " that he could supply fertilizers to
the wheat fallow to produce a given crop of wheat to
the acre, subject only to the risk of hail and violent
storms." But in England the wheat plant rarely if ever
freezes out, as it often does in winter and early spring
in the United States, California and the South excepted.
It is the freezing out of this plant that prevents the
western farmers of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa from
sowing winter wheat. But they have reduced the sow
ing of spring wheat, as a substitute, into a perfect sys
tem that rarely fails to succeed if well done. (Read my
notes about spring wheat under the last heading of the
second chapter of this book, and How Freezing and
Thawing of the Soil injures Growing Wheat, pages 123,
124, and 125. )

12*

"274: THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

THICK AND THIN SEEDING.

Wheat can be sowed too thick as well as too tlnn.
Of course, then, there is a correct quantity to sow per
acre, as there must necessarily be a medium between the
thick seeding and thin seeding. The quantity of seed
alone does not determine how much should be sown on
one acre, as the kernels vary in size. If the kernels be
very large, a much larger quantity of seed will be re
quired to seed an acre, than if the kernels were very
small. There is more danger of sowing too much seed
on an acre, than there is of scattering too little. When
wheat is sowed too thin, provision has been made by
nature, to send out numerous stems, from the single
plants that spring from every kernel. (See this subject
explained under the head of the Habit of the Wheat
Plant.) Seed wTheat is often sowed in such absurdly
large quantities, per acre, that the soil does not yield
but a little more than half the number of bushels that
would have been produced, had just enough been sowed
and no more. It is exceedingly unwise policy to sow
wheat, or any other grain thick, for the purpose of
smothering a dense growth of noxious plants.

J. J. Mechi, of England, who has had much experi
ence in growing wheat, writes, that "one kernel in a hole,
at intervals of nine inches by four, would, under favor
able circumstances, be ample, and produce much more
than if four times that number were sown ; but then we
have rooks, French partridges, birds, mice, and wireworms
to contend with." It would be a very dangerous experi
ment to sow generally so small a quantity of seed as
one peck per acre. In highly cultivated, warm, mellow
soils, free from weeds and in good heart, where harvest is

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 275

ready by the first of August or earlier, sucli small quan
titles may be sown, provided the sowing is done early.

Thin sowing is the first cause of large and vigorous
ears to select from. On this point, there can be no
mistake, seeing that thick sowing has an exactly reverse
effect, diminishing and crippling the growth of the ear,
until, with extreme quantities, there is scarcely a good
kernel, or a good ear. Therefore, in order to get good
ears to select from, or to be certain of the largest possible
yield of grain, sow only a moderate quantity per acre. I
think that every intelligent wheat-grower will agree with
me, that thin sowing has quite as much or more to do
with a large product of superior grain, as the choice of
a prolific variety. ~No rule can be laid down that will
serve as a reliable guide for farmers in various portions of
the country in determining the quantity of wheat per acre.
For this reason, I shall not attempt to state how much
this farmer, or that wheat-grower, should sow per acre.
In a letter dated June 27th, Mr. M. says :
" I related last year that a peck of seed wheat per acre,
dibbled at intervals of about 4^- inches, one kernel in a
hole, produced fifty-eight bushels of heavy wheat per acre,
and 2f tons of straw ; in fact, the thickest and heaviest
crop of corn and straw on my farm. It was seen at
various periods of its growth by many agricultural and
other visitors. During winter, a single stem only hav
ing appeared from each kernel, the land at a distance
appeared as if unsown, and we were often asked why we
had omitted to drill that particular portion of the field.
In the spring each stem radiated its shoots horizontally,
to the extent in some instances of thirty to forty-eight
stems, and ultimately became the best crop on the farm,
and, which is often convenient in harvesting, about

276 THE WHEAT CULTURI8T.

four days later than the thick sown put in, in October,
at the same time as the rest of the field was drilled with
..one bushel per acre. In October last, rather late in the
month, we repeated the experiment on a heavy-land
clover lea, as last year. The ground was rough and
hard, and very dry, and although a kernel was placed in
each hole, only about one-half, or half a peck per acre,
came up. Of course we anticipated a partial failure,
but spring came, and each stem threw out horizontally
a large number of shoots, so that now it is admitted by
all who see it that it will exceed in produce the adjoin
ing crop, drilled at one bushel per acre. It appears to
be about four or five days later than the rest."

After inviting all interested to come and examine this
crop for themselves, Mr. M. concludes : " According
to Mr. Caird, the average increase of our corn crops is
eight for one — one million quarters of seed to produce
nine millions of corn ! This is discreditable to us, for
surely one good seed in properly cultivated soil cannot
produce so little, if it be allowed sufficient space to de
velop its growth. Forty to one is nearer the increase
on my farm."

QUANTITY OF SEED PEK ACRE.

The quantity of wheat sowed on an acre by one
farmer, is no guide at all to his neighbor, unless the
soil is similar in all respects, and the period of seeding
about the same. Rich land does not require so large a
quantity as poor ground. When the kernels are large,
the quantity of seed must be increased ; and when they
are small, the amount may be diminished, and still have
just as many stalks on an acre. Kernels of wheat vary

THE WHEAT CULTUR1ST. 277

so much ill size that figures expressing the number of
grains in a bushel only mislead and confuse a beginner.
I have in mind one farmer who counted the number of
kernels in a quart of wheat ; and from the number in
one quart estimated the number of grains in a bushel to
be 559,288. Another man made 660,000 kernels in one
American bushel of wheat ; and another 690,960.

I have raised excellent wheat where only one bushel
of seed was sowed per acre. My practice was to sow
two bushels of wheat per acre ; and to drill in one and
a half bushels per acre. In some instances, I was satis
fied that the grain stood rather too thick on the ground.
If the ground is rich, one bushel per acre, if put in
evenly with a good drill, is all the seed that should be
put on one acre. Every farmer should try experiments,
for the purpose of ascertaining how much seed will yield
the largest amount of grain per acre. If he can satisfy
himself that he can secure a large yield by putting two
bushels of seed on one acre, that is the quantity for him
to sow. The quantity of seed varies, the country
through. Very few farmers sow three bushels of seed
per acre ; and fewer still sow only one bushel. The
majority, I think, sow or drill in about one and a half
bushels per acre. Observe the quantity of seed per
acre, as stated by the various authors of letters on the
culture of wheat in various parts of the country in our
agricultural periodicals.

The most sensible way to arrive at a correct conclu
sion on this subject, is, to weigh the grain that grows
on a square yard, where the straw seems to stand very
thick as well as where it is thin. Every farmer must
study out the correct quantity of seed for his own soil.

In order to aid beginners in their investigations of

278 THE WHEAT CULTUKKT.

this subject, I herewith give a table which was prepaied
a few years ago, for "Facts for Farmers."

Grains per Kernels ter n .

square foot. square yard. Grains Per acre'

4 36 174,240=1 peck.

8 72 345,480=2 pecks.

12 108 522,720=3 pecks.

16 144 .... 696,960=4 pecks.

32 288 ..... 1,393,420=8 pecks.

48 432 ..... 2,090,880=3 bushels.

64 576 2,787,840=4 bushels.

80 720 3,428,800=5 bushels.

If a square foot be divided into four equal parts, and
one kernel of wheat be planted in the middle of each
section, if the wheat be of ordinary size, it will require
about one peck of grain per acre. By dividing each
square foot into sixteen sections, three inches square,
and planting one kernel in the centre of each section,
about one bushel of seed will be required per acre.
But, if seed wheat were drilled in or sowed broadcast,
as thick as this estimate, the growing plants will be
found to stand as thickly as they should be in order to
grow advantageously, and yield abundantly.

The beginner can enlarge, at pleasure, on these sug
gestions, as everything seems to be quite indefinite,
after making our most satisfactory estimates.

WHAT BECOMES OF THE SEED.

Intelligent cultivators of soil, from time immemorial,
have asked this question with much solicitude. From
my early boyhood, to the present time, I have been on
the lookout for a philosophical answer to this inquiry ;

THE WHEAT CULTCJKIST. 279

but have met with none. I shall attempt to give a phi
losophical, and I trust, a satisfactory answer. Farmers
do know one thing, concerning whicli there is no guess
work — no uncertainty — which is, that all the seed sown
does not grow. Therefore, what becomes of it, is an
important inquiry.

A portion of seed wheat never germinates ; because
the germ of some of the kernels has been injured, and
thus deprived of all vitality. Kernels of wheat are in
jured, sometimes when the grain is thrashed ; and in
numerous instances, the kernels sprout before the grain
is garnered. The tender sprouts perish in the sunshine,
when the wheat is dried ; but the kernels appear changed
little, if any. Yet, the germs are destroyed. Of course,
if such grain be employed for seed, it never comes up.
Much of the good seed also never comes up, for the fol
lowing reasons : In some instances, the grain is buried
so deep, that the substance of the kernels which pro
duces the stem, is all exhausted, before reaching the sur
face of the ground. Of course, all such kernels will
never come up. Some other kernels are deposited in
an unfavorable place, surrounded with lumps and stones,
where they sprout, but fail to grow. Birds pick up a
share before the grain is buried in the seed-bed. In
sects take a share ; and where several kernels happen
to be planted so closely together that all cannot grow,
for want of space, a portion of the young plants must
cease to grow, and at length fail and die. The young
leaves of wheat, soon after they appear above ground,
are very tender and good for birds of various kinds,
which often bite off large numbers of the stems, close
to the surface of the ground. Such plants seldom re
cover from the injury thus received. In numerous

2SO THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

instances, a thousand crows, or pigeons, descend on a
field of wheat, and destroy one fourth part of the young
plants. Domestic fowls are frequently allowed to range
over wheat fields, when they destroy plants sufficient to
make bushels of grain. I might mention other maraud
ers that commit depredations on the growing wheat.
But these must suffice.

How TO RAISE EARLY GRAIN OR VEGETABLES.

On the subject of raising plants that mature early, a
practical farmer wrote in the " Independent " as follows :

In localities where seasons are comparatively short —
where late frost is liable to cut down the young plants,
and early frost to damage the fruit or grain — it is of
great importance that seed for future crops be raised and
secured with great care. It will require the exercise of
much good care for many successive years to effect any
remarkably good change in any crop with reference to
its early maturity. But, on the contrary, by exercising
no care, it will be easy to manage in such a manner as
to have plants mature very late in the season, and at
the same time to yield an inferior crop. If we desire
to have crops ripen early, we may have the pleasure of
seeing our efforts to secure such a result crowned with
good success. But if that is a subject which gives us
but little anxiety, our contented desires will be satisfied
by seeing our crops come to maturity long after our
enterprising neighbors have harvested their fields of
grain.

Now, if we desire to raise early grain, or early vege
tables of any kind, we must select the seed that ripens
the very first. The first ripe panicles of carrot seed and

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 281

parsnip seed, the first ripe pods of beans, peas, or other
leguminous plants, and the first ripe pods of turnip seed,
if selected carefully every year, will effect a very desir
able improvement in the crop, both in its excellence as
to quantity and quality, as well as in the period of early
maturity. But by planting the half-ripe and late seed
the crop will degenerate very rapidly.

By planting only a small part of the seed-end of pota
toes for several successive seasons where they will receive
the best of cultivation, a kind of potato may be pro
duced that will be fit to dig several weeks before those
potatoes would mature that are treated in the usual way.
These considerations hold good concerning the entire
vegetable kingdom ; and the young farmer may avail
himself of very great advantages arising from them, if
he will commence in good time. By saving the first
ripe seed from year to year, all our early vegetables and
grain have been brought to their present excellence ; and
if the first ripe seed be not carefully saved from year to
year, we cannot reasonably expect our crops will ripen
early, nor remunerate us for the labor bestowed in their
cultivation.

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT SEED WHEAT.

No farmer can reasonably expect to raise a bountiful
crop of superior wheat from inferior seed, even if his soil
be well adapted to the production of this kind of cereal
grain, having been fertilized and cultivated in the most
thorough manner. The legitimate tendency of every
seed possessing vitality, in the vegetable as well as in
the animal kingdom, is to produce others like itself; and
it is not a common occurrence for animals to beget, or

282 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

for seeds to produce others of their kind, superior -to
themselves ; for it is not practicable for animals or plants
to transmit to their offspring excellent characteristics
and qualities which they never possessed, and which have
not been common to their progenitors.

Excellent wheat may be raised from shrunken kernels
of inferior size, by selecting the best grains for seed for
several successive seasons. Yet the improvement in
grain the first season will be hardly perceptible. Wheat,
as well as Indian corn, will hybridize when different
varieties are grown in close proximity ; and, though a
mongrel grain may yield as many bushels per acre as a
pure kind of seed, still such seed will not be so good for
producing another crop as if the grain had not been
mixed. For this reason, mixed grain should be rejected
for seed ; and none sowed except such kinds as have
been grown with great care for several successive
seasons. That farmer who practises selecting his seed
wheat from year to year, as most people gather their
Indian corn which is designed for seed the next season,
will always raise more bountiful crops of better grain
than he could produce on the same soil, with cultivation
equally as good, by using seed that has not been saved
with special reference to a future crop. When a large
crop of wheat is all thrashed together, the grain of the
small, half-ripe heads is by no means suitable for seed.
For this reason, many farmers meet with great disap
pointment in their crop of spring wheat. They sowed
poor, half-ripe, shrunken kernels, with the confident ex
pectation that the yield of new grain would most
assuredly be of a superior quality.

If seed wheat is only of a common quality, with many
inferior kernels among the grain, before seed-time, the

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 283

whole of it should be run through a good fann ing-mill,
having sieves and screens with meshes of suitable size to
separate the large kernels from the small ones, as the
latter will yield quite as good flour, although such grain
is not so good for seed.

In every plant of wheat, barley, or oats, there is
always one best ear, and in every ear there is always one
best grain, which is that one found at the following
harvest to produce the best plant, all the grains having
been planted in competition with each other.

The best of all the competing plants of any " family "
of a cereal is ascertained by the most studious comparison
of the good qualities they visibly present, and of the
notes of the peculiarities exhibited by each during the
whole course of its growth, such as — the rapidity with
which the parent seed germinates ; the manner, time,
and extent of the "tillering" of the plant; the periods
of its earing, blooming, and ripening ; its power of with
standing disease, frost, wet ; the toughness of its straw,
and any other characteristics which are essential to form
ing a correct decision, and which cannot be determined,
except by a careful observation of the plant during its
entire growth, until the grain is fully matured.

We very frequently discover a head of wheat, a few
panicles of oats, a few pods of peas, and such-like, which
have come to maturity, while the great bulk of the crop
remains quite green. Now, could this seed be carefully
preserved and planted by itself, we should perceive a
decided improvement in the next crop, not only in the
time of maturing, but in the superior quality of the grain
or vegetables which sprang from the seed. Were
farmers of our country to practise saving their seed
grain, the wealth of the nation might be doubled.

284 THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST.

THE PROPER DEPTH TO COVER WHEAT.

I believe that every intelligent farmer will admit that
wheat may be sowed too shallow, as well as too deep.
A thinner covering is required in a close heavy soil, than
in one light, gravelly, or sandy. The following experi
ments were made by Petri, the results of which would
vary with the moisture or dryness of the soil. They
are given as a specimen of trials of this kind, which if
often repeated by farmers, would afford them much val
uable information :

Seed sown to
a depth of

1-2 inch . . ,

Appeared above
ground in

11 days

Number of plants
that came up.

. . . 7-8ths.

1 " . . ,

. 12 "

. . . all.

2 " . . ,

18 "

. . . 7-8ths.

3 " . . .

20 "

. . . 6-8ths.

4 "

21 "

. . . 1-2.

5 " .

. 22 " . . .

. . . 3-8ths.

6 "

23 "

. l-8th.

Judging from the unusually great length of time here
recorded for the plants in the foregoing experiments to
come up, I think the seed must have been sowed in
very dry ground, or the weather must have been very
cold, as it is extremely uncommon for wheat, or any
other grain, when planted under circumstances at all
favorable to vegetation, to be so long coming up. Un
der favorable circumstances, wheat will come up in six
or eight days ; and in warm weather, where the soil is
tolerably moist, wheat will come up in one week, and
make leaves so large that the field will appear quite
green.

In order to test the comparative influence of plant

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 285

ing seed deep and shallow, on the germination of wheat,
on the 6th of July, 1867, I instituted the following ex
periment : I planted eight rows of wheat, a few inches
apart, with fourteen kernels in each row. The ground
was in only a moderate degree of fertility, and mellow
ness. A dibble about as large as \ny little finger was
marked oif with cuts one inch apart, from one inch to
eight. Fourteen holes were made one inch deep, into
each of which a kernel of grain was dropped, and the
holes filled with mellow soil. The kernels in the sec
ond row, fourteen in number, were planted, or dibbled
two inches deep. The same number of kernels was
planted three inches deep, in the third row. The fourth
row of fourteen kernels was four inches deep. The
fifth row, five inches deep. The sixth row, six inches
in depth. The seventh, seven inches deep ; and the
fourteen kernels in the eighth row, were dropped in
holes eight inches deep ; and all the holes were filled
with mellow soil ; and every evening, the surface was
moistened with water from a rose-spout watering-pot.
Now for the result :

On the morning of July llth, four spears had ap
peared in the first row, where the kernels were planted
one inch deep ; and before night, those four stems were
each more than one inch high. July 12th, in the morn
ing, two spears more, in number one, were half an inch
high. In numbers two and three, the same morning,
there were two spears ir. each ; and one spear in number
two, more than an inch high. On the morning of the
13th, there were ten spears in number one; four in
number two ; six in number three ; and two spears in
number four. In number three one spear was three
inches high. At sunset of the same day, this last spear

286 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

was five inches high, having grown two inches in length
between sunrise and sunset. In number five, at sun
down, of the 13th of July, one spear of wheat had come
up, after sunrise, and had grown two inches high. In
number six, one spear had grown one inch high during
the day. On the 14th of July, in number one, there were
eleven spears ; in number two, there wTere seven ; in
number three, eight spears ; in number four, five spears ;
in number five, three spears ; in number six, two spears.
On the morning of the 15th, one spear more appeared
in number one ; one more in number four ; and one
more in number six.

It will be seen by this diary, which I recorded with
my own pen, that none of the grain was over eight days
in coming up. After waiting for more than two weeks
for the plants in number seven, planted seven inches
deep, and those in number eight, deposited eight inches
below the surface, I removed the soil carefully, and
found a few of the stems nearly ready to appear above
the surface of the seed-bed. But, out of the twenty-
eight kernels that were planted, half of them seven, and
the other half eight inches deep, not a vestige could be
found of only four, the stems of which were exceeding
ly feeble and slender ; and for lack of material to form
the stem from the kernel to the surface, vegetation
ceased, and the stems died. What ever became of the
other kernels, seems to be a mystery.

But the experiment demonstrated one point, most
conclusively, namely, that if seed wheat be buried too
deep, the kernels may germinate. But there will not be
sufficient material in the grain to form a healthful and
strong stem to the surface of the ground. It matters
not, what becomes of seed planted seven or eight inches

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 287

deep. Experience proves that such grain seldom comes
up. This suggests the fallacy of plonghing-in seed wheat,
as much of the seed will be buried so deep that the
stems can never reach the surface of the ground.

Winter grain of all kinds, will endure the influences
of the freezing and thawing of the soil with far less in
jury to the growing plants if the seed be put in shallow,
rather than deep. I have endeavored to make this sub
ject intelligible, under the head of Injury to Wheat
Plants by Freezing and Thawing, on page 126.

CULTURE OF SPKING WHEAT.

There are many erroneous impressions touching the
culture of spring wheat, which I desire to correct. But,
I don't know as I can do it. And, I believe I shall not
make much of an effort to induce men to think, that
spring wheat will grow luxuriantly, and yield satisfac
torily, where a crop of winter wheat can be produced.
But I know this to be a fact, notwithstanding it has been
controverted, by some intelligent farmers. More than
this, I know that under certain circumstances, a bounti
ful crop of spring wheat can be produced, where the
land, in its present condition, would not yield a crop of
winter wheat worth harvesting. I record it as a rule
then, that wherever the land will produce a crop of win
ter wheat, spring wheat may be grown most satisfacto
rily.

Tone! n'ng the subject of the culture of spring wheat,
the editor of the " Prairie Farmer " writes that " spring
wheat in the Northwest is comparatively a modern
crop. Spring- wheat flour has one never-failing char
acteristic to distinguish it from that of winter wheat :

288 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

the dough is soft, and requires much more kneading
than that of winter wheat ; this occurs from the fact
that it contains more gluten than the latter, and conse
quently less starch ; it being thus more highly nitrogen-
ized, is very valuable for food, perhaps more so than
winter wheat. The yellow cast to some specimens of
flour is due to ~bearded wheat, as the laid varieties pro
duce white flour. The excess of gluten gives the bread
a more brown appearance than the winter wheat, which
is nearly pure starch.

" It may be interesting to many of our readers to look
a little into the history of spring wheat as used, or its
culture. Strictly speaking, we have no natural spring
wheat ; the variety that is called such is simply an
artificial variety of winter wheat that can be readily
changed back to its normal condition. It is well to un
derstand this fact, for upon it much may depend. In
the culture of spring wheat the nearer approach we
make to treating it as a biennial the better will be the
crop. To do this, the plant must undergo a rest — that
is, at some early period of its growth it should come to
a stand for a short period. This answers to the natural
condition of the plant.

" Previous to 1834, little attention was paid to this
trait in the habit of the plant, most farmers taking it
for granted that spring wheat was as distinct from that
of winter as an annual was from a biennial. A little
reflection would, however, show this folly. Was spring
wheat an annual it would produce good crops when
sown later in the season, say through the month of April,
or after frost has ceased to harden the surface. But we
all know that to produce a good crop we must sow as
soon as the frost begins to come out, even if we sow in

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 289

the mud ; it is not safe to wait until the ground settles.
Should a cold snap come so as to freeze the ground a
foot deep, all the better ;. the wheat will come forward
with more vigor, and produce a better crop — in fact,
the crop can be sown just as it freezes up in December,
or at any time when the ground is thawed to the depth
of two inches, in January or February. The oat, which
is strictly an annual, cannot be treated in this manner,
neither can any other annual farm crop. It is true that
some of the seeds of annual grains will remain sound
through the winter, but should they be started by warm
weather, the plants die. Not so of spring wheat when
sown ; cold and warm weather follows so as to sprout
the seed ; the plants live through the winter, and thus
return to the normal condition. This lets us into the
secret of the success of the early sown spring wheat,
giving it, to a great extent, the condition of a biennial
plant. The occasional freezing spells that occur after
germinating arrest growth for a time, giving it a sort of
hybernation answering all the purposes of a long winter
without subjecting the plant to sudden changes after
the roots have run deep into the soil, as in the case with
winter wheat sown in August or September, the break
ing of which destroys the plant." (See page 126.)

THE DIFFEKENCE EXPLAINED.

The foregoing suggestions are orthodox; yet, they
need a little explanation. The young plants of certain
varieties of spring wheat, are as tender as growing oats,
and frost will injure them as soon and as severely, as
freezing will damage young oat plants. This applies to
such spring wheat as has been so thoroughly changed

13

290 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

from a winter, to a spring grain that the plants will not
endure severe freezing. Spring wheat of this charac
ter, should never be sowed until the ground has become
thoroughly warmed. This accounts for the fact, that in
numerous instances, certain farmers have always had
better success when they have sowed their spring wheat
quite late in the spring. On the contrary, when a va
riety of spring wheat is still so much of a winter wheat,
that freezing does not injure the young plants in the
spring, the seed should be put in as early as practica
ble ; and the crop will be the better for early seeding.

These thoughts will explain why it is best to sow
spring wheat very late, sometimes ; and early in the
growing season, at other times. A farmer must know
his seed — of what sort it is. Then, he must understand,
most thoroughly, the habit of growth, and how far the
variety has been changed from a winter to a spring
grain. When he possesses a perfect understanding of
these points, he will experience very little difficulty in
growing fair crops of spring wheat, provided his seed is
right. (Kead pages 170 and 171.)

MONROE'S ROTARY HARROW.

The harrow herewith illustrated, represents an imple
ment invented by H. Hi Monroe, Rockland, Maine, and
manufactured by " The American Agricultural Works,"
Tenth avenue and Twenty-fourth street, New York
city. The arms of this harrow are all united at the
centre, and a circular way made of a flat bar of iron
is bolted to each arm, near the outer extremity. An
iron wheel travels on this way when the harrow is in
motion. The object of the iron wheel is to press the

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

291

teeth on one side of the harrow into the soil farther
than the teeth enter on the opposite side. The harrow
is drawn by the arm that is
bolted to the centre of the
implement. As the teeth
on the side where the wheel
is, take a ranker hold of the
ground than the teeth of the
opposite side, the teeth that
enter the ground the deep
est, hold that side of the har
row back, while the other
side is drawn forward. By
this means, the harrow has
a compound movement — a
motion forward and a rotary
motion. The harrow can
be made to rotate in either
direction by changing the
travelling wheel. The arm
that supports the travelling
wheel is secured to the mid
dle of the harrow in such a
manner that the wheel can
be placed on either side of
the harrow. In harrowing
along a hollow, or dead
furrow, this harrow can be
made *to rotate toward the
lowest place, so as to fill it

FIG. 8*.— Monroe's Eotary Harrow.

up with sods and lumps.

When harrowing sod ground, the harrow can be made

to rotate the same way the furrow slices are turned, or

292 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

in the opposite direction. The teeth never clog ; and
for harrowing in any kind of grain, this style of harrow
is far superior to the ordinary harrow, because this will
not crowd the seed into rows, like the harrow that
moves straight forward.

SPRING WHEAT REQUIRES MANURE.

In the culture of spring wheat, whatever may be the
variety, thorough and repeated ploughing, with the appli
cation of rich manures, putting in the seed evenly, and
then using the harrow or drill for covering it, are the
conditions to be fulfilled by man. Then, unless the
season should prove to be very unpropitious, a remuner
ative crop may be expected. Let this system of thorough
cultivation become general, and you will not then hear
very often of the failure of the wheat crop. A few
farmers are pursuing this course of thorough tillage.
They devote only a few acres to wheat, but expend a
large amount on the cultivation of these few acres.
And the result is, just what any sensible man might ex
pect, a bountiful crop rewarding all their toil. The
time is doubtless coming, when a kind of necessity may
compel many a farmer to adopt a similar course, if he
wishes to have good bread to eat.

In England and Southern Scotland, wheat has been
successfully and profitably cultivated for centuries.
Why may it not in these United States, if similar pains
are taken ? Almost all our farms contain at least a few
acres on which wheat might be sown and a profitable
harvest gathered, if proper cultivation were bestowed
on it. Barely ploughing the ground once or twice, and
then harrowing in the seed sown, are by no means

THE WHEAT CULTTJKIST. 293

enough. Let me repeat the oft-reiterated suggestion,
that wheat, whether winter or spring grain, requires a
kind of mineral manure that will reproduce grain, and
not straw.

Joseph Harris, of Rochester, New York, writes on
this subject : " The introduction of turnip culture and
drill husbandry into England banished summer fallows
from all but the heaviest clay soils. There was good
reason for this : the turnips required and received extra
cultivation. As soon as the wheat crop is harvested,
the land is scarified and ploughed in the autumn, and
two or three times in the spring, and rolled and har
rowed, and scarified, till it is as free from weeds and as
mellow as an ash heap ; then the turnips are sown in
drills from two to two and a half feet apart. The plants
are singled out by hand-hoes in the rows, from twelve
to fifteen inches apart, and the horse-hoe is kept con
stantly going between the rows, and the hand-hoe when
ever necessary. In this way the land is as effectually
cleaned and mellowed as if it had been summer-fallowed.
Hence turnips have been appropriately termed a ' fal
low crop.' But we have as yet no such fallow crop in
America. I am aware that Indian corn is sometimes
called a ' fallow crop,' because, like turnips, it admits
the use of the horse-hoe ; but it is not, strictly speaking,
a fallow or renovating crop, because it impoverishes the
soil of the same plant food as the wheat crop requires.
So much has been said in England against summer fal
lows, and these opinions have been reiterated so often
by the agricultural press of this country, for the last
thirty years, that there is a very general opinion that
summer fallows are unnecessary. This impression, while
it may have done some good, has also done considerable

294: THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

harm. Farmers have neglected their summer fal
lows." «•;;•

THE CONCLUSION OF WHEAT GROWING.

]STow, if our farmers would only regard their own
most important interests, and the interests of those
who may cultivate the soil after them, every sheep,
every swine, and every bullock would be put in excel
lent condition for the slaughter-house before leaving the
farm. Then there would, necessarily, be something left
behind to maintain the fertility of the soil, and thus
produce more abundant crops of grain and larger and
fatter cattle the next season.

Were I asked by a farmer on the cold soil of Maine
how to produce wheat there, I would say, raise mutton.
Were the same question propounded by a Canadian, I
would answer, make mutton, and apply the manure to
the soil. Were the farmers of the West to inquire how
to raise better crops of wheat, from year^to year, instead
of poorer yields, which is now the rule, still my answer
would be, make mutton, by feeding coarse grain and
turnips. This is what the farmers of our country must
eventually come to — making mutton — before they can
expect to produce such crops of wheat as once grew on
our virgin soils. By making mutton from year to year,
and applying the manure thus produced by the sheep,
farmers will learn that they will receive more money
from their flocks, and the yield of grain will increase
from year to year, instead of diminishing.

Some chemists tell us that ammoniacal fertilizers
should always be covered up with a little earth, to pre
vent loss by evaporation. This is correct. On the
contrary, they state that such fertilizers as lime and

THE WHEAT CULTFRIST.

295

potash, or ashes, should be spread on the surface, be*
cause such heavy fertilizing material has a tendency to
work downward into the soil. The main point, in my
own estimation is, to make rich manure, and cover
it with a thin dressing of soil. J. Harris says, " There,
is not enough ammonia in a ton of such stuff as many
farmers call manure, to make hartshorn enough for a
lady's smelling-'bottle ! ! ! Instead of ploughing in so
much clover for wheat, then, let us convert it into wool
and mutton ; and if we can give our sheep peas, or
beans, or oilcake in addition, it will tell wonderfully on
the manure, and on the crops to which it is applied."

The illustration herewith given represents a new and
eminently useful coulter, to prevent clogging when
ploughing stubble ground, or when turning under
coarse manure or
clover — invented by
M. A. Spink, Rensse-
laer Falls, New York,
and sold also by R.
H. Allen & Co., 189
Water street, New
York city. It can be
readily attached to
the beam of almost
any plough, with the
same fastening that
is required to secure
an ordinary coulter
in the desired posi
tion. The shank of the coulter should stand perpen
dicularly on the beam of the plough, as represented by
the illustration. The upper part of the blade is made as

FIG. 38.— Spink's An ti -clogging Coulter.

296

THE WHEAT CULTUR1ST.

represented by the figure, with the upper point bending
over to the left three or four inches from a line with the
shank. As the stubble or coarse manure is forced 'up
along the edge of the blade, it is conveyed to the left of
the shank and falls off the point of the blade, instead of
being gathered beneath the beam to clog the plough.

THE STAK CULTIVATOK.

In some sections of country where wheat is cultivated
to considerable extent, farmers like such an implement
for preparing the ground, as is represented by the

FIG. 39.— The Star Cultivator.

accompanying illustration of a combined cultivator and
seed-drill, which is manufactured by Ewell & Co., Bal
timore, Maryland. In the next chapter this cultivator is
shown with the roller and seeding apparatus attached.

THE WUEAT CULTUBIST.

297

In this figure the roller and seed-box are not repre
sented ; but in the place of the roller two gauge- wheels
appear. The implement needs little or no explanation,
as the cut gives a fair idea of the various parts. The
ploughs regulate themselves, as to depth ; and by means
of the cam lever, they may be raised entirely out of the
ground in an instant, or made to run at any desired
depth.

CAHOON'S HAND GKAIN SOWER.

The illustration given in connection with this article
represents a person sowing seed with one of Gaboon's

FIG. 40.— A Hand Sower.

sowers, for distributing any kind of grain, broadcast, by
means of hand machinery, which the laborer carries,

13*

298 THE WHEAT CULTTJKIST.

working it as he travels over the field. The grain" is
carried in a receptacle to which the machinery is
attached. At one side of the machine is a distributing
wheel, with arms, or flanges, which play in the issue of
the grain receptacle. When the machine is not in
motion the grain cannot flow out ; but, as soon as the
crank is turned, the grain is scattered broadcast in front
of the sower. If every part of the machine is made per
fectly, and if the operator can exercise mechanical skill
in managing difficult machinery, he can sow grain evenly
and rapidly with such a seed sower.

But there are some difficulties attending the manage
ment of such a grain sower, to which it is proper for me
to allude, so that a farmer may understand exactly what
he is purchasing, when he procures one of this style of
machines. There is the same liability to scatter seed
unevenly with this sower as when sowing broadcast by
hand. If the operator does not walk exactly at a uniform
gait, and if he does not keep his body in a steady posi
tion, without wriggling, and does not turn the crank at
a uniform velocity, he will not be likely to sow the
seed as evenly as it should be. By turning the body
only a little either way, from a direct, straightforward
course, the direction of the falling grain will be changed
very much. By turning the crank faster, the grain will
be distributed over a wider breadth of land. A skilful
operator will regulate the motion of the crank by his
steps.

A more complete description of this seed sower may
be found in K. H. Allen & Co.'s catalogue of his agricul
tural implements, 189 Water Street, New York city,
price $1. It is sold also by " The Ames Plough Com
pany," 53 Beekman Street, New York city; and is

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 299

warranted to operate satisfactorily, which it will do, if
the machine be used with the skill required. I have
penned the foregoing suggestions, more for the benefit
of farmers, than for the pecuniary advantage of the
manufacturer of the machine. I have alluded to the
difficulties which will be met with in operating such a
seed sower, so that a common laborer might not be dis
appointed, when using it.

SOWING GRAIN BROADCAST.

Every farmer should learn to sow all kinds of grain
and grass seed broadcast. I say he should learn to do
it. Yery few men are able to sow anything evenly.
On some kinds of land, a drill cannot be used.

In sowing, either by furrows or stakes, always throw
the grain from the margin of the field ; because one can
sow much more evenly up to the margin by throwing
away from it, than he can to throw toward it. Let the
grain slip off the ends of the fingers, and not between the
thumb and fingers, nor between the fingers. Make cal
culations how wride to sow at one through, or once
across ; and endeavor to give the grain such a cast that
it will come down as evenly as possible.

In sowing by middle furrows and ridges, which, if the
ploughing has been done correctly, will be just twenty-
two feet apart, I always sow just eleven feet to a cast.
I can usually sow more evenly by walking about mid
way from each edge of the strip that I am sowing. It
matters little where a sower walks, if he only distributes
his grain evenly.

Casting the grain all one way is the most approved
manner of sowing, with many farmers. When sowing

300

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

is performed in this manner, some farmers mark out
the ground with marks just eleven feet apart ; and the
sower travels in the marks ; and if he commences sowing
east and west on the north margin of the field, he starts

i'w. 41. — Sowing Grain Broadcast.

at the east end, travelling on the margin, and casts the
grain to the south with his right hand, sowing up to the
first mark.

The most convenient receptacle to sow from, is a bag

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 301

of ordinary size, liung over the shoulder, as shown in
the illustration. Read all about the manipulations of
sowing grain in first volume of my Young Farmer's
Manual, which may be had of the author.

XriTixo's FANNING MILT,.

FIG. 42.— Grain Separator.

Every farmer who raises grain should have a fanning
mill that will separate the small from the large kernels.
Rufus Nutting, Randolph, Vermont, is the inventor of
an excellent fanning mill and seed separator, which
is represented by the accompanying illustration. The
"Annual Register," when extolling the merits of this mill,
states that, at one of the fairs of the State Society, an
agent put one of the poorest samples of grain through
this mill, returning it to the bag with the large kernels
on the top. When the judges saw the grain, they
awarded the first prize to the poorest entry of wheat,

302 THE WHEAT CULTUEIST.

not knowing that the large kernels were all on the sur
face. The screens are so constructed that they have
almost the smoothness of glass, and are made by press
ing common wire screens, rendering the meshes im
movable and always accurate, increasing their durabil
ity, giving them the character of glazed muslin, and
allowing the seed to slide over them, when slightly in
clined from a level. The latter quality gives them their
preeminent advantage. The seed never falls directly
upon them, but first upon a smooth surface, flat with
the screen, in passing over which and to the screen,
every oblong grain has assumed a horizontal position.
If longer than the meshes, it goes over them ; if shorter,
it drops through. Such a mixture, therefore, as spring
wheat and oats, often so troublesome to the farmer, is
perfectly separated. Even barley and spring wheat are
separated, the barley grains being slightly longer, and
enough lighter to be driven more by the current of wind.
Wheat is cleaned from chess in a complete manner. J.
J. Thomas says, " For cleaning grass seed, we have never
witnessed anything that would compare with this fan.
A mixture of clover and timothy was run through once
together.; in one drawer was found entirely pure timothy
seed, and in another, clover without a single grain of
timothy ; the intermediate drawer had a very small quan
tity of imperfect seeds of clover, a very little timothy,
and some other seeds of weeds.

" The current of wind is so completely at command,
that all degrees of strength, from the imperceptible breeze
to the blast that sweeps away heavy grain, may be readily
given. This peculiarity, in connection with the screens,
enables the operator to separate any seeds whatever, that
differ either in shape, size, or weight.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

303

" A most important office performed by this machine
is the separation of the different-sized seed of the
same grain. Pass, for instance, ten bushels of wheat
through the screens ; one portion will be found a uni
formly small grain ; another about medium ; a third,
large, plump and first rate. The first and third would
not be supposed to have grown in the same field. In
this way, excellent seed wheat may be obtained from an
ordinary crop; and the best bushel in fifty, or the best
ten bushels in fifty, may be separated at the option of
the farmer."

HARDER'S IMPROVED FANNING MILL.

The illustration herewith given represents an im
proved fanning mill
of a superior kind,
manufactured by
R. & M. Harder,
Cobleskill, Schoha-
rie County, New
York. This mill
is adapted to clean
ing all kinds of
grain and grass
seeds ; and, I be
lieve, gives excellent satisfaction. Every farmer who
raises grain should possess an excellent fanning mill,
and always clean his seed grain thoroughly.

DIBBLING ix WHEAT.

The process of dibbling-in seed wheat consists in sim
ply making a hole in the ground with one finger, or with
the end of a pointed stick about as large as a man's

FIG. 43.— Fanning Mill.

304 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

forefinger. The dibble is put through a hole in a block
of wood about three inches square, which furnishes a
shoulder to prevent making a hole more than two, or two
and a half inches deep. If no shoulder is attached to
the dibble, where the soil is mellow, there is danger that
the dibble will be thrust into the ground too far. The
operator carries his seed in a sack or planting-bag
secured to his body, as when planting Indian corn.
The soil is first put in excellent tilth, as the dibbling
process cannot be conducted satisfactorily, where there are
lumps of earth and stones. The surface of the ground
is made smooth and even, by raking and rolling. Then
a line is stretched across the piece to be dibbled ; and as
fast as one hand makes a hole with the dibble, the other
drops one kernel into the bottom of the recess ; and each
hole is filled with mellow soil. This constitutes the en
tire process of dibbling-in grain.

It has been stated in certain agricultural papers, that
if seed wheat were dibbled in, the yield would be double
the amount of grain that could be raised on the same
ground by any other mode of seeding. But there is no
reason to believe that one bushel of grain more could be
produced by dibbling-in the seed than by putting in
with a good drill. The fact that statements have been
made by farmers, to show the superiority of dibbling
over drilling or broadcast seeding, does not make it so.
We want the evidence of numerous well-conducted ex
periments to prove it. If the soil is in an excellent
state of fertility, the yield of grain will be as large
when put in with Beckwith's drill (page 306), as if drilled
in by hand. Indeed, seed is, to all intents and purposes,
drilled in, by such a drill, as I have just alluded to.

Dibbling can be practised advantageously and eco-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 305

nomically, only where there is an abundance of cheap
labor. If a farmer has no drill, and has time to spare,
it will pay him to put an acre of land into first-rate con
dition ; and dibble in the seed. When experimenting
on a small scale with the production of new varieties,
the seed may be dibbled in.

As the stools of wheat will tiller sufficiently to occupy
the entire ground if the soil be rich, if the kernels be
planted seven inches apart in the drills and the same
distance in the rows, the yield of grain will be fully as
large as if more seed had been planted.

In Stephens' " Book of the Farm," an English work,
the author has penned a paragraph on dibbling-in grain.
But a concluding sentence leads one to infer that he
knows nothing practically about this system of seeding ;
as he says, " It is asserted by those who have put in
wheat by dibbling, that the yield will be five quarters
and a half (forty-four bushels) per acre ; and that one
bushel of seed is sufficient for an acre."

The " Country Gentleman " contains a brief account
of a Michigan farmer, who attempted to dibble in wheat
on a large scale, by constructing a roller having ridges
and creases, similar to Beckwith's drill (page 306). But
the experiment was doubtless too rude to prove anything,
either for or against, the system of dibbling.

The superintendent of the County Poor-house, hav
ing a large number of men under his supervision, with
out pay, had an acre of land prepared as for a carrot
bed, and the seed dibbled in by hand. It was a tedious
process. But the yield was no heavier than if the seed
had been put in with a drill.

The idea that by pressing the soil around the seed, or
by pressing the soil before the seed is put in, will pro-

306 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

dace a larger yield of grain, than if the seed were put
into the mellow ground without any such compressing
of the seed-bed, is all moonshine, and unphilosophical.

BECKWITH'S ROLLER DRILL.
The accompanying representation of a drill will furnish

FIG. 44.-Beckwith's Koller Drill.

a fair idea of the style of implement made by P. D. Beck-
with, Dowagiac, Michigan. This drill consists of a series
of cast-iron rollers or wheel, one of which is shown in
the engraving, all placed on a wrought-iron shaft, or
axle, which will roll on the ground, each one independ
ent of the other, and which support the entire frame
and all the machinery of the drill. These rollers are
twenty-eight inches in diameter, and have a V-shaped
periphery, which, by the aid of the weight of the drill,
form small furrows in the soil to receive the seed.

The rollers are also made with sufficient hub to keep
them the proper distance apart, seven and a half inches

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 307

from centre to centre ; and each one is loose on the axle
and has an independent movement from each other, ex
cept the centre roller and one at the end, which are both
made fast on and rovolve with the axle. This end roller
drives the distributing apparatus ; and by the aid of the
centre wheel, will make a uniform motion for distribut
ing the seed regularly upon the most uneven ground.
The frame of the drill is made of two cast-iron slide-
pieces, with rounded corners in front, so as to ward off
stumps and other obstructions, when passing them, and
still be able to drive the machine very close to the same
so as to sow all the ground that can be ploughed in new
fields or among corn shocks, as many of our Western
farmers sow wheat after corn, the same fall, before the
corn is removed from the field.

The box or hopper for holding coarse grain is placed
behind the rollers, and is made in the usual form, and
has two iron plates or jaws at the bottom, one made fast
and the other movable. There is a wooden rod placed
under these plates, with wire pins projecting up between
and about one-half an inch above the plates into the
seed. This rod is made to vibrate by suitable lever
connections, a cam on the end, with roller. The wire
pins running between the plates of the hopper upward
into the seed will agitate and cause it to run out be
tween the opening, which can be regulated to sow the
desired quantity. The seed from the distributor is con
ducted down through iron pipes into the furrows made
by the rollers. There are inverted iron hoes, or cov-
erers, attached to the frame and drag behind the rollers
and conducting pipes, to cover the seed. These cov
erers can be raised from the ground, when turning
around, by means of a crank attached to the journal.

308 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

The grass-seed hopper is placed forward of the rollers
and deposits the seed broadcast. The distributor is a
slide of thin flat iron, placed in the bottom of the hop
per, with suitable holes in it to correspond with the
openings in the bottom of the hopper to regulate the
quantity sowed. The seed is agitated and made to pass
through these openings by a serrated rod made to vi
brate in the bottom of the hopper on the thin iron slide
by being attached to the levers on the cam of the end
roller.

These rollers all being on the one axle, will level the
ground similar to a field-roller, and leave the surface in
good condition for the reaper and mower ; and the roll
ers being loose on the shaft or axle, may be turned
around easily by the team.

Where the soil is light, and mellow, the grass-seed
distributor may be forward of the grain drill, as it is
better to cover grass seed with one inch or more of earth
on very light soils. But as a general rule, especially
where the soil is heavy, I think that the grass-seed dis
tributor should be placed behind the rollers, as there is
danger of covering grass seed too deep. Grass seed of
all kinds requires but little covering. My long expe
rience assures me that a larger proportion of grass seed
and clover seed will grow when sowed after the last
implement has been drawn over the surface than when
the seed is harrowed, rolled, or brushed in. There is
great danger of covering grass seed too deep. The first
shower of rain that falls on the field after the seed has
been sown, will cover almost every seed as deep as is
requisite to insure germination and luxuriant vegetation.

Another improvement in this excellent drill, besides
placing the grass-seed distributor behind the rollers, is

THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST. 309

forming the Y-shaped ridge on the surface of a broad thin
rim, say five inches wide. This style of rollers would
leave the surface of the ground more even, as all the
clods would be crushed when they are more than one
inch in diameter. If the periphery of' the rollers were
of this form, the channels made by the Y-shaped ridges
would all be of a uniform depth ; whereas, when con
structed of the present form, were the soil very mellow
and light, the channels would be made too deep. As
this roller drill deposits the kernels of grain about one
and a half or two inches deep, the roots of the growing
plants spread out nearly in a horizontal direction, more
in a mass, and thus withstand more effectually the influ
ences of freezing and thawing of the soil, and the con
sequent upheaving of the plants in the winter.

I think that all practical wheat-growers, who under
stand the habit of the wheat plant, and who appreciate
the importance of having the seed put into the soil at
a uniform depth, will agree that this drill operates on
principles strictly scientific, and in perfect harmony
with the habit of the growth of the wheat plant.
"Where there are stones and roots in the soil, to prevent
the operation of this drill, a tube drill is preferable.

PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES or DRILLING-IN WHEAT.

There is great advantage in having seed wheat cov
ered deep and uniformly in dry weather, in order to
insure more perfect germination. When wheat is sowed
broadcast and harrowed in, in dry weather, much of the
seed will never vegetate ; but the kernels will absorb a
little moisture during the night, which will all be dried
out during the daytime. By this alternate wetting and

310 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

drying of the grain the germs will be destroyed in a few
days. If the kernels be buried just deep enough to in
sure germination, but not having sufficient depth of
earth to prevent being dried up by the burning sun, the
young plants wither and die for want of depth of earth.
John Johnston, of Geneva, New York, writes : " I
noticed last year, on an adjoining farm, where the
wheat was drilled in, that it came up much better than
mine, where the seed was sown broadcast. In fact, the
wheat came up right. I could not account for the dif
ference, at the time, between the appearance of my
grain and this in my neighbor's field, as my land is in
as good state of cultivation as his; and the seed was
put in on both farms at the same time. His field pro
duced a good crop of grain, far above the average crop
of this county for several years past. It did not occur
to me, till this season, that the great difference between
the two crops, was owing to his wheat being drilled in
while mine was sowed broadcast and harrowed in. Last
season, we both sowed our winter wheat in the former
part of September. My ground had been summer fal
lowed, and I never saw a field in better condition for
receiving seed. A dry time ensued at the period of
sowing the seed. His drilled wheat came up evenly,
and grew luxuriantly ; while mine was exceeding thin
on the ground. On examining, I found that none of
my grain had vegetated, except those kernels that were
buried deepest in the soil. It occurred to me then that
if I had drilled in my wheat, my fields would have pro
duced five or six hundred bushels of grain more than
they did yield. I will drill in my wheat hereafter. Old
as I am, I still live and learn. I expect my wheat will
yield this season only about twelve bushels per acre.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 311

"With the exception of the crops raised in 1828 and 1831,
my wheat was the poorest this past season that I have
ever raised. The failure was mainly owing to the severe
drought in autumn, at seed time. Every wheat-grower
knows that it is impossible to obtain a remunerating
crop of wheat, when the seed sown in autumn does not
come up till after the growing season has commenced
the next spring."

THE PHILOSOPHY OF DKILLING-IN GRAIN.

By reviewing what is recorded under the heading of
The Habit of the Wheat Plant, page 49, and also page
126, the reader will understand the eminent import
ance of depositing every kernel of wheat at a uniform
depth.

This is aimed at when wheat is put in with an ordi
nary drill; and, for the most part, the end sought is
secured, if the soil be of a uniform quality and condi
tion, so that the teeth will run at a given depth. But
when the soil is mellow in some places, and hard in
others, some drills will ' deposit the seed in the mellow
places too deep, so that putting in with a drill will have
no advantage over sowing broadcast, so far as obviating
the injurious effects of freezing and thawing are con
cerned. The teeth of grain drills should be set to run
not more than two inches in depth. One and a half
inches deep for winter grain is better than two, for rea
sons already assigned, except where the soil is light and
dry, in which instance the seed should be deposited not
less than two inches in depth. Then, nearly all the
roots will be so near each other, that the expansion of
the soil will neither break the stem nor seriously dam-

312

THE WHEAT CTJLTUEIST.

FIG. 45.— Wheat Drilled In.

age the roots ; nor will it cause perceptible diminution
of the crop.

The accompanying illustration will furnish a practi
cal illustration of the mode and advantages of putting in

wheat with a drill.
It will be per
ceived that the
ears of grain are
of a uniform size,
and all the straws
are of a uniform
height. The fig
ure shows some of
ad vantages of drill-
ing-in the seed,
just as those points
are seen in a field

of growing wheat. The drilled grain, figure 45, being
deposited at a sufficient and uniform depth to receive
the moisture and the nourishment of the soil, comes up
more uniformly at one time, is better fed and nourished,
stands a drought much better, grows more vigorously,
ripens earlier and more uniformly, is not so liable to
rust, and the heads are larger and better filled.

When seed grain is drilled in, one man will complete
the operation, by simply going over the ground once.
If sowed broadcast, the ground must be harrowed twice
after the seed is sowed. This, in addition to the time
consumed in sowing the seed by hand, will require about
three times longer than is necessary to drill it in. More
over, the drill, if properly made and adjusted, will de
posit every kernel at a uniform depth ; whereas, the
harrow covers some of the seed too deep, some not deep

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 313

enough, and some not at all ; and if the soil be deep and
mellow, the feet of teams will press a considerable por
tion of it quite too deep.

Another advantage in drilling-in the seed is, as soon
as an acre or two is ploughed, the grain may be put in
immediately, thus finishing the work as fast as the
ground is ploughed. When grain is sowed broadcast, it
is much more convenient, and rather important, to have
the entire field ploughed before sowing, so as to be able
to harrow both ways. When a farmer has a drill, he
can plough an acre, then harrow it, and drill in the seed
all in one day, while the soil is fresh, which is the best
condition to hasten the germination of the grain. He
thus finishes his work as he progresses, and is always
ready for temporary interruptions by storms of rain,
which are often attended with more or less injury to the
crop. Such delays, especially with spring grain, are
often fatal to a good crop.

THE DISADVANTAGES or SOWING WHEAT BROADCAST.

The illustration given on the next page is a fair repre
sentation of growing wheat where the seed was scattered
broadcast and harrowed in. When wheat is sowed
broadcast and harrowed, a portion of the seed is left un
covered, exposed to the drying winds and scorching sun,
to the fowls and birds ; and that which is covered, is
at very unequal depths, some very deep, some medium
depth, and some so near the surface that in case of
drought, it fails to mature for lack of moisture. Winter
wheat sowed broadcast is much more liable to be
raised by the frost, and be thrown out upon the sur
face, there exposed to perish, for the reasons already as-

14

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

m

\r

FIG. 46.— Grain Sowed Broadcast.

signed, namely, that a portion of the seed is barely
covered with earth ; while much of it will be buried four
to six inches deep, by the feet of teams, where the soil

is mellow. If the
kernels are not all
buried at a uniform
depth, the stalks
will not grow of an
equal height and
size. If a farmer
will examine grow
ing wheat, after the
heads are formed, he
will see some large
and well-developed
heads, and some short stems and light, half-matured
ears. Of course, there will be a difference in the
periods of perfect maturity ; whereas, if the kernels
are all alike as to size, and all covered at a given depth,
the germs will start alike ; the stems will grow uniform
ly ; and the grain will ripen all at one time, so that no
loss will be sustained in consequence of the late matur
ity of a portion of the ears.

BROWN'S CELEBRATED (TRAIN DRILL.

The illustration herewith given represents a trans
verse section of the distributing apparatus of" a grain
drill invented by H. L. & C. P. Brown, Shortsville,
New York, Avhich is one of the best tube drills that I
have ever met with, as its action is very reliable and
uniform. This drill will distribute all kinds of grain
with admirable precision. In the box, the stirrer is rep
resented, which consists of an iron rod with wooden

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

315

FIG. 47.— Grain Distributor.

pins driven through it, so that the ends of the pins stir
the grain near the issue Ik ,

of each distributor, to
prevent clogging. Ker
nels of grain are repre
sented as passing through
the run, or passage from
the hopper to the issue
where the grain drops
into the tubes, and is con
ducted to the bottom of
the furrow opened by
each drill, before any of
the soil falls back over the
seed. The teeth on the
periphery of the wheel
which revolves within the case, sweep out a uniform
quantity of grain at
every revolution.
When the team starts
the drill, the drill be
gins to scatter the seed.
Figure 48 represents
the opposite side of
the same distributor,
for distributing peas
and beans. Either
side, or run, can be
shut off at pleasure.
Or every other distri
butor can be adjusted

tO Scatter Seed, if it is Flti- 4«--For Drilling-in Peas.

desirable. The quantity of seed per acre is regulated

316

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

by gear wheel of different sizes. Large numbers of this
style of drills have been manufactured by the firm al
luded to; and the same drill is made by the follow
ing manufacturers: Brown, Adams & Co., Shortsville,
1ST. Y. ; Whiteside, Barnett & Co., Brockport, K Y. ;
Titus & Bostwick, Ithaca, 1ST. Y. ; and Wiard & Waldo,
Oakneld, N". Y. I give the names of these firms for
the benefit of farmers who want good drills.

THE BUCKEYE GRAIN DRILL.

FIG. 49.

For the convenience of farmers in different sections
of the country, I have concluded to mention the Buck
eye Grain Drill,which
is represented by the
accompanying illus
tration, Fig. 49. This
is a tube drill closely
resembling the Brown
drill described on pre
vious pages. I can
recommend it with
all confidence, as

large numbers of them have been sold to grain-produc
ing farmers ; and I have never heard an adverse report,
that this drill did not sustain its high reputation. This
drill is manufactured extensively by manufacturers in
Springfield, Ohio, and by R. W. Cowan, Fleming, Ca-
yuga County, ISTew York.

CROSS-DRILLING SEED WHEAT.

Some farmers have been accustomed to drill in their
seed wheat as oats and barley are sometimes put in —

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 317

•

by drilling-ill half the desired amount per acre, by driv
ing the drill in one direction, and the remainder by run
ning the drill at a right angle to the first direction.
Some of our wheat-growers repose so much confidence
in this manner of drilling-in seed wheat, that they be
lieve it increases the amount of the crop from twenty
to twenty-five per cent. But, if any one will take the
trouble to decide this controverted point by a few well-
conducted experiments, he will satisfy himself that there
is really nothing gained, but a loss sustained, by putting
in winter wheat in that manner.

The chief objection to cross-drilling of winter wheat
is, that the feet of the teams — especially when the soil
is mellow and deep — will force much of the seed two
or three inches deeper than it was deposited by the
drill. Planting a portion of the grain two or more
inches deeper than the seed should be covered, and
deeper than the larger proportion of the grain is cov
ered, will be found to be decidedly objectionable for
winter grain of any kind. Indeed, such an uneven
manner of covering the seed will be found more objec
tionable for any kind of winter grain, than for spring
grain. Another objection to cross-drilling winter wheat
is, much of the seed that was drilled in the first time
will be displaced by the drill-tubes and left partly un
covered. And some farmers contend that the second
drilling destroys the little ridges made by the tubes.
But this theory amounts to nothing in a practical point
of view. Its abettors contend that the ridges made by
the drill-tubes are washed down to a level by the snows
and rains of winter, thus tending to the accumulation
of more soil over the roots of the wheat plants that have
been lifted out by the frost.

318 THE WHEAT CULTIJRIST.

FATAL EXPERIMENT WITH SEED WHEAT.

Farmers should remember that the germs of wheat
are organs of exceedingly delicate structure. They are
really things of life — little things, and of course, they
have but a small amount of vitality. For this reason,
it is exceedingly hazardous to tamper with the grain.
Let it be always kept distinctly in mind, that it does
not take much to destroy the germs of the grain. Young
farmers — and sometimes old ones who ought to know
better — have a great desire to try an experiment with
their seed grain. J. L. Rice, a farmer of Jefferson Coun
ty, New York, communicated the following suggestions,
which will save many a young farmer from falling into
a similar experiment. He writes thus to the " Cultiva
tor and Country Gentleman " :

" It is quite common nowadays to try experiments.
Some give i quite satisfactory ' results ; with others there
is nothing perceptible, either good or bad ; while a third
class often prove very disastrous. The one I am about
to give, is of the latter class, and I give it, not because
I like to say much about having done a very foolish
thing, neither would I recommend it to others — but as
a warning to those inclined to try experiments ; and,
where there is an even chance for a failure, to do it cau
tiously and on a small scale.

" In the fall of 1857, 1 had a piece of ground of about
four acres, upon which I thought I would risk a crop
of wheat. The land was in fine order, it having been
well manured previous to the crop of barley, just taken
from it — and to make it still better, it had another good
dressing after it was ploughed for the wheat. I could
see no reason, if the winter was favorable, why I should

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 310

not have a good crop. But about this time I was seized
with an intolerable itching to try an experiment. I
wanted to do something that would destroy the weevil —
keep the wire-worms at a proper distance — prevent
smut, and at the same time make the wheat grow, like
Jonah's gourd. Now, what would accomplish all this ?
Be patient, gentlemen, and I will tell you what I did,
and what was the result.

" My cow stable is so constructed, that the urine runs
back into a gutter by itself, and can be very easily taken
up, free from manure. I concluded to give my seed a
good wetting with this urine, and dry it off with lime,
and then sow it. I did so. It lay about six hours wet,
before the lime was applied, and then it was immediate
ly sowed and nicely dragged in. After waiting a suit
able time for it to come up, I went to see how it looked,
with the bump of expectation considerably enlarged.
But I was a little too soon — it had not made its appear
ance — it would come in a few days ; of course it would.
"Who ever knew a field of wheat sown, and not come
up ? Another week, and I went to take a look — but no
wheat ! The result was, it never did come up. I do
not believe, that if all that ever made its appearance
above ground, had been left to mature, there would have
been as much as a man would take upon a wheelbar
row. It was a total failure. This was wholly owing
to the experiment, for the seed was first rate. I sold
some to a neighbor, and it grew finely. Now, the ap
plication made, like a great many things recommended,
was not adapted to the end desired. True, it destroyed
the weevil — kept the wire- worms at bay, perhaps. As
to the smut, cannot say what the result would have
been ; but it killed the germ of the wheat.

320 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

"* Bought wit' is better than none; and I am riot
sure but that it is the lest ; for one is apt to remember
what he gets in this way. But it should not cost too
much. Mine, in this instance, cost me about twenty-
five dollars, as seed at that time was worth two dollars
a bushel ; besides not a little vexation and disappoint
ment. I would just say, that I have been rather shy
of that puddle behind my cows, ever since its use as
above mentioned. Although a very excellent fertilizer,
and should by all means be saved, it is better to mix it
with straw, and other absorbents, and apply it to the
land, and not, in its full strength and ra/io state, to seed
wheat or any other kind of seed. So I think."

BRINIXG SEED WHEAT.

"Some steep their seed, and some in caldrons boil,
With vigorous nitre and with lees of oil,
O'er gentle fires, th' exub'rant juice to drain,
And swell the flatt'ring husks with fruitful grain."

DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

Some wheat-growers contend that brining the seed is
of no practical utility. But the large majority of good
farmers concur in the belief, that washing the seed in
brine as strong as it can be made, will prevent smut.
It will also enable the farmer to skim out light wheat,
chess, and almost anything else that may be in the seed,
the strong brine bringing it to the surface much better
than mere water. The wheat should, while in the brine,
be stirred as long as any foul seed or light wheat rises ;
one bushel at once in a barrel is sufficient, with plenty
of brine ; then dip brine and wheat into a basket.
When drained a few minutes, empty on a clean floor ;
take the same brine for another batch, and so on, until

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 321

you have as much as you wish to sow that day. Then
sift on good slacked lime gradually, while another per
son follows around the heap or stirs it with a shovel, or
with a rake. Put on lime until the wheat will not
stick together. Then let it be sown and immediately
covered. The lime will then continue to stick to the
wheat, and furnish fertilizing material to promote the
growth of the young wheat plants.

A wheat-grower in Western New York has com
municated his manner of preparing seed wheat as fol
lows: " Before sowing, prepare a. strong brine. Half a
barrel will be needed to pickle as little as four or five
bushels of grain, but, of course, would answer for much
more, and to this quantity add half a pound of blue
vitriol (sulphate of copper}. A portion is done at a
time, stirring it well, and skimming off all that floats,
dirt, foul stuff, smutty grains, etc. As fast as each por
tion is soaked, throw it out into a basket to drain. The
pickling should be done four to twelve hours before
sowing. Just previous to sowing, the grain should be
spread out upon a clean floor and rolled in lime slacked
to a dry powder, stirring the heap with rakes."

THE STAR DRILL.

The implement represented by the illustration shown
on the next page, is the combined " Star Drill " and Cul
tivator, a part of which is represented on page 296 of
this book. Here the land-roller and the seed-sowing
attachment are shown, in connection with the small
ploughs.

When this implement is employed for putting in
grain, the seed is taken from the seed-box by means of

14*

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

a revolving distributor and dropped immediately behind
the plough in the furrow, and covered by the next
plough ; and so on after each plough, leaving the grain
in the last furrow uncovered until the next round. The

FIG. 50.— The Star Drill.

revolving distributor has openings at a given distance
from eacli other, to keep up a continuous stream of
grain. The quantity is increased or diminished by the
depth of the opening. Resting upon this seed-roller is
an elastic substance arranged to distribute the grain
in the desired quantity. This is a comparatively new
farm implement. But I think, if it is properly made,
the machine will operate satisfactorily. Further infor
mation may be obtained of the manufacturers, Ewell
& Co., Baltimore, Marvland.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

323

CAST CAST-STEEL PLOUGHS.

The figure herewith given represents a plough that
has become exceedingly popular, and is gaining favor
every year. The entire mouldboard, land-side, and
share, are made of cast cast-steel. The metal is run in
a mould somewhat as ploughs of cast-iron are made.

FIG. 51.— Steel Ploughs.

This style of ploughs is a perfect paragon of neatness
and practical utility. Everybody likes them, when they
are made right, with a hard temper. They are manu
factured by Collins & Co., 212 Water street, New York
city. No other plough will excel this implement for
\vorkirig in the light prairie soils of the West. When
tempered hard, they never clog ; but when the steel is
soft as iron, so that it can be cut with the point of a
jack-knife, fine soil will adhere to the surface and give
as much trouble as is frequently experienced with cast-
iron ploughs.

324 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

This plough has been before the public sufficiently long
to establish the point that steel ploughs, when the parts
are hardened properly, are far superior to iron ploughs,
as they will draw much easier and last longer.

NISHWITZ'S DISK HARROW.*

The accompanying illustration represents a new style
of pulverizer, invented by F. Nishwitz, 142 First street,
Williamsburg, Long Island, New York. The principle
of construction is quite new ; but, by those who have
used it, the operation is said to be eminently effective.
The wooden frame consists of two pieces of hard, tough
timber, about two inches in thickness, by seven or eight
inches wide, held in position by the cross-bar, which is
firmly bolted to the side pieces, as represented by the
illustration.

The pulverizers consist of several sharp-edged circu
lar disks, about one foot in diameter, being concave on
one side and convex on the other. When the wheels or
disks are cast, a round steel pin, about three-fourths of
an inch in diameter, is inserted in the mould, thus fur
nishing a steel journal for each disk. A bolt with a nut
at the upper end is passed through a socket-standard,
which holds the disks in their position.

* Was awarded a special gold medal, at trial of plows, harrows,
cultivators, etc., at Utica, 1867, by N. Y. State Agricultural Soc.

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 325

CHAPTER IV.

WHEAT HAKVEST.

" How the harvest spreads the field !
Waving grain to reapers yield !
Scythes and sickles flash around,
Rakes and pitchforks clear the ground."

EDWARDS.

THE season of wheat harvest, when I was in my boy
hood, used to be a joyous and propitious period for poor
people. Several days before wheat was fit to harvest,
the streets would often be lined with cradlers and rakers
and binders, going from those sections of the country
where they thought the soil was too poor to produce
wheat, to the wheat-growing districts, in quest of labor.
For ordinary farm labor, men were accustomed to re
ceive fifty cents in money ; or one bushel of Indian corn ;
or half a bushel of wheat, for the labor of one day. For
a day's work in the harvest field, a cradler was accus
tomed to receive one dollar, or a bushel of wheat ; or
two bushels of Indian corn. The men who raked and
bound after a cradler, alone, received one dollar each,
as raking and binding the wheat that a cradler cut down,
was considered equal to the labor of cradling the same
amount of grain. When two men followed a cradler,
they received fifty cents each, per day. A boy who could
rake gavels, received twenty-five cents for his day's work,
or half a bushel of Indian corn ; and the man, or boy,

326 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

who could bind the gavels, after they were raked, was
paid seventy-five cents per day. Cradlers and rakers
and binders were required to do their work in a neat
and farmer-like manner, or they must find employment
somewhere else.

This incentive prompted men to learn how to work
with skill and efficiency. Such cradlers and rakers and
binders as most farmers are now obliged to rely on, are
most inefficient and miserable help. Whether they
swing the cradle, or rake and bind, or shock the- bound
grain, their work is performed in a most perfunctory, slov-
enish, and unsatisfactory manner. Nothing will have a
tendency to make an ambitious and neat farmer so ut
terly sick of his employment, as to see most of the farm
laborers of the present day swing the cradle in grain
of any kind, or rake and bind the gavels, and put the
sheaves in stooks. When I was a young man, very few
of the farm laborers of the present day would have re
ceived more than a boy's wages, until they had learned
to work in the harvest field with efficiency and in a neat
and skilful manner. When a man or boy failed to
cradle grain neatly, or rake it clean, or to bind his
sheaves tight, and in the middle of the gavel, it was a
very common occurrence to hear the proprietor tell him,
" You do not work to suit me. You can find work
somewhere else." But, at the present day, good cradlers
and neat and skilful rakers and binders are the excep
tion — not the rule, as it should be. To aid practical
farmers in performing their work in the easiest and most
economical manner, is my object, in penning the follow
ing pages. Let farmers first learn how to handle tools
with skill and efficiency, and then they will be prepared
to teach their awkward laborers.

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 327

REAPERS AND MOWERS.

Every farmer who raises wheat, or any other kind of
cereal grain, needs a good reaper. And while lie is
procuring one, he may as well purchase a combined
machine as to own a reaping machine and a mowing
machine in two separate machines. Besides this, it is
desirable to get a machine that can be relied on from
year to year ; a machine that has been brought to the
most satisfactory degree of perfectibility. Mechanics
will be trying to bring out machines on new principles.
The consequence is that a great many imperfect ma
chines must be taken on the farms and experimented
with, until all the imperfect points in the machinery
have been found and corrected. For this reason, I con
sider it important to suggest to farmers to purchase such
machines as can be used to mow grass, clover seed, flax,
and to harvest all kinds of grain ; and to choose such
machines as have had all their weak points corrected.
It takes a vast amount of brain labor and money to
make a really good and complete mower and reaper.
Either of the firms whose reapers are figured and de
scribed in this book have expended a large fortune in
bringing their reapers and mowers to their present state
of perfectibility.

THE KIRBY MOWER AND REAPER.

This reaper is a combined machine, driven by only
one wheel. Some farmers are very partial to a one-
wheeled reaper and mower, while others can be satisfied
with nothing short of a two- wheeled machine. Who
ever has a fancv for a one-wheeled machine, will find

328 THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST.

all that lie can desire in the Kirby. No expense has
been spared to perfect every part of it. D. M. Osborn
& Co., Auburn, !N". Y., told me that their firm ex
pended $20,000 in one experiment to bring out the
best labor-saving machine in the county. I merely pen
these facts — not to puff this reaper — but to suggest to
beginners the importance of getting such machines as
can be relied on when grass and grain are fit to har
vest.

There used to be, and there is now a serious defect in
most one-wheel mowers and reapers, which is this : if
the drive-wheel is in a furrow, the weight comes so
heavily on the finger-bar, and so lightly on the drive-
wheel, that the cutters cease to work. But this diffi
culty has been obviated in the Kirby, as will appear
from the following brief description of the essential
parts of this reaper and mower.

The illustration on the next page represents the Kirby
combined mower and reaper, with reel-self-rake attach
ment, set up for reaping.

The drive-wheel is bolted on the axle in the usual
manner; but the plate on which the axle is cast, is
made to move vertically, in a groove of the frame, so
that the drive-wheel has a motion entirely independent
of the frame and the finger-bar, and will run into dead
furrows, or other depressions, and allow the cutting part
to work on the level ground, the motion and power of
the cutters not being affected in the least. In running
over stony and stumpy meadows also, this method of
connection with the drive-wheel gives great facility in
raising the frame, and with it the cutting parts, above
any obstructions. This is effected easily through the
adjustment made between the weight of the driver and

£.'-

330 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

the weight of the working parts ; the one so balancing
the other, that the working of a lever is not necessary
to raise the inner end of the bar, as is the case with
nearly all other machines. The finger-bar is of a great
ly improved pattern, giving a cut close to the ground
in mowing. The cutter-bars, or knives, are made light
and strong, of the best cutting steel, and tempered with
great care, so as to give an elastic cutting edge suitable
as well for stony and sandy ground as for the tough,
fine, close bottoms of old meadows. The machine is
made of iron and steel throughout, except the pole, seat,
and track-clearer. The cutting apparatus is the same
as that used for mowing, with the finger-bar raised to
the required height for reaping. The platform is so
shaped as to deliver the grain easily at the side of the
machine. When used as a hand-raker, the person rak
ing off, sits a little in the rear of the frame, having per
fect command of the grain as it falls on the platform ;
and can bring it off with one easy quarter sweep of his
rake. The reel self rake has recently been attached to
the reaper ; and it is operated by simple gearing from
the level wheel-shaft. A small pinion engages the gear
of a circular plate having four radial arms. These arms
are pivoted at their connection with the circular plate,
and are moved vertically by means of cams and wrays ;
and receive from them all the necessary motions for
sweeping the grain on the platform as it is cut, and rak
ing it off in a gavel, when required. Beaters are at
tached to three of the arms for gathering the grain upon
the platform ; and to the other arm a rake is bolted, to
take the grain off. Rakes may also be attached to the
other arms in place of beaters, so as to deliver the grain
in a nearly continuous swath. This is a very strong

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 331

and compact rake, the working parts being all of iron,
and put together in a very substantial manner.

KEEPING KNIVES SHAEP.

As the cutters of mowers and reapers sever the stems
of grain and grass with a crushing stroke, it is of the
utmost importance that the cutting edge should be
sharp. Besides this, the angles which the cutting sides
make with the base must be accurately adjusted to the
rapidity of their vibrations, and their temper must be
such as to insure the best cutting edge. Experience
has shown that, where the whole section is tempered,
it is too frangible for practical use. The slightest con
tact with stones, sticks, or other obstructions, causes it
to fly in pieces like glass. The central portion of the
section should therefore be left soft, while the temper
ing is confined to a portion extending from one-half to
five-eighths of an inch from the edge. The violent
change in the structure of the metal, lying on either
side of the line of demarcation (see Fig. 53), often causes
a fracture, resulting in loss to the manufacturer or the
farmer, according to the time when the fracture appeared.

The illustration on the next page represents a knife,
or section, manufactured by Reynolds, Barber & Co.,
Auburn, New York. The committee appointed by the
New York State Agricultural Society to examine these
sections, state that " all of the Messrs. Reynolds' sec
tions conformed to their test through ten successive
grindings. Several of the others broke when pressed
upward at an angle of fifteen degrees. Some of them
bent permanently, when pressed upon. None of them
except Messrs. Reynolds' showed a good temper after

332

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

the third grinding.

Where a graver was pressed into
the section at the centre, and carried toward the edge
with a uniform pressure, the groove formed grew grad-

REYNOLDS, BARBER 8cCo. ScleManufactnrtrsWBWM N.Y.

PIG. 58.

ually shallower, until it touched the line of demarca
tion — in the Messrs. Reynolds' sections — showing that
the hardening was progressive from the centre to the
line of demarkation. In the sections made by other
firms the groove formed by the graver was of uniform
depth until it touched the line of demarcation, when it
became at one very shallow. This test shows that the
sections of the Messrs. Reynolds grew gradually harder
from the centre to the line of demarcation, and that the
quality of the metal on either side of the line is not- so
dissimilar as to cause fractures ; and accounted very fully
for their absence in the sections.

"Having thus ascertained the superiority of these
sections, we were desirous of seeing the processes of their

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 333

manufacture, and on making known our wishes, the
Messrs. Reynolds were kind enough to show us the
whole of their works ; and we confess to a feeling of
great surprise on seeing their sections so perfectly tem
pered without the agency of any liquid, by percussion,
reaction, and cold air alone. "We saw over a thousand
tempered and ground, not one of which was cracked,
or which exhibited any traces of fissure whatever. We
believe this process will greatly enhance the efficiency
of our reaping and mowing machines ; and we rejoice
that American ingenuity has perfected so valuable an
invention. They are hard and elastic, will break be
fore they will bend, and will carry a sharp cutting edge
more than double the length of time of any other sec
tion we ever tried. And they all have one uniform
temper, which we consider a very essential point to the
well-working of any reaper and mower."

REMARKS. — The practical point of first importance to
a w^heat-grower, when purchasing a machine, is, to ascer
tain whether the sections, or knives, have a temper equal
to those manufactured by this firm.

BEST TIME TO HARVEST WHEAT.

" Shot up from broad, rank blades that droop below,
The nodding wheat-ear forms a graceful bow,
With milky kernels starting full, weighed down,
Ere yet the sun hath tinged its head with brown."

BLOOMFIELD'S Farmer's Boy.

It is assumed that every farmer will agree, that there
is " a best period " in the growth of the wheat plant for
harvesting. In other words, there is a time when, if
the straw be cut, the yield of grain will be larger, and

334: THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

the quality of flour will be better, than if the same
grain were harvested previous to, or after that time.
That is the decisive point for harvesting wheat. Let us
consider some of the stages of development through
which the wheat passes, as the growing grain approx
imates the period of perfect maturity. The first state
is "the milk period." The heads of grain and the
kernels are now as large and heavy as they ever will
be ; and the kernels will measure more at this period
than at any other. Sometimes the extensive fields of
wheat look like a sea of waving gold. But the grain is
not fit to harvest. And if the straw be cut down, more
or less loss must be sustained, as the material that forms
the kernels contains a large proportion of the water
which must be worked out by the vital action of the
growing plants ; and its place must be supplied by sub
stances exquisitely fine, which have been collected, atom
by atom, infinitesimally small, and brought to the ears
and deposited in the kernels in the place occupied by
particles of water. If, at this period, the cradle be thrust
in, and the golden grain be cut down, the water remain
ing in the kernels will quickly escape, before its place
can be supplied by this fine material that forms the
flour. The consequence is, the kernels shrink, and the
yield of grain will not reach its maximum quantity.
At this period, most of the leaves may, sometimes, be
entirely lifeless, and the circulation of the vital fluid in
the straw may have ceased. Yet, the process of chang
ing from thin to thick milk, and from a semi-fluid to a
plastic state, continues until the material in the kernels
is of the consistence of dough when it is put into the
baker's oven. This -period is denominated the " dough
state." The next is the period of perfect maturity.

THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST. 335

This is " the nick of time " to thrust in the sickle and
reap the harvest. At this point in the growth of the
plant, deterioration commences ; and the longer the
grain is allowed to remain uncut, the smaller will be
the yield, whether the grain be measured or weighed,
the larger will be the product of bran, and the smaller
the percentage of fine flour. After wheat has passed the
milk state, the change to hard grain is usually very rapid.
For this reason, grain is frequently allowed to stand
several days too long ; or until the kernels and straw are
" dead ripe." When wheat is allowed to stand uncut
through all these periods, a great loss is frequently sus
tained by the shelling of the grain while the gavels are
being bound into sheaves. Still another source of great
loss is sustained in the straw, when the grain is not cut
until every part is dead ripe. If wheat be cut at the
period designated for securing the largest yield of grain,
the straw, if properly secured from the influences of
the weather, will afford a large quantity of valuable
fodder for domestic animals.

On this subject, Agricola, in the " Working Farmer,"
writes : " There is probably no question in connection
with wheat harvest which exercises so much influence
upon the quality of the flour, as well as the amount,
as the time of cutting. In former years, when we were
compelled to depend on the sickle, or later on the cradle
and manual labor, there was some excuse for not taking
advantage of the proper and best time, but in this fast
and improved age, when one man, aided by a pair of
horses and a self-raking reaper, can cut and deliver
ready for binding, from ten to fifteen acres of wheat per
day, there is no excuse for its not being performed at the
proper time ; the only thing which can interfere to pre-

330 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

vent cutting being done on any fixed day is the occur
rence of rain, but then, we must remember that our
grain ripens very little during wet or cloudy weather.
I have often found it to ripen more during one clear,
warm day after a rain, than during a whole week of
cloudy or showery weather.

" At first glance it would seem that it was but natural
that the grain should be allowed to become dead ripe
before cutting ; such would undoubtedly be the case if
the whole crop were intended for seed, as is the case in
a natural state of the plant ; but our object is to attain the
greatest possible percentage of flour with the least pos
sible offal ; and not only this, but also to have this flour
as rich as possible in gluten.

" All the experiments which have been tried, not only
here but in England, have clearly proven that there is a
certain stage of the growth of the grain at which it
yields the greatest proportion of flour, and that at this
time the flour contains a larger percentage of gluten
than at any time before or afterward. In order to more
fully understand this time, let us go back four weeks ; the
first two weeks will represent the time passing between
the green and raw state, and the last two, the time
which elapses between the raw and ripe state, and thus
divide the grain into three stages."

Mr. Hannum instituted several experiments to ascer
tain, if possible, the proper period to harvest the grain ;
and his experiments led him to believe that at " about a
fortnight before it fully ripens is the proper time for cut
ting wheat, as the skin is then thinner, the grain fuller,
the bushel heavier, and the yield of flour greater." From
the report of the miller wTho ground these samples, it
seems that the lot cut raw made eight pounds more flour

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 337

to every hundred of grain, and corresponding amount of
straw. The amount of grain was not materially de
creased, showing that the addition to the weight of the
grain was mainly in flour and not in bran-.

In a similar experiment the result showed a gain of
over fifteen per cent, in flour, from equal measures of
grain, and a gain of eight per cent, from equal weights
of grain. ' English millers divide the product of the
wheat into three classes, styled flour, pollard, and bran ;
the sample cut when fully ripe gains fifty per cent, more
of pollard than that cut raw. This effect may be thus
explained : at the time of the first cutting while in the
raw state, the grain contains its largest amount of starch
and gluten ; at this period the grain has a thin skin, and
consequently less straw ; afterward nature thickens the
skin in order to protect the grain, thus changing a por
tion of the starch into woody fibre.

In a more extended experiment the difference in pro
duce per acre may be thus stated : that cut when raw
yielded, per acre, nine hundred and ten pounds more
straw ; ninety pounds more flour ; thirty-five pounds less
pollard and sharps ; thirty-five pounds less bran ; twenty
pounds less waste, than that cut ripe. The real differ
ence in value may be stated at from six to seven dollars
per acre.

Nor is this all which we can gain from early cutting.
I have heard good farmers admit that they sometimes
lost enough wheat by shelling out between cutting and
mowing away in the barn to seed the field, or in other
words, from one and one and a half to two bushels per
acre ; this loss is all prevented by early cutting, for grain
cut in the raw state, no matter how thoroughly dried,
will seldom if ever shell out if handled in the usual man-

15

338 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

ner ; and in addition to this, the sheaf is much pleasanter
to bind, load, and thrash, for neither the straw nor beard
is so stiff as when the crop is allowed to stand until fully
ripe.

In some instances, I have known wheat to be cut on
the fourth of July, in Central New York ; and the next
season, in the same locality, wheat was not fit to harvest
till the twentieth of the same month. Therefore, it
would be useless to endeavor to fix on any week or day
of a particular month ; for one day will scarcely be uni
versal in one country nor with two kinds of wheat.

In favorable seasons the straw commences to ripen
from the bottom ; in certain unfavorable seasons the
upper joints are ripe first ; but the latter case is the ex
ception to the rule. When on examination it is found
that the two lower joints of the straw have turned yel
low, and the color is beginning to show itself above the
second joint ; when the field seen from a distance seems
quite ripe, but when more closely examined is found still
green at the top ; when on crushing the grain between
the fingers or teeth, the milk is found to have become so
thick as to be fairly called a liquid, then cut ; but not till
then. My usual rule is to wait until the yellow color
begins to show itself almost one inch above the second
knot or joint from the bottom ; and then cut the crop.
This rule cannot of course be applied universally to the
field ; for all the stalks don't ripen equally. But when
a majority of the stalks comply with the above condi
tions, I would cut the field at once ; for though it seems
green, the process of drying will ripen it without the
loss which ensues when ripened " in the ground." When
the weather is unfavorable, let tools and implements be
prepared to harvest with dispatch when storms ceaae,

THE WHEAT CULTTIRIST. 339

CUTTING WHEAT IN ENGLAND.

A few experiments have been made and published in
this country, showing, by accurate measurement, the
advantages of cutting when the chaff has partly changed
from green to yellow. We find the following additional
proof in Baker's lecture before the Sparkenhoe Club,
England, as published in the North British Agricul
turist :

" In harvesting wheat, there was a great division of
opinion, as well as to when was the proper time and
mode of cutting. It was considered a proper time to
cut wheat when it had passed from a ' milky state ' to
a ' doughy state.' Experiments had been made under
three heads — first, when it was green; second, when
the straw was changing color ; third, when fully ripe.
The results were in the first case 19|- bushels per acre,
valued at 61s. per quarter ; in the second, 23 J, at 63s. ;
in the third, 22|-, at 61s. There was a similar result in
the straw. The total value per acre was found to be —
on that cut green on 8th August, £12 17s. per acre, or
$62.30 ; second, when cut yellow below the ear one
week afterward, £13 7s., or $64.61 ; third, cut when
fully ripe, one week later, £11 12s., or $56.13. This
difference arose from that cut first and second producing
more fine flour and less bran than that cut last, which
proved that the gluten is converted into starch if the
wheat stands until fully ripe, the proper time being un
doubtedly as soon as either end of th« straw has changed
to a yellow color, the sap having then ceased to flow ;
but, on the other hand, it is better to cut early, as no
portion is lost by shedding during the process of cutting,
or by the effect of high winds. It is also less liable to

34:0 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

sprout in the sheaf, and early harvests are also generally
best. Besides, a few days gained in the commencement
of harvest is of immeasurable advantage, and enables
the farmer to take opportunities for effecting other work,
which otherwise he could not do."

SIGNS OF PERFECT MATURITY.

The "Prairie Farmer," in an article headed, "When
shall we cut wheat ? " says : " In attempting to answer
the question, At what particular period in the condition
of the grain shall we cut it ? we shall not refer to our
own experience, but only add that our rule is, to cut
the grain about two weeks before it is fully ripe.

" Prof. Johnston, of the Royal Agricultural Society
of England, says, the rawer the crop is cut, the heavier
and more nourishing the straw will be. Within three
weeks of being fully ripe, the straw begins to diminish
in weight ; and the longer it remains uncut, after that
time, the lighter it becomes, and the less nourishing.

" On the other hand, the grain, which is sweet and
milky, a month before it is ripe, gradually consolidates
—the sugar changing into starch, and the milk thicken
ing into the gluten and albumen of the flour. As soon
as this change is nearly completed, or about a fortnight
before it is ripe, the grain of wheat contains the largest
proportion of starch and gluten. If reaped at this time,
the bushel will weigh most, and will yield the largest
quantity of fine flour, and the least bran.

" At this period the grain has a thin skin, and hence
the small quantity of bran. But if the crop be still left
uncut, the next natural step in the ripening process is,
to cover the grain with a better protection — a thicker

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

skin — and a portion of the starch of the grain is changed
into woody fibre. By this change, the quantity of starch
is lessened and the weight of husk increased. Hence
the diminished yield of flour, and the increased produce
of bran.

" Theory and experience, therefore, indicate about a
fortnight before it is dead ripe, as the most proper time
for cutting wheat. The skin is then thinner and whiter,
the grain fuller, the bushel heavier, the yield of flour
greater, its color fairer, and the quantity of bran less."

COLOR OF THE STRAW.

When the straw immediately under the head of grain
turns from a greenish to an orange hue, for four or five
inches in length, it is time to cut the grain. The ker
nels or berries have then just passed out of the milky
state, but are so soft as to be easily crushed between the
thumb nails. At this time, some of the leaves on the
lower portion of the stem may be dead, but still, that
part of the stem remains vigorous for a few days.

Mr. Robert Brown, of Edinburgh, a farmer, and for
many years editor of the " Farmer's Magazine," says it is
necessary to discriminate betwixt the ripeness of the
straw and the ripeness of the grain ; for, in some sea
sons, the straw dries upward ; under which circum
stances a field, to the eye, may appear completely fit for
the sickle, when, in reality, the grain is imperfectly con
solidated, and perhaps not much removed from a milky
state. Though it is obvious that, under such circum
stances, no further benefit can be conveyed from the
root, and that nourishment is withheld the moment the
roots die; yet it does not follow that grain so cir-

34:2 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

cumstanced should be immediately cut ; because, after
that operation is performed, it is in a great measure nec
essarily, deprived of every benefit from the sun and air,
both of which have greater influence in bringing it to
maturity, so long as it remains on foot, than when cut
down, whether laid on the ground or bound up in sheaves.
* * * Taking all these things into view, it seems pru
dent to have wheat cut before it is fully ripe, as less dam
age will be sustained from acting in this way than by
adopting a contrary practice.

Another authority says that grain, if not reaped until
the straw is wholly yellow, will be more than ripe, as
the ear generally ripens before the straw ; and it is ob
servable that the first reaped usually affords the heaviest
and fairest samples.

In the " Farmer's Encyclopaedia " it is stated that the
indications of ripeness in wheat are few and simple.
When the straw exhibits a bright golden color from the
bottom of the stem nearly to the ear, or when the ear
begins to bend gently, the grain may be cut. But as
the whole crop will not be exactly ripe at the same
time, if, on walking through the field and selecting the
greenest heads, the kernels can be separated from the
chaif when rubbed through the hands, it is a sure sign
that the grain is then out of its milky state, and may
be reaped with safety ; for although the straw may be
green to some distance downward from the ear, yet, if
it be quite yellow from the bottom upward, the grain
then wants no further nourishment from the earth, and,
if properly harvested, will not shrink. The young
farmer should study this subject most thoroughly, with
this book in one hand and wheat in the other. He will
soon learn when is the best time to harvest wheat, and

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 343

all kinds of cereal grain. This subject should be studied
thoroughly.

TIME TO CUT WHEAT.

Rawson Harmon, an experienced wheat-grower of
Western New York, writes, in relation to the best period
to harvest wheat : " To be most valuable for millers,
wheat should be cut as soon as the berry has passed from
the milky to the doughy state. Wheat cut then, con
tains more gluten and less starch, than if it were not
harvested until the grain is fully ripe. If wheat is
allowed to stand uncut, until the kernels become hard,
the gluten is diminished, and the starch is increased,
which reduces the quantity and quality of the flour.
But for seed, it should never be cut till fully ripe.
Starch is more valuable in its early vegetation than the
gluten. One cause of the increase of smut, of late
years, is the cutting of wheat intended for seed, too
green. Wheat cut before it is fully ripe, should not be
sown. If wheat-growers would adhere strictly to the
sowing of no seed that is cut before it is fully ripe, they
would find smut disappearing without the preparation
of brine and lime. The farmer that neglects to brine
and lime his seed wheat, does not look to his best in
terest. Smutty wheat is much improved by not cutting
until fully ripe."

CUTTING WHEAT TOO GREEN.

Although there is but little danger of harvesting
wheat before the grain is really fit to cut, still wheat
may be cut before it is really fit to harvest ; and in
stances have been recorded, where the loss sustained
from cutting a crop too green, amounted to many hun-

344: THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

dred dollars. J. P. Lowe penned the following facts :
" A Southern farmer once grew three hundred acres of
wheat, which, in June, had attained a huge growth,
and appeared remarkably promising. The agricultural
papers were then recommending to harvest early, while
the grain was in the milky state. He followed their
advice, and cut the whole three hundred acres as soon
as the juice of the kernel began to whiten. The grain
shrank badly. He estimated his loss, from too early
harvesting, at $5,000. The blunder, as estimated by
the writer, and by the gentleman himself, who, by the
way, appeared very candid, and was willing to take his
full share of the blame, fairly belonged, about one-half
to him, and the other half to the agricultural journals
of the time. The papers had blown too strongly, and
altogether too indiscriminately, on the benefits of early
harvesting, and he had followed their advice to excess

O'

— had cut his wheat in a greener state than they had
recommended — had misunderstood them, to an extent
which he freely confessed was inexcusable."

MANAGEMENT OF WHEAT.

Beginners frequently inquire whether it is not better
to cut down the growing wheat at harvest time, and
allow it to remain in the swath for a day or two, before
it is bound into sheaves. But experience proves that it
is far better for the grain, especially if the straw, when
cradled, is somewhat green, to be bound in bundles, and
put in stocks, than to let it lie in the swath, especially
in hot and dry weather. If the grain be exposed in the
swath to the burning sun, for only a few hours, the
intense heat scorches the soft kernels, and dries up the

THE WHEAT CULTUK1ST. 345

moisture in the grain so rapidly, that its quality is
seriously injured, for making the best quality of flour.
Besides this, the grain shrinks far more than it would,
were the heads permitted to cure in the shade. If the
straw be bound in bundles, and the sheaves be set in
neat stooks and covered with caps of some kind, which
shade the grain, the soft kernels will cure gradually, be
more plump, and make more and better grain, or flour.
Mr. E. A. King, a practical farmer of King's Ferry,
Cayuga County, E". Y., penned the following instructive
suggestions for the " Cultivator and Country Gentle
man " : "I believe it is a conceded fact that wheat, be
fore it is perfectly ripe, gives more and a better quality
of flour. Still the yield is owing greatly to the manner
in which the grain is cured, after being cut. Every
intelligent wheat -grower knows that grain of any kind,
cut in a greenish state, and allowed to remain in swath
to cure, will cause the kernels to shrink and be of an
inferior quality ; while if bound almost immediately,
or before it gets dry, and put up in round shocks and
capped, the grain will receive the juices remaining in
the green straw, and become round and plump. To
prove the benefit derived from keeping the heads of
grain from being exposed to the air, let any one who
has practised round shocking examine the heads of the
top cap sheaf, and he will find the berries much less
plump and heavy than those taken from underneath.
Where wheat is struck with rust, early cutting, imme
diate binding, and round shocking will often save the
crop, when if put up in long shocks, as many farmers
do, the damage would be great. This is especially the
case with spring wheat, as this variety is with us more
apt to rust than the winter variety, as the time of ripen -

15*

346 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

ing usually occurs later, when there is a greater amount
of warmth and moisture, which is no doubt the cause
of the grain rusting. To prove this, wheat, oats, or
barley, sown on our hilly lake land, where the drainage
is quick and immediate, are seldom struck with rust of
any kind."

If wheat-growers will observe this suggestion, they will
perceive that when grain is harvested and cured in cloudy
weather, the yield will always be larger than if the weather
were burning hot while the grain is curing. If wheat
could be cut when the straw is quite green and cured
under shelter, without being put into a mass so large
as to heat, we should perceive a vast difference in the
quality of the flour which is made of the grain. When
grain is designed for seed, I always let it lie in the
swath, one day or more, for the purpose of curing the
straw as soon as practicable, so that the sheaves might
be garnered immediately.

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT GKAIN CRADLES.

Every man who ever uses a cradle, ought to under
stand why every part is made as it is — with its peculiar
form. He ought to be able to tell what is the best
form of the scythe, and the best curvature of the fingers,
and how the fingers should stand with reference to the
scythe. Although the great bulk of harvesting grain
will probably be done with horse-power, still grain
cradles will always be needed, even if horse-reapers are
used to cut nearly the whole crop. Cradles must be
employed to cut the grain around stumps, trees, along
fences, to cut the corners of a piece of grain, when the
reaper is in motion, and so forth. ~No farmer can get

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 34:7

along satisfactorily, without a good grain cradle ; and it
is important for a laborer to know what constitutes a
good cradle, how to put it in good order, and how to use
it, so as to cut grain and lay it in a swath in a neat and
workmanlike manner.

The most correct form of a cradle scythe is a point
which should be thoroughly understood and appreciated,
whether one can obtain a scythe of the desired form
or not.

FIG. 54.— The best form of Cradle Scythe.

A very straight scythe is quite as objectionable as one
that lias too much curvature. When it is too straight
on the cutting edge, it will cut too squarely across the
standing straws ; whereas the cut should be made in a
drawing or sliding manner. If the scythe be straight
on the edge, the fingers must of necessity be correspond
ingly straight. The illustration herewith given, Fig.
54:, represents a cradle scythe of a good form. It will
be seen that the cutting edge from a to £, about one
foot in length, is a part of the arc of one circle ; and the
other part, from 5 to £, is the arc of another circle of the
same size, but in a different position.

It may be seen by measuring, that these circles are
about ten feet in diameter, and that the distance from
d, in the dotted line, to 0, when a scythe is four feet
long, is about two and a half inches. A cradle scythe
of this shape works well, if it is properly hung on the
snath, and the cutting edge kept in order.

348 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

The question is frequently asked why a cradle scythe
is made broader from the back to the cutting edge, than
a grass scythe ? The object of this is twofold. The
first is to support the grain after it is cut off; and sec
ond, to furnish ample room for the straw to slide back
from the cutting edge, against the fingers, after it has
been cut off. If a scythe, no wider than a grass scythe,
is attached to a cradle, as soon as the space from the
fingers to the cutting edge is filled with straw, the
scythe cannot cut off any more straw ; therefore, as the
cradle is " full," it must slide over the rest of the clip.

If the fingers do not correspond with the curve of the
scythe, a cradle will not work well, even if the scythe
is made according to the most perfect pattern. Fig. 55
represents a scythe of the same form as Fig. 54. The
object of it is to show the relative length and curvature
of the first finger of the cradle, when compared with
the form of the scythe. The inside of the finger should

FIG. 56. — Best form and position of lower finger.

extend at least two inches beyond the back of the scythe ;
and it is best to have the finger from one to two inches
shorter than the scythe. The small end should stand
over the point of the scythe, as represented in the
figure, and be from one to two inches above the blade
at the point. If the first finger rests hard on the scythe,
it sometimes prevents the grain discharging freely when

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 3i9

the cradle is in use. The point of the first finger should
always stand as far back as possible, and not catch any
straws beyond the scythe. When some straws are
pulled down and not cut off, it shows that some of the
fingers stand out too far. On the contrary, when the
cradle does not gather all the grain that is cut off, some
of the fingers are in too far, or are too short. Some
times every finger stands exactly in its most proper
position, and the cradle does not gather all the grain.
This can be obviated in two ways : first, by using a
shorter scythe ; or second, by dulling about two inches
of the cutting edge at the point. Sometimes the scythe
and lower finger are all right, but the other fingers are
so short that the cradle does not gather all the grain
the scythe cuts off. This difficulty can be obviated in
no other way than by attaching a scythe two or three
inches shorter, and cutting off the lower finger to cor
respond with the scythe, as shown by Fig. 55, and to
be also of the correct proportional length with the other
fingers. Fingers may be " too crooked," or too much
curved near the points. It is a common occurrence to
see cradle fingers like a sleigh runner — having nearly all
the curvature writhin twelve to twenty inches of the
ends. Cradles having such fingers never work w^ell, as
they carry most of the grain, after it is cut off, near the
forward part of the cradle, which causes it to work hard,
and to hang too heavily on the point, as well as to hold
the grain too much, when it is being laid in a swath.
When selecting a cradle, it is better to get a short
scythe than one over four feet long. These two cuts
of scythes and some of the matter, I prepared for the
" American Agriculturist " when I was one of the edi
torial corps of that paper.

350 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

GRINDING CRADLE SCYTHES.

" Now, while he brushes the dew from the clover,
Lay the dull scythe to the steel-gnawing stone ;
Turn with a will, boys, over and over ;
Now the edge wires and the grinding is done."

BURLEIGH.

In my Young Farmer's Manual, the reader will find
a diagram of a scythe, with more extended remarks
about putting a scythe in order, than I shall pen in this
place. There, the philosophical reasons are given for
grinding a scythe, as directed. But I will simply cau
tion beginners, as well as some old heads, who think
what they don't know is not worth the trouble of learn
ing, not to spoil an excellent cradle scythe by grinding
the blade too thin. A large proportion of the cradle
scythes that are condemned as poor stuff, or as having
a poor temper, were ruined by grinding them too thin.
Scythes are often ground and ground to death, by men
who don't know how to put a jack-knife in order.
Then, because the cutting edge fails, after the blade has
been ground so thin that there is not steel enough to
give proper stiffness to the basil of the scythe, the tool
is condemned. Do not spoil scythes by grinding.

How TO CRADLE GRAIN.

"All strike as one, with a symphonant cadence;

All step at once, with a measured advance ;
Bowing together the brawny arm's aidance,
In the slow swing of the shoulders' expanse."

BURLEIGH.

A gang of skilful cradlers, rakers, and binders, such
as we used to see before the horse-harvesters took the
place of the cradle, is a pleasant and cheering sight.

THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST. 351

A good cradler must exercise no little skill in adjusting
every part of the cradle to hang exactly right, or he
cannot do neat work. Do not put the scythe and fin
gers out too far, especially if the grain does not stand
erect. When all the parts of a cradle are made right,
properly adjusted, and correctly handled, almost every
straw will be gathered, as the scythe cuts them off.

A good cradler walks close up to the standing grain —
within a foot of it. He keeps his body nearly erect.
He puts his right foot forward when he steps, and never
the left foot first. There is a philosophical reason for
this. I studied it out when I first began to cradle,
when I was only fourteen years of age. Point-in low
and point-out low. Cut the stubble a uniform height
across the swath; and do not scoop out a swath, by
pointing-in high and pointing-out high. Keep the
scythe level ; and bring the cradle around, at every clip,
as close to the left leg as you can. Lay the grain evenly
at the butts ; and do not throw the tops around too far.
Let your movements be rather slow and careful, until
you can make every clip with as much precision as if the
work were done by machinery. There are many things
about cradling which I cannot write out ; but which
can be learned only by the actual use of a good cradle.

CRADLE FINGERS, AND HOW TO MAKE THEM.

There are two kinds of cradle fingers: bent and nat
ural crook. Those having a natural crook are made by
first sawing the log into plank thick enough for four
fingers, or about two and three-fourths inches thick.
Then, pieces are sawed out of the plank, with a scroll
saw, of the desired curvature, which are then slitted the

352 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

other way with a small circular saw. The fingers then
have square corners, which are dressed off by hand, or
machinery, which does the work very neatly and rap
idly. %

Bent fingers are made of very tough timber, first
sawed into tapering strips just large enough for four
fingers. These pieces are then steamed and bent, and
sawed into fingers the same as if they were of natural
crook. While the wood is still hot and on the form, or
clamp, boiled linseed oil is applied to the outside sur
face, as long as the wood will absorb it. This is de
signed to prevent the fingers from straightening out,
after the cradle is finished. The great objection to
straight fingers is, most of the grain that is cut at one
clip, will be gathered and held by the fingers so far to
ward the point of the scythe that a cradle will not work
well, unless it cuts short clips ; whereas, if the fingers
have a proper degree of curvature, the grain will slide
back toward the heel of the cradle, as it is cut, thus
enabling the cradler to cut a larger clip at once, and to
handle the grain with greater facility. Another thing
of primary importance in the form of cradle fingers is,
they should be more curved than the back of the scythe.
See remarks on pages 348 and 349.

RAKING AND BINDING WHEAT.

" The reaper binds the bearded ear,
And gathers in the golden year ;

And where the sheaves are glancing,
The farmer's heart is dancing."

In order to rake and bind grain satisfactorily, a man
must possess a good degree of skill and tact to make
every movement of his body and every motion of his

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 353

rake, feet, legs, and hands aid him in his labor. He
must not make any false motions, nor work like a man
beating the air. Every motion must be easy and effect
ive. Why will a small, light man frequently rake and
bind as fast as two large, heavy men ? Because he knows
how to do it ; while the others alluded to are awkward,
and labor to a disadvantage. It used to be a common
occurrence to see a small man raking and binding in
heavy wheat, and keeping up close to a good cradler.
I have frequently heard my father tell of his ambition
and skill in raking and binding wheat after a good
cradler, when the country was new, and the wheat was
as high as their heads over the entire fields ; and that
often, when on a strife — as cradlers were accustomed to
" race it " in those days — he said he has raked and
bound the swath alone, and took the last clip off the
cradle, as he closed up every sheaf. And it is not in
credible ; for, when I was a lad, it was an unusual
occurrence for two hands to follow one cradler. Some
times a boy would be employed to rake the swath into
gavels, for another boy or man to bind.

I well remember, when I was fourteen years old, as it
was considered too hard work for a boy like me to rake
and bind, and keep up with a man who cradled wheat,
that another boy was hired to assist me. He was to
rake the gavels and I to bind. But he was so unac
countably awkward, and made such miserable work at
raking, that I refused to have his assistance, as both of
us could not keep up with the cradler. He made such
ill-shapen gavels, that I was required to spend more
time in straightening up the gavels than I would occupy
in raking them myself. Therefore, I performed the
task alone, in good wheat ; have often done it since ;

354: THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

and I never met with a cradler whom I could not follow
around a ten-acre field, all day, keep close to him, and
do the raking and binding in a neat and workmanlike
manner, and help shock the sheaves after the grain
was all cut.

I do not record these facts to boast of what I have
done, but simply to show the superior skill that was ex
ercised when I was a young man, when compared with
what we now perceive among those who rake and bind
grain. In order to labor at this kind of work econom
ically and profitably, a man must understand how to
take advantage of every circumstance. Raking and
binding grain is a part of harvesting that should be
neatly performed. If a man binds poorly, or does not
rake clean, or makes a great many false motions which
occupy time, consume his strength, but do not further
his labor, he is an unprofitable hand, and should be
taught the first principles of raking and binding skil
fully and expeditiously.

THE SIZE OF THE GAVELS.

The importance of making the sheaves as nearly of
a uniform size as is practicable, should be frequently
impressed on the mind of every man and boy who
binds grain, or who only rakes gavels. If the sheaves
are to be stacked, it is far more important that the
gavels should be of a uniform size, than if they are to
be stored in a barn. For this reason, care should be
exercised when grain is being cut down with a reaper,
to make the gavels — neither too large nor too small —
but of a fair size. It is exceedingly inconvenient for a
stacker to make a good stack of sheaves of various
sizes, as there will be holes where the small sheaves are

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 355

laid. And if the sheaves are not of a uniform length,
even an experienced stacker will be liable to build an
ill-shapen stack, that will not turn the rain so well, as
if it had been made of sheaves of a uniform size. It is
of eminent importance that the man who makes the
gavels should understand all the advantages and disad
vantages of having sheaves too long, or too large, or too
small, and poorly bound.

My own rule always has been, to make the gavels as
large as they can be bound conveniently. This thought
is always kept in mind when the reaper cuts the grain,
as well as when the gavels are raked by hand. If gavels
be so large that -a binder cannot reach around one with
out making extra exertions, he will lose time and fall
behind. On the contrary, if the gavels be made too
small, too much time will be consumed in making bands
and binding the sheaves. Many laborers do not seem
to consider that it makes any difference whether they
make twenty sheaves in going across the field, or
whether the same amount of straw is bound into forty
bundles, requiring nearly double the time.

If the straw be so short that a double band will not
extend around a gavel, of course, the length of the straw
must be the guide in determining the size of the gavels.
I always aimed to make the sheaves as large as they
could conveniently be bound, for the purpose of econ
omizing labor. Raking and binding only a few sheaves
is really a small matter. But, when a quantity of grain
is bound into 4,000 sheaves, when it might have been
put into 3,000, without any inconvenience at all, we per
ceive a loss of time and expense required to bind 1,000
sheaves. Besides this, there is a loss of time in loading
and stacking. If a certain amount of grain sufficient

356 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

to make 3,000 sheaves be bound into 4,000 sheaves, it
will cost nearly one-quarter more to handle it when
securing the crop, either in stacks or in barns.

How TO RAKE GAVELS.

Beginners — whether boys or men — should be instruct
ed how to rake gavels neatly, expeditiously, and by ex
erting the least strength. There is an awkward and
laborious way to rake gavels ; and there is a neat and
easy way of raking. The man who practises the for
mer, will work hard all day and perform but little ;
while the latter will move along with amazing ease and
rapidity, and perform his task in the most satisfactory
manner.

Two points should be kept in mind, one of which is
to keep the butts even, and the other, to keep the gavel
from running out much longer than the straw. In or
der to rake a gavel easily, keep the rake-handle nearly
straight up and down, and move the leg that is against
the butts, along with the gavel. This will keep the butts
even, and the gavel of a uniform length. But, if a man
does not keep one, or both legs against the butts of the
straw, the gavel will be much longer than the straw ;
and the sheaves will be awkward things to stook, as they
will not stand erect without help.

"When making gavels of grain that is cut by a reaper,
if the straw be of a uniform length and weight, it will
not be difficult to gauge the size of the gavels, as a little
observation and experience will enable an expert work
man to make them all of a uniform size. But, if half
the gavels be made too large, and the remainder too
small, the labor of binding will be greatly increased.

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 357

When closing up a machine gavel, or when raking a
swath, let the head of the rake be always kept as nearly
parallel, as practicable, with the straw. It is far easier
to keep the butts of the straw even, when making a
gavel, than it is to even them with a rake, after the
gavel is made.

MAKING BANDS.

It may seem trivial to dwell on the various manipu
lations incident to harvesting grain; but laborers should
understand how to perform every operation with the
greatest possible ease, and in the shortest space of time.
Some men will make a band and bind a gavel, neatly,
before another man can make his band. Some binders
separate a handful of straw into two equal parts, and
tie the top ends together. But that is a slow and awk
ward way. Others double the ears of grain over, and
catch them between the gavel and the band. But the
lock is liable to become loose, when the gavel is being
bound, or when the sheaves are handled.

The mode adopted by all quick binders, and the most
expeditious way to make a band is, to take a small hand
ful from the top of the gavel, and while separating it,
hold back other straws with the other hand. Then
grasp it with the left hand a little below the heads, and,
dividing the straw with the other hand, take the half of
the band at the right side, carry it quickly to the left
side of the other half, so that the left half will rest on
the back of the right hand. Now elevate the right
hand above the left, thus throwing the butt ends of the
branches of the band into the air above both hands.
Pass the portion of the band in the right hand around
all the heads of grain, and place the right thumb on

358 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

them, and the lock will never separate when binding,
if it is well made.

BINDING GAVELS OF GRAIN.

I know of but few little things that are more perplex
ing and trying to the patience of an ambitions farmer,
than poorly bonnd sheaves of grain. Sheaves that are
poorly bound, will fall apart when one is making stooks.
They unbind when the pitcher is heaving them on the
load. The bands loosen when the loader is placing the
sheaves, and from the time of binding, till the grain is
laid down to be thrashed, poor binding is an intolerable
nuisance ; and every good man whose ambition has not
been paralyzed by pitching half-bound sheaves will
breathe out grumbling and muttering, and sometimes
denunciation without measure, at such perfunctory and
miserable work.

I was always accustomed to tell men and boys,
who bound grain for me, If you do not bind one hun
dred sheaves in a day, do put the bands in the middle
and bind the sheaves tight. In order to have employes
work advantageously, I always would spend an hour
with an awkward laborer, instructing him how to make
his band ; how to put it around the gavel ; how to take
hold of the ends ; and how to form the lock and to make
the tuck.

Now, in order to bind a gavel quickly, take the band
in one hand, throw it forward of, and around the gavel,
while the left hand is passed beneath the opposite side,
palm upward, as shown by figure 56, grasping the band
in such a manner that its hold need not be relinquished
until the sheaf is bound. When the hand grasps the

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

359

band so that the hold must be relinquished and renewed,
it often occupies time enough to finish binding the

s\

FIG. 56.-A Skilful Binder.

sheaf. When the right hand is passing the band around
the bundle, if the stubble is sharp and stiff, keep the

360 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

band beneath the palm. By this means the tender skir
on the back of the fingers and hand, will be protected
from the sharp stubble.

There are in common use not less than three different
modes of binding. One is, passing the right-hand end
over the thumb, with a double twist and tuck; the
next is, passing it under the wrist, with a double twist
and tuck ; and the third is, passing it beneath the left
hand, making a nip about the left-hand end of the band,
and a tuck beneath it, or, in common parlance, " a nip and
tuck." Sometimes binding over the thumb is perform
ed with a single twist and tuck. But, when bound
in this manner, unless the bands are drawn very tightly,
sheaves are liable to unbind.

Every laborer should learn to bind sheaves over the
thumb, as he will be able to bind a larger number of
sheaves in an hour than if he binds under the wrist.
When binding a sheaf over the thumb, put one knee on
the gavel and draw the band as tightly as practicable,
and hold both ends with one hand, and with the forefin
ger of the same hand grasping the right-hand end of the
band. Now, while the left hand holds both ends of the
band, whirl the right-hand end of the band around the
other end with the right hand, giving them a twist, or
two twists, which is better ; and tuck the twisted end
under the band.

The second mode of binding is done with the left knee
on the sheaf; the right-hand end of the band is carried
under the wrist of the left hand, and held by letting the
wrist drop upon it, until the two ends are twisted togeth
er, and tucked under. Sheaves are bound in the "nip
and tuck " style by passing the end of the band in the
right hand under the left hand, then holding it with the

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 361

left hand resting on the end of the band, when the right
hand releases its hold, and renews it again above the left
hand. Then the left-hand end of the band is bent over
toward the binder, while the other end is brought
around it and tucked beneath the band on the side
toward the binder. When sheaves are thus bound, the
left-hand end of the band forms a good handle for carry
ing the sheaf.

LABORING DISADVANTAGEOUSLY.

When a laborer is greatly fatigued by toiling in the
hot sunshine, every movement is a tax on his energies.
It is fatiguing to stoop down and pick up one's rake.
Most binders always throw their rake down on the
ground, every time they bind a sheaf. Of course, they
are obliged to spend the time and endure the fatigue
required to stoop and pick up their rake as often as
they make a sheaf.

Now, if an active man will rake and bind one thou
sand sheaves in twelve hours, and if it consumes two
seconds of time to stoop and pick up his rake at each
sheaf, he must necessarily endure the fatigue of picking
one thousand rakes off the ground, which will consume
not less than thirty-three minutes, besides the useless
fatigue. During that length of time, he would be able
to rake and bind not less than fifty sheaves, which is
not a little saving with many hands.

While a sheaf is being bound, the rake-handle should
always rest against the shoulder of the binder, as shown
by the last figure. This makes it easier work for him
than to lay down and pick up his rake at every sheaf.
As soon as a sheaf is bound, and the binder straightens

16

362

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

his body, liis rake is where he can take hold of it, with
out stooping to pick it off the ground.

A beginner may experience a little difficulty in keep
ing the rake-handle against his shoulder, while he is
binding a gavel ; but, by exercising a little patience and
perseverance, a laborer will be able to work all day, and
not be required to stoop down and pick up his rake a
single time. When we have devised every possible
means to lighten the labor of raking and binding grain,
we find there is a great deal of hard work still to be
performed.

When gavels are neatly made, and bound tight with
the band in the middle of the sheaf, as represented by

the accompanying figure of
a sheaf of wheat, every
sheaf will stand alone, and
it will require the force of a
strong wind to blow sheaves
over. But when the band
is placed near the butts of
the straw, sheaves will often
need rebinding, before they
can be stored. Beginners
who are slack, poor binders,
can imitate this illustration
of a sheaf, until they are
able to make handsome
sheaves which will stand

erect without a boy to hold them when no wind blows.
The tuck of the band is shown, in this figure of a sheaf,
as well as it can be represented on paper. Beginners
should see that the ends of the band are thrust under
the band, so as to hold well.

FIG. 5T. — A Sheaf neatly Bound.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 363

A STRAW-BAND MAKER.

Many farmers experience great inconvenience for
want of long straw for making bands to bind bundles
of straw when thrashing grain, as well as for binding
stalks of Indian corn. Making straw bands by twist
ing them out of short straw by hand is a slow and
tedious process. But by employing a twister, as shown
by the accompanying illustration, straw bands can be

FIG. 58.— Band Maker.

made with satisfactory rapidity. With such an instru
ment, a man and small boy can make a large number
of bands in a day, when they have no other employ
ment; and thus have them ready for use at any future
period.

The manner of making bands writh this hook and
crank is as follows : Secure a handful of straw or hay
to the hook, while one person holds it with one hand,

364 THE WHEAT CULTTIRIST.

and turns the crank with the other. The person who
lets the straw and hay out, should be seated on the floor,
with a lapful before him. The twister walks backward,
away from the layer, as the length of the band increases.
The operation is similar to making ropes. The straw
or hay should be wetted before it is twisted into bands,
as the straws will not be so elastic as when dry. When
wet, the straws will be very pliable ; and a very smooth
band can be made fifty feet long in two minutes, if a
person can lay out the straw skilfully.

Make each band about fifty feet long ; lay it down on
the ground ; let it dry one or two days ; then, with a
sharp axe, cut the long bands or ropes into pieces of
suitable length for binding sheaves. The pieces may be
four, five, six, or more feet in length. The desired size
of the bundles must determine the length of the bands.
After the long hay ropes have become dry, the bands
will not untwist when sheaves are being bound.

To make such a straw-band maker, procure a piece
of half-inch round iron, twenty inches long. Make a
crank on one end and a hook on the other. Any black
smith will do the work for a dime. The circle of the
hook should be about two inches in diameter, formed -as
herewith illustrated. The length of the crank should
not be over six inches. If the crank be too long, the
twister will find it far more fatiguing to his arms than
if the crank were short.

For a handle, bore a hole through a piece of straight-
grained hard wood, shave it true and smooth, split it in
two, through the hole, place it on the shank of the
twister, and glue the edges together. Put a handle also
on the wrist-pin. Persons who have never made bands
with such a device, will be surprised to learn how won-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 365

derfully making bands in this manner will facilitate the
labor of binding sheaves of any kind.

A BINDER'S DAY'S WORK.

Before horse-reapers were employed to cut our grain,,
when young boys were ambitious to rake and bind
grain, six hundred sheaves were considered a boy's day's
work, and a thousand sheaves for a man. But if a man
rakes and binds one thousand sheaves in the course of
twelve hours, he must labor faithfully and understand
how to make his band in the best and most expeditious
manner, and how to bind by exerting the least strength,
and in the shortest period of time. A laborer who re
ceives a man's wages, ought to rake and bind three
sheaves in two minutes, on an average of the minutes in
the working hours. Ambitious men will do more than
this. But muttering laborers, who are always fearful
that they are going to do too much, and who will let a
sheaf drop half bound, when the dinner-horn blows, will
not rake and bind more than five hundred sheaves in a
day ; and even one-fourth of those will have to be re
bound before they are put in the mow. In these days
of agricultural machinery, men and boys ought to edu
cate their ambition to accomplish as much as laborers
could perform when their fathers were young. But in
most instances, our old men, now in their dotage, will
mow around our common mowers, every ten rods ; and
cradle around them twice in cutting across a ten-acre
field ; and cut their corners at the end ; and then cradle
around to the place of starting, and take a refreshing
nap in the shade before their competitors come up, and
are ready for another start. This is a fact. And I

366 THE WHEAT CULTUBIST.

record it to the shame of our young men, who lack the
promptings of a laudable ambition to be able to do as
much as their fathers could. A little skill and ambi
tion of a boy with a cradle or rake, will often surprise
a strong man, who is as awkward as a poorly trained
donkey.

SHOCKING OR STOCKING WHEAT.

" Now sheaves are slanted to the sun,

Amid the golden meadows,
And little sun-tanned gleaners run
To cool them in their shadows."

The " shocking manner " in which a large proportion
of the wheat of our country is stooked — and in many
instances by farmers who sustain a fair reputation for
being skilful cultivators of the soil — is one of the chief
reasons why the market is often glutted by such a large
quantity of poor and sprouted wheat, and why there is
such a serious complaint about poor bread. It is quite
as annoying and shocking to a skilful farmer, to see his
grain stooked in the awkward and perfunctory manner
that is almost universally practised, as it is to a finely
educated ear, to listen to harsh discords, when harmo
nious sounds were promised and expected. Were it not
for the purpose of turning the water from the grain
during showers of rain, the manner in which the
sheaves are set up in stooks would be a matter of small
account. But, since sheaves may be stooked in such a
manner as to turn all the rain of a moderate shower, it
becomes a subject of first importance to the wheat-
grower to know how to set up the sheaves right.
There is a right way and a wrong way to shock sheaves

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

30'

of grain ; and it is just as easy to adopt the right way
as the wrong, when a laborer knows what is required.
An active boy can be taught, in a short time, to shock
grain so well, that the stooks will stand erect for several
weeks without leaning or tumbling over, thus exposing
the grain to storms.

When I was accustomed to work on the farm, I
shocked every sheaf of grain with my own hands, un
less it was not convenient for me to be in the field ; and
the result was. that I could often haul my grain to the

Fiu. 59. — Setting uj> Sheaves.

barn, soon after a shower, while the sheaves of certain
neighbors would be wringing wet to the middle ; and
many of them would have to be unbound and spread

368 ^ THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

out before they could be dried. That was because the
sheaves were stooked in such a shocking and perfunc
tory manner. Since shocking grain in a proper manner
is a subject of such eminent importance, I deem it
proper to lay down the details in the manipulations of
putting sheaves in stooks.

How TO HANDLE SHEAVES.

When a laborer is carrying sheaves to the place where
a stook is to be a made, he should either take hold of
the band, or grasp a large handful of the straw near the
band. But when the sheaves are to be set up, especially
when long shocks or stooks are to be made, each hand
should grasp a sheaf as represented by the preceding illus
tration (Fig. 59). Then the two sheaves should be set
down at one thrust, with the tops leaning toward each
other sufficiently to settle toward each other. If one
sheaf stands erect, and the other leans against it, both
will soon fall to the ground.

The accompanying representation of a stook of wheat
put up as thousands of laborers shock grain, shows what

a complete rain-catcher such
a shock of grain is. Look
at it ! The sprawling tops
will not turn rain any bet
ter than a binder's old straw
hat, when placed bottom-side
upward in a hard rain-storm.
The gavels were unskilfullv

° >

made ; the binding was only

FIG. 60.— Badly Shocked. J

half done ; and the sheaves
were shocked in a most shocking manner, so that every

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

369

drop of rain that falls within the area of such wide-
spreading sheaves, will be conveyed by the straws
down into the middle of the bundles. Look at the cap-
sheaf! How much water will that conduct off the
sheaves beneath it ? Not a single drop. Water always
runs down hill. The manner in which that cap-sheaf
is put on the stook, will be the means of collecting most
of the rain that falls on it, and conveying it toward the
band — down hill — and thus down into the sheaves be
neath it. Those sprawling tops of sheaves should be
gathered into a smaller compass, and placed beneath the
straw of the cap-sheaf, which should be spread out so as
to carry the rain beyond the sheaves.

The representation of a shock of wheat herewith
given (Fig. 61), shows as nearly as is practicable how to
stook wheat neatly, so as to
turn off most of the rain.
There are two cap-sheaves
spread out on the tops of
the bundles which are set on
the buts. My own practice
has always been to set about
ten sheaves together, in a
round and snug compass, and
crown them with two caps
instead of one, as shown by
the illustration, Fig. 61. Yet the cap-sheaf in this figure
is not represented with the tops and butts spread as
much as they ought to be. It is extremely difficult to
show every important point on paper. But the reader
should understand, that it is important to have the straw
spread all over the top of the standing sheaves, so that
they will conduct the rain to the outside of the stook.

16*

FIG. 61.— Neatly Shocked.

370 THE WHEAT CTJLTUKIST.

SINGLE-CAPPED STOCKS.

A great many wheat-growers set their sheaves in
round stooks ; and cap them with only one sheaf, as rep

resented by the accompany
ing figure 62 of a shock of
wheat. But I never ap
proved of tliis mode of
stocking sheaves of any
kind ; because more skill is
required to put on the cap-
sheaf, than is necessary
when two cap-sheaves are

.-Round shock of wheat, employed, as shown in a
preceding figure. In this

style of stocking grain, one of the largest sheaves is
selected for the cap, and placed with the butts upward.
During a heavy shower of rain, that large butt-end of
the cap-sheaf will catch, in some instances, more than
a gallon of water, all of which will be conducted down
into the sheaf, and much of it will pass down among
the grain beneath the cap ; whereas, the rain that falls
on a stook having two cap-sheaves, like the shock on a
preceding page, will nearly all be conveyed off the grain
to the ground.

Although I prefer making stooks with two caps, still
I will pen directions to enable a beginner to shock his
grain neatly, with one cap-sheaf.

The number of sheaves in a stook, will depend in a
great degree, on the size of the bundles and the length
of the straw. My practice always was, when making
stooks without assistance, to set up the largest sheaf per
pendicularly for the middle of the shock ; and then, set

THK WHEAT CULTUKIST. 371

eight more sheaves around it, being careful to lean them
all a trine toward the middle sheaf. When setting up
the outside sheaves, one hand must support the middle
sheaf from being thrust from its perpendicular position,
until sheaves have been placed on the opposite side.
After the circle is complete, as shown by the accom
panying diagram of stars, gather in all the %. ^.
spreading straws and lopping bunches of H; ... *
grain, and form a snug round top. Then, ^ #
having previously chosen the sheaf having
the longest and straightest straw, loosen the band, hold
the ends with one hand, and chuck the bundle down on
the ground, butt-end first, and bind it again with the
band about eight to twelve inches from the butt-end of
the sheaf. Now place the sheaf again on the butt-end,
and break the straw down horizontally in every di
rection from the centre of the sheaf. Then place
this cap on the stook as represented by the illustra
tion on page 376.

For the purpose of corroborating the excellence of this
mode of shocking grain, I copy the notes of J. J.
Thomas, of the " Cultivator and Country Gentleman,"
who writes : "Two years since, when the wheat was
almost universally injured or spoiled by rains during
harvest, the only exception which we met with was a field
belonging to an extensive farmer, the wheat of which
was cut early — a wreek before the common time — and
well secured in shocks, like that shown in the preceding
figure. The grain thus secured remained in the field
uninjured through all the rains, and ripened into excel
lent bright, plump wheat ; while all the other fields of
this farmer, and all the wheat of his neighbors, were
nearly ruined. We wTill describe a systematic method

372 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

which we have practised for many years, and know that
it operates well :

" 1. Grain should be firmly bound in smaller sheaves
than it is almost universally bound. Loosely bound
sheaves cannot be well shocked ; they also admit more
rain than tightly bound ones.

" 2. Two men can shock better and more advantage
ously than one.

" 3. Let the shocker alwrays take two sheaves at a time,
holding them with his elbow against his side, bringing
the heads together with hands well spread upon them.
Lift them as high as possible, bringing them with force,
in as nearly a perpendicular position as can be, to the
ground. Never make the second thrust, if the sheaves
stand erect, for every one after the iirst, by breaking
the butts, makes the matter worse.

"4. Let two persons bring down two sheaves each at
the same time, as described above, being extremely care
ful to keep them perpendicular. The form * * *
of shock at this period, may be represented
thus :

"5. As lastly stated, two more each, thus : # #
The reader will perceive we now have ten * *

sheaves, forming a circle as nearly as can be. % * ~x~ #

"6. While one man presses the head of the * *
shock firmly together, let the other break, not bend, the
two cap sheaves, and place them on well-spreading heads
and butts.

" The main points are, to have grain well hound, sheaves
to be stood in an erect position, and then put cap-sheaves
(m firmly, and every gust of wind will not demolish your
work." Let boys, and awkward men also, observe these
directions, till they can shock grain neatly.

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 373

How TO MAKE LONG SHOCKS.

When sheaves of any kind are set up in long shocks,
the stooks should stand north and south, rather than in
any other direction, so that the sun may shine on one
side in the former part of the day, and on the opposite
side in the afternoon. If the stooks be set up in an
east and west direction, the north side of the sheaves
get the benefit of very little sunshine, while the south
side receives more than an equal proportion.

When those laborers who cannot set up sheaves satis
factorily, carry the bundles together, they should be
taught to lay the sheaves in two rows, tops toward each
other, with about three feet space between the heads.
Then, the operator takes a sheaf in each hand, and
chucks them down on the butts, once only, on the ground,
with the tops leaning inward only a little. The sheaves
should not lean as far as the rafters of a house. After
they have been set down, press the tops together. Then
set up two more sheaves, close to the first pair ; and then
two more ; and so on, until the shock is finished. If a
sheaf is chucked down more than once, the butts will
be broken and bent around in various directions ; and
the sheaves will not maintain their erect position so
well as they will when jammed down only once. Long
shocks may be made of any desired length. But great
care should be exercised, that the sheaves do not lean
lengthways of the stook. If they be set up correctly,
they will stand erect as long as it is desirable to allow
the grain to remain in the field. Whether the sheaves
be set up in long shocks or in round shocks, a sheaf
should never be jammed down on the ground more than
once, if we would have it stand up well.

374 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

WOODEN GRAIN AND HAY CAPS.

The accompanying illustration represents a shock of
wheat covered with wrooden caps, which may be made
at a cheap rate, when lumber and labor are cheap.
They may be made in the following manner : Saw out
a lot of sticks of hard wood, four feet long and one and
a quarter inches square. These are to be employed as
a ridge pole to a barn roof. Select wide shingles, sea
son them thoroughly in the sunshine, until the wood
will not shrink any more ; then joint the edges and nail

FIG. 63.— Wooden Grain Caps.

the butts to the miniature ridge-pole. Such a roof will
cover a cock of hay of large size, or a shock of wheat,
keeping it dry through any storm. The only question
is, whether they will not be too costly, and inconvenient
to handle. But tapering shingles wrould be lighter than
shingles of uniform thickness. Thin boards of bass-
wood, white wood, or pine, not more than one-fourth of
an inch thick, would subserve quite as good purpose a?,
wide shingles. Such caps could be carried to and from
the field in a wagon ; and packed in a small compass
in a "nest," like wTooden bowls. It would be necessary

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 375

to make the tops of the cocks of such shape that the
wooden caps would fit well, and not be blown off, even
by high winds. At times, where there is but little to
do, such caps might be made and painted with coal tar,
to prevent the shingles shrinking and swelling by the
action of showers and sunshine.

If four feet in length should not be of the right length,
they can be made five or six feet long ; and several caps
can be put on a long shock.

CLOTH GRAIN CAPS — How TO MAKE THEM.

As there is so much uncertainty about having fair
weather during the days of harvest, grain caps, or hay
caps, for covering shocks of grain in stormy weather,
seem to be almost an indispensable requisite to success
ful agriculture. Indeed, I think that grain caps are far
more important than a mowing-machine, or a reaper.
If I could have but one of the two, I should consider it
most economical to purchase a hundred dollars' worth
of hay caps, rather than a mower and reaper. The
chief reason why they have not been introduced more
generally is, the expense of procuring the material for
making them. Besides this, few farmers really under
stand and appreciate the eminent value and advantage
of such appendages. I think, that if a farmer who has
been accustomed to secure his crops without grain caps,
will employ them during a wet season, he would ever
after be unwilling to dispense writh their use. When a
farmer has a crop of grain ready to be garnered, and the
clouds pour down torrents of rain, so that every sheaf
would be wet through and through, and many of them
have to be unbound before the grain could be dried, I

376 THE WHEAT CULTUBIST.

cannot describe the feeling of transcendent satisfaction
which that fanner experiences, when he goes to his
fields after a heavy rain has fallen, and finds every
sheaf dry enough to cart to the barn ! On the contrary,
witness the woe-begone countenance of him who fore
sees the hard labor of drying his wet sheaves ; and who
grieves over the large quantity of sprouted grain, per
haps wheat for his family !

In localities where long and heavy storms of rain are
apt to prevail during the haying and harvest season,
every farmer ought to prepare a good supply of hay
caps, not only for protecting his hay while it is in cock,
but for protecting his cereal grain, and Indian corn
stalks, when they are in the shock. Such caps will
often pay for themselves, in a single season, in protect
ing hay only. But, after the hay has been gathered,
they will be found quite as serviceable for protecting
barley, wheat, and oats. That farmer who has never
used them has no correct idea of the great advantage of
hay caps, both in making hay and in protecting grain
from rain.

If, for example, one has a lot of hay that is ready to
go into the mow or stack when a heavy rain is at hand,

he can put on his caps in a
short time, and his hay or
grain will receive no dam
age. Then, as soon as the
storm is over he can re
move his caps, and go to
work immediately at his
grain or hay. On the con-
FIG. 64.— cioth Gram-cap. trary, had it not been for

the protection of his caps, the damage done to his hay

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 377

or grain might have been more than equal to the value
of the caps.

I have examined various ways of making hay-caps,
and among them all I can recommend the following
mode of making them as the most convenient to han
dle : Procure common sheeting, or bed-ticking, or any
kind of cloth, one yard or two yards wide, and make
the caps about six feet square ; let the rough edges be
hemmed. Now turn up each corner about three inches,
and sew them down tightly. Work a small eyelet-hole
near each corner, like Fig. 64, for the wooden pins to go
through into the hay. The pins may be made of an;j
hard, straight-grained wood, about sixteen
inches long. These pins can be made the most
expeditiously by sawing off a log of green
timber, and split it out, as one would rive
out staves. Then shave them, so that they
will be about half an inch round at the large
end, with a knob on one end, and pointed at
the other end. The neatest way would be,
to have the pins turned, like the illustra- FIG. 65.

Grain-Cap

tion here given. pin.

PAINTING GRAIN-CAPS.

Some people paint their caps ; but this renders the
cloth rotten, and very stiff. But unless the cloth is
very good, they will not turn the rain during a very
heavy shower, if the cloth is not painted. Others have
saturated the caps with a solution of alum, and some
quicklime ; but I cannot recommend this preparation.
Yet the following preparation I can endorse, even for
rather poor cloth. If the caps are made of heavy bed-

378 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

ticking they will not let the rain through, should it rain,
a week or more, even if they have not been smeared
with any preparation :

Make a paint of three parts of coal-tar and one part
of benzole, or benzine, or spirits of turpentine, and
apply it to the cloth, in hot weather, and you will
have caps that will last as long as one man will need
them.

The most expeditious way to put the caps on a cock
of hay or stook of grain is, let two men throw a cap
over the top, and draw it down, both together, and
thrust in the pins into the eyelet-holes, with the points
a little upward. Weights in each corner of the caps
will hold them well ; but they are said to be very heavy
to carry around, as one hundred caps must necessarily
weigh some six or eight hundred pounds. The editor
of the " Cultivator and Country Gentleman " says :
" We experimented this season on this modern protect
or, and the result is, that I believe the small caps of
three feet square are comparatively useless — those one
and a half yards square the best size. Those not oiled
did not keep out the wet effectually, but those dipped in
boiled oil repelled the rain of nearly a week's duration,
so as to require but an hour's airing of the cocks to fit
them for drawing. The stones sewed in the corners
will, I think, be abandoned on trial, as they make them
too heavy to move in quantities ; besides proving inade
quate in a brisk breeze to retain them in their place ;
while pegs not only hold them on, but also spike the
hay from caking off the top, as it sometimes does, cap,
stones, and all. When weights are employed at the
corners of caps, one pound, at least, at a corner, will be
as light as the weights should be made."

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 379

MORE ABOUT GRAIN OR HAY-CAPS.

Hay-caps are sometimes made four feet square, hav
ing a wooden pin fastened in the middle of each cap,
which pin is thrust into the top of each cock. Then,
there are pins fastened to small cords at each of the four
corners. But the centre pin is of little use, while it in
creases the expense ; and four feet square is quite too
small, to protect cocks of an ordinary size ; or, to pro
tect shocks of grain.

Experience teaches, that caps will usually be more
convenient, when they are made with eyelet-holes at
each corner, for receiving the pins, than when the pins
are fastened to the middle. When they are made as
recommended, the pins can be carried in a basket, and
the caps in a large roll, very conveniently ; and if the
holes be made at the corners, the caps can be used to
cover a stack with ; whereas, they could not be so em
ployed, when the pins are fastened to the corners with
cords. The caps should all be made of a uniform size ;
and the holes should be marked out by a pattern, so that
the caps will all be just alike.

Now, to protect, or shingle a long stack with caps,
begin at the top, and lay one cap on one side of the
stack, and another one on the opposite side ; and, let a pin
be thrust through a hole in the corner of four different
caps on the top of the stack. Then put another course
of caps below the first course, and put a pin at the
corners. Round stacks cannot be covered with caps in
this way. But, long stacks, and stacks that are only
partly finished, which need to be protected from a
shower of rain, can be covered with caps made as di
rected in a few minutes, so as to turn a heavy rain.

380 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

SCOTT'S PATENT GRINDER.

This invention consists of a grindstone turned off true
on the side, as well as on the periphery, and supported on

a frame, as repre
sented in the figure.
The grindstone
is adjustable to any
required angle, and
the cutter bar, or
knife, is securely
held in the swing
ing frame, and
placed at the pro
per bevel. The
stone slides the

Grinding Machine Knives. whole length of the

frame, and grinds each section to its proper bevel with
great accuracy and facility.

Every person who has had experience in grinding the
sections of mowing machines, will appreciate the value
of such a device. The grinder is manufactured by
Richardson & Co., Auburn, 'N. Y. ; and has met with
excellent favor wherever it has been introduced.

How TO PITCH SHEAVES.

There are numerous little considerations which a
pitcher must understand perfectly if he would pitch
sheaves easily and expeditiously. In the first place, he
should have a fork and tines much straighter than for
pitching hay or straw. A fork with crooked tines, and
spread wide apart, is a disagreeable tool to pitch with,

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 381

as the tines stick in the sheaf, and require more of an
effort to withdraw them than if they were straighter,
or not so much curved.

Another thing is, always thrust the fork into the
sheaf astride of the band, unless the band be loose, and
near one end of the sheaf. Beginners should be in
structed how to take up a sheaf with a fork, and how to
give it a skilful turn while it is on the fork, so that it
will land in the most desirable position. An active
boy of only ordinary strength, if he have skill, will
pitch sheaves more satisfactorily than a strong, but
awkward man.

In order to pitch off a load of sheaves easily, the
pitcher should take them up in the reversed order in
wrhich they were laid down, as the sides frequently over
lap each other. These suggestions, it is hoped, will be
sufficient to enable beginners to aim to perform the task
of pitching with a good degree of skill.

How TO LOAD SHEAVES OF WHEAT.

When building a load of sheaves on a wagon or cart,
there are several points to be kept in mind by the load
er ; among which are — carrying up the sides uniformly,
so that the load will ride safely to the barn or stack, and
placing the sheaves in such a manner that the load may
be pitched off with facility, carrying all the loose grain
with the sheaves. Loading sheaves, so as to save even
only a quart or more of the best of wheat at every load,
is an item of importance, when the grain is worth three
dollars or more per bushel. The first sheaves, when
making a load, should not be thrown hap-hazard into
the rigging, unless the bottom and sides are grain-tight.

382 THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST.

But let the loader take each sheaf as it is pitched and
place a course of sheaves across one end of the rigging.
Then lay the tops of another course of sheaves on the
ears of the preceding bundles. If the sheaves be placed
in this manner they -will catch all the loose grain that
may be shelled out of the other sheaves. One or two
courses more will be sufficient to fill the rigging. This
rigging, or box, or " shelving," on which the sheaves are
carted or hauled, should not be filled flush with the out
side before the first course of sheaves is laid in the
desired place. If the middle be filled even with the
outside shelving, the sheaves will be apt to slide off the
sides before they can be secured by a middle course.
After the middle is filled, lay a large sheaf on each cor
ner first. The object of placing a large sheaf on the
corner is to keep the corners a trifle the highest. If the
corners be carried up true there will be no difficulty in
putting a load on square.

A mason, when building a brick house, always car
ries up his corners first, as the corners are a sure guide.
A loader must do the same thing. Let the but ends of
the sheaves be laid beyond the shelving, nearly to the
bands which encircle them. Place the sheaves as close
ly together as they can be conveniently pressed. If the
ground be rough, so that the sheaves are liable to be
jostled out of place, lay the binding course of sheaves
in the middle. When loading the binding or middle
course of sheaves, place the tops of every alternate sheaf
in the opposite direction. Select the smallest sheaves
for the middle, so as to keep the outside of the load
a trifle the highest. When the middle appears too full,
let two courses of sheaves be laid around the outside,
and only one course in the jjiiddle, as fast as the outside

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 383

courses are laid. It is always better to lay the middle
course of sheaves across the load, instead of lengthwise,
because, when laid crosswise, they keep the outside
courses from working outward. If a load be made un
usually wide, and the middle sheaves be placed length
wise of the wagon, upon passing over a rough or uneven
way, the sheaves will slip and slide about, and half of
them will fall to the ground, when not a sheaf would
have moved out of its place, had the middle course been
laid crosswise.

When the sheaves are short, the butts must not be
laid so far beyond the shelving as when they are long.
The load should be so wide that the binding course of
sheaves will extend almost to the bands of the sheaves
of the outside courses. In order to load sheaves well,
the loader should move on his hands and knees, and
place the sheaves as close together as practicable.

Another very important consideration is, to have
every sheaf pitched clear from the butts of the last
course of sheaves, and placed on the top of the load, as
no man can make a load with true sides, when the per
son who pitches thrusts his fork against the last course,
so as to "displace the sheaves.

When a mason's hod-carrier, through lack of skill, or
from heedlessness, knocks the bricks or stones out of
place, after they have been laid in the wall, he hears
from the " boss " in emphatic language ; and he seldom
repeats the careless offence. A man or boy who is load
ing sheaves on a wagon should watch his work as close
ly as a mason observes the courses of the wall which he
may be building. If the foregoing directions are ob
served, a loader will find no difficulty in building a load
that will not tumble off the wagon.

384 THE WHEAT CULTUEIST.

How TO Mow SHEAVES OF WHEAT.

There are two modes in vogue of mowing away
sheaves of wheat, colloquially called the "Yankee mode"
and the "Dutch fashion." When sheaves are mowed
according to the Yankee mode, a course of bundles is
laid around the outside of the mow, with the butts out
ward. Then another course of sheaves is laid inside
of this first course, with about half the length of the
sheaves lapping on the course beneath. The old way
is to lap the butts of the second course on the first course
of sheaves, and thus continue to work round and round
until one course laid in the middle covers the surface
of the mow. In some instances the tops of the sheaves
are lapped on the first course, instead of the butts.

Those who practise this manner of mowing their grain
aver that when the butts are placed outward, rats and
red squirrels find it more difficult to work into the mid
dle of the mow than when the sh eaves are not mowed
in the foregoing manner. But experience proves that
if such animals have access to a mow of grain, they will
destroy as much grain when one style of mowing is prac
tised as another. When a barn is not entirely rat-proof,
or when a stack is not placed on a platform beyond the
reach of rats, it is folly to think of mowing such ma
rauders out of the middle of a stack or mow.

The Dutch manner of mowing is to lay courses of
sheaves back and forth entirely across the mow, letting
the tops of each course overlap about half of the sheaves
of the preceding course. This manner of mowing sheaves
is decidedly preferable to the practice of laying the
courses round and round, until one sheaf will finish in
the middle of the mow. This Dutch system has every-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 385

thing to recommend its adoption over the Yankee mode,
as a much larger number of sheaves can be mowed in a
given space, and they can also be mowed more conve
niently ; and when the sheaves are removed from the
mow they can be taken up more readily than when they
are mowed in the style just alluded to.

Another consideration of no little importance is to
work always, except the bottom course, from the back
side of the mow to the front. In practice this will be
seen to be more convenient than to work from the front
to the back side of the mow.

It may seem trivial to expatiate on such minor topics.
But laborers who are always seeking the easiest and
most expeditious way to perform every laborious opera
tion, appreciate such little details in giving directions
for saving labor. When a mow is first commenced,
however, the first course should be laid on the front side
of the mow, instead of the back side. The object is to
save all the loose grain. If the mower begins his work
on th'e further side of the barn, or bay, all the loose grain
that falls from the sheaves, both when mowing the bun
dles and when pitching them off the mow, will fall to
the floor. But if sheaves be mowed as directed, and be
taken up, when they are pitched off, without turning
them over, the loose grain will all be carried along with
the sheaves, instead of being left, perhaps, where it can
not easily be collected. Every observing farmer will
perceive all the advantages which have been stated, and
some others also, by working from the back side of the
mow to the front side, after the bottom has been cov
ered with one course of sheaves.

One suggestion further, which few persons ever think
of, is this : The mow, for example, is forty feet long.

17

386 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

The sheaves are pitched on one side, near the middle.
It will be easier for both the mower and the man who
pitches the sheaves to the mower, if he will work from
each end toward the middle of the mow, instead of mow
ing from the middle to the end of the course of sheaves.
The advantages will be perceived as soon as these direc
tions are observed. The mower should always work
toward the pitcher. The man who pitches can make
very hard work for a mower by throwing the sheaves
wrong end first ; or he can facilitate the labor of mow
ing, simply by the exercise of a little skill in turning the
bundles as he pitches them, so that every one will fall
directly before the mower, with the heads where they
should be.

In order to mow sheaves neatly, and thus be able to
get as much grain as possible into a given space, the
mower should move on his hands and knees, placing the
sheaves as closely together as they can be crowded.
Sometimes sheaves can be kept closer to each other by
placing a sheaf say ten inches distant from the one be
neath the knees of the mower, and then by crowding
another bundle between two sheaves and placing the
knees on it. By adopting this method a much larger
amount of grain can be mowed in a given space than
if the sheaves be put in the mow in a perfunctory man
ner. When barn room is scarce, it is important to know
how to make a limited amount of space subserve a given
purpose.

THE CAYUGA-CHIEF REAPER.

The Cayuga-Chief represented by the cut is a com
bined two-wheeled machine. It can be changed in a
few moments from a mower to a reaper. The cutter-

388 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

bar can be set to cut any desired height. The platform
and cutters can be adjusted to any angle desired, for
the more perfect cutting and easy delivery of lodged as
well as standing grain.

The raker's seat is comfortably and conveniently lo
cated, and can be adjusted so as to enable the operator
to sit in any position he may desire. Many farmers,
when using this machine, drive the team and handle the
rake at the same time.

The grain is delivered at the side of the swath, giving
abundant room for the team and machine between the
gavels and the standing grain.

The reel is overhung and driven so as to operate
properly at all times. As a harvester, the drive-wheels
have a bearing surface of sixteen inches ; and the weight
is so distributed that the machine will operate success
fully on very soft ground. When mowing or reaping,
this machine turns as easily as a cart, cutting square
corners without any backing of the team, being sup
ported on its own wheels, and balanced independently
of the tongue. The raker's seat and platform preserve
their proper relations to each other, and the injurious
and annoying vibrations experienced in machines
balanced by the tongue are prevented.

The best evidence of the success and popularity of
this machine is found in the fact that upwards of twenty
thousand are now in use throughout the United States.

The Cayuga Chief Manufacturing Company at Au
burn, New York, manufacture two sizes of this machine
as combined hand and self rake reapers and mowers,
and a smaller size.

Mr. C. Wheeler, Jr., the president of the company,
a practical farmer and mechanic, is the inventor of the

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 389

machine; and he makes it his sole business to study and
experiment for the "Chief," and keep it fully up in all
respects with the improvements of the times. I am
assured by this company, that they are taking especial
pains in the selection of material for their machines, so
that farmers have the assurance that the Cayuga Chief
machines will be unsurpassed for strength of material,
workmanship, perfection of finish, and durability.
They say, that they intend that the " Cayuga Chief"
shall, hereafter, excel all others in mechanism and
excellent material, as it has heretofore done in its
combinations of valuable principles. I can say from
personal knowledge of the Cayuga Chief for several
years, that I can confidently recommend it to farmers
who desire a good mower and reaper. Mr. Wheeler
has expended a fortune in bringing the "Chief" to its
present state of perfection ; and the brain-labor expend
ed, from first to last, in originating, improving, and
perfecting the various parts, is truly wonderful to con
template.

STACKING SHEAVES OF WHEAT.

It requires the combined knowledge of an intelligent
practical farmer, a natural philosopher, and the con
structive skill of an architect to build a good stack.
The chief object to be kept in view is, to place the
sheaves so that the straws will conduct the water off the
stack. Let me illustrate the idea more plainly : Let a
shed be covered with rails, or poles, laid horizontally, as
a roof ; and, when it rains, all the water will pass down
between them ; but elevate one end of the same poles
to an angle of forty-five degrees, and they will convey
nearly all the rain that falls on them, to the lower end.

390 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

StraAVS of wheat represent poles. "When the sheaves lie
horizontally, the rain will pass readily down between
the straws. But elevate one end of the sheaf to the
above-mentioned angle, and the straws on the upper
side will carry off nearly all the water. Yery little of it
will find its way into the sheaf. Water always flows
down hill.

THE FOUNDATION OF STACKS.

The first thing in building a stack is, a suitable foun
dation to keep the dampness from injuring the grain.
When rails or poles can be obtained conveniently, they
will subserve an excellent purpose. A good foundation
may be readily made of plank, by placing four planks
on their edges, writh other planks or boards resting on
these for the stack. A stack should always be so high
from the ground that dogs and cats can go under them.
This will give a circulation of air under the stack, and
the cats a chance to keep it free from mice, rats, gophers,
etc. At any rate there must be a foundation of wood
sufficient to keep the grain from acquiring moisture from
the earth. This done, it is always a good practice to
make a round stack about a pole set firmly in the ground.
This will keep it erect when it is settling. When mak
ing a round stack, where there is no pole in the middle,
it will always be found advantageous to stick a fork at
the middle, keeping it there as the stack is carried up.
Then a stacker can always judge whether he is carrying
up the sides true.

How TO PLACE THE SHEAVES.

In building a stack of any kind, there are two points
of great importance to be observed. The first is to

THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 391

carry up a stack true ; and the next is to place the sheaves
or material in the best position to carry off the rain.
Always begin in the middle to lay the first course of
sheaves. Set a centre pole firmly in the ground, and
brace it securely on four sides. The braces will not
interfere with the stacking. 'Now set up sheaves around
the centre pole, letting them all lean toward the cen
tre. Place a pole against the centre pole, and carry
the other end entirely around the outside of the stack-
bottom, in order to have the last course of sheaves on
every side of the pole at a uniform distance from the
centre pole.

When the bottom course of sheaves is laid, lay an
other course on the outer side ; and if the circumference
seems too low, lay two courses of sheaves, one above
the other, and tread them down firmly. E~ow lay
another course on the inside of the first one, letting the
butts lap on the tops of the outside course, almost to
the bands. The butts should never extend beyond the
bands. Keep the stack nearly level, until it is carried
up to the top of the bilge. The middle should be kept
full, and a few inches higher than the outside ; and the
sheaves should be well trod down. If the middle
be kept much higher than the outside, before the stack
is built as high as the bilge, the outside course of
sheaves will continue to work outward, and the stack
will spread faster than it is desired to have it. The
outside course of sheaves should be placed as close
together as they can be, to prevent large holes in the
outside, where rain will find its way into the sheaves be
neath. To prevent the sheaves slipping outward, ele
vate the top end of every bundle when placing it, as
the stacker is represented as doing, in the figure ; and

392

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

thrust the butts on the underside into the course below
it. When they are simply laid down without this secu
rity, the courses are very liable to slide off. This is one

FIG. C7.— Stacking Wheat.

of the manipulations in stacking that but comparatively
few understand. I have seen half a wagon-load of
sheaves slide at once from the side of a stack built by a
man who was ignorant of this part of stacking. As the
straw of barley and cornstalks is very slippery, it is

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 393

difficult to keep the courses from sliding, unless the
butts of every sheaf are secured in this way.

To PREVENT A STACK FROM LEANING.

A common and effectual way is to build a stack
around a tree. Then it must settle evenly ; and main-
•tain an erect position. Another way worthy of adop
tion is, to set a stiff pole in the ground ; and brace it
firmly, on four sides, as previously alluded to. This will
be as effectual as a tree. If the pole be set two feet in
the ground, and the soil be well rammed around it ; and
braces four feet long be nailed to the pole at the upper
ends ; and if the lower ends be secured at the surface of
the ground by a flat stake, a hurricane would not dis
turb a stack. When a long stack is made, two or three
such poles should be set up. It requires but a little re
sistance to keep a stack erect. But, after a stack has
settled over, it is no easy job to put it back to an erect
position.

Bracing stacks, after they begin to lean, is often re
sorted to, by thrusting rails, or poles, against one side.
This practice, however, is not to be commended, as poles
thrust beneath the bilge of a stack, will often turn up
the courses of the sheaves, so that the straws will slant
toward the middle of the stack, in which position they
will convey the rain inward, instead of conducting it
off the stack.

Another mode of maintaining the erect position of a
stack is, to brace one side, with a plank and pole, or with
two planks, as represented by the braces shown in Fig. 68.

The upright plank should stand in a perpendicular
position, so that the side of the stack may settle down

17*

394: THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

without leaning from its erect position. The brace should
be secured in its place by nailing a cleat above the upper
end across the upright plank, as represented by the illus
tration, Fig. 68 ; and by driving a broad stake at the
lower end of the brace. If one such brace be not suffi
cient, a half dozen may be placed on one side of a stack.
Then, after the stack is done settling, the braces may be
removed. But if the ends of braces be thrust against a
stack, they cannot be taken away at pleasure.

Furthermore, when tall stacks are in danger of being
blown over by a high wind, this manner of bracing them
will be found more convenient and efficient than any
other mode.

WHAT CAUSES A STACK TO LEAN.

When a wheat-stack has been built as true as the form
of an egg, it will sometimes settle sideways so far as to
fall over unless braces are applied in time. This fact is
a mystery to most persons ; and they often ejaculate,
inquiringly, " What does make it lean f "

The prime cause must always be attributed to im
perfect workmanship when building a stack. I will
mention certain things that cause a stack to lean. When
all the grain is pitched on the stack at one side, the
heft of the sheaves and the tread of the man who
pitches them to the stacker, keeps that side pressed
down more compactly than the stack is on the opposite
side. Of course the side that is trod down the most will
settle least. The settling of the opposite side, more
than the side on which the pitcher stood, causes the
stack to lean.

Another cause of leaning is, the sheaves are laid out

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 395

farther on one side than they are on the opposite side.
There being nothing to support the overhanging bilge,
that side of the stack settles much more than the
other. The consequence is, that the courses of sheaves
on one side of the stack will be turned up, at the butts,
to such an angle, that the rain will be conducted to
ward the middle of the stack instead of running off the
outside. It is eminently important, that the straws on
the outside courses of the stack, should always be so
inclined downward, that they will conduct the rain out
ward, from straw to straw, until the water will all flow
off the bilge of the stack.

How TO TOP OFF A STACK.

If the stack is being built of sheaves, the middle must
be kept so full that there will be a good inclination of
the straw in the butts of the bundles. This is always
a much better guide than to attempt to keep the mid
dle of the stack at a certain height above the outside.
The stacker should move on his knees, as already stated
on a previous page ; and, in order to keep the sheaves
close together as they can be conveniently, he should
lay each sheaf partly on the side of the one last laid ;
and as it is pressed down with the knees, hold it from
slipping with both hands. By this means a much larger
number of bundles may be secured in a smaller compass
than otherwise. If the straws only have a suitable in
clination to carry the water outward, instead of toward
the middle of the stack, rain will injure but a small
portion of either straw or grain. If one side of a stack
should be lower than the other, it may usually be car
ried up even, by using the large sheaves for the lower,

396 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

and the smaller ones for the higher side. This ojiesided-
ness should be guarded against before the stack has
become onesided. The straightest and handsomest bun
dles should be placed in the outside course, for the
purpose of keeping the stack of the correct shape, as
well as carrying off the rain better, than tangled bun
dles, which should form the inside courses, whenever
there is any difference in the sheaves. If it is necessary
to have a man or boy stand on the stack to pitch the

FIG. 63. — A Stack Braced, to Prevent Leaning.

sheaves to the stacker, he should always remain as near
the middle as practicable, and not travel about so as
to displace the sheaves, after the stacker has left them.
Keep the middle full, the form circular, and draw the
courses in gradually. When the stack is not built
around a pole, sharpen a small rail or scantling, and set
it erect at the centre, by thrusting it in, two or three
feet, so that it will stand while the top is built around
it. As the area of the top of the stack diminishes, con-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 397

tin tie to place the sheaves more erect, until the straws
the last course incline at an angle of about forty-five
degrees. Bind the tops of these securely to the pole.
Then make a large bundle of long rye straw, wet it
thoroughly, so that it will keep in place better ; and hav
ing bound it with one band, at about one-third the dis
tance from the top to the butts, slip it down over the top
of the stake, and bind the top with several bands, as
represented in the illustration. Spread out the butts
evenly, and rake them down straight. A stack made
according to the foregoing directions will turn heavy
showers almost as well as a shingle roof, and the water
will all fall clear of the bottom of the stack

FURTHER SUGGESTIONS ABOUT STACKING.

A writer in the " Wisconsin Farmer " recorded the
following suggestions about building stacks :

" In the Eastern and Middle States very little grain,
or even hay, is stacked out. In those regions, it is re
garded as shiftless for a farmer not to have barn-room
enough to cover all his crops. The sentiment probably
grew, in part, out of the old method of thrashing all
the grain out by the flail, which required a barn-floor
and high guards on either side, to keep the grain from
flying over and wasting ; and partly from the small cost
•of barns in early times.

u But most of our farmers are from the East, and
never learned to build a stack, to do which, or to make
an axe helve, requires either a man of genius, or a good
deal of training. But the less a man knows about either,
the more apt he is to think he can do it first rate ; and
the consequence is, that large quantities of grain are

398 THE WHEAT CULTUBIST.

spoiled every year by bad stacking, especially of wheat.
A farmer should never attempt to stack his own grain
unless he is sure he knows how ; and he can never be
sure of that until he has a vivid -recollection of the time
when he did not know how. In Great Britain it has
long been the custom to secure grain in stacks ; and they
have brought the art to a great deal of perfection ; and
every farmer who has not learned the art himself, should
secure the services of some English, Welsh, or Scotch
farmer to do that job for him until he has thoroughly
acquired the art himself.

u A man may understand something about the theory
of stacking without being an adept in the business.
Building a stack correctly can only be acquired by prac
tice under the eye of a competent instructor. But the
theory is useful, if for nothing but to enable the farmer
to know when he has found a competent practical man.
This theory, as we have seen it practised by English
men, is substantially as follows : "

v TOPPING OUT A STACK.

"When laying sheaves above the bilge of a stack, the
same writer says, commence in the centre by setting
up sheaves as for a round shock, adding course upon
course, setting the butts of each succeeding course a
little more out, so as to have the outside course at
about the angle of a quarter-pitch roof, being care
ful to force the butts down on the next course so they
will not slip and flatten down as weight is added. Let
this last or outside course, in working from the centre,
serve as the first course in the layer which you
make back to the centre, laying the butts of the next

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 399

course about even with the bands of the course un
der it, and thrusting the butts of each bundle, as you
lay it. into the bundle under it, to prevent its slipping
outward by pressure. Go round with a single course,
keeping your work before you and pressing down the
bundles with your knees. Then lay another course in
the same manner, lapping at the same place, and so on
till you get to the centre. Then commence again at the
outside, leaving the butts of the first course even with
those of the lower course, or projecting a little over,
being careful as before to catch the butts of the new
course into the lower one, and work inward as before.
The outside should be as little pressed as convenient,
in building, and the inside packed as close as possible,
so that the pitch of the bundles outward will be in
creased rather than diminished as the stack settles. If
the heads of the bundles do not keep up the pitch of
the sheaves equal to that of an ordinary roof, when
above the bilge of the stack, put in extra sheaves, in any
way which will keep the surface regular in form.

" The butts of each outside course should project a little
over the course below *it until you are ready to draw in,
so that the stack, when done, will have the shape of a
hen's egg, a little flattened at the large end. A little
marsh hay makes a good cap, which should be secured
against the winds by ropes made of the same, placed
over the top and held by weights at the sides. When
you see a man build a stack in this way, you may know
he understands his business ; but do not imagine you
can do it yourself at the first or second trial." I have
given these rather tautological directions, in the stacker's
own language, that beginners may understand them the
better.

400

THE WHEAT CULTTTRIST.

DODGE'S OHIO AND BUCKEYE REAPER AND SELF-
RAKER.

The beautiful illustration on this page represents
an excellent combined mower and reaper, made by
Dodge & Stevenson Manufacturing Company, Au-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 401

burn, New York. This machine is a neat mower,
and can be rigged for harvesting in a few minutes.
Large numbers of this style of mowers and reapers
have been manufactured ; and wherever they were
introduced, farmers have been well satisfied with their
operations. The workmanship is of a superior charac
ter ; the draft is light ; material is good and durable ;
and the machine is well adapted to all kinds of work.
The self-raker consists of four independent rakes, so
constructed as to allow all of them to be in use for reel
ing on the grain, or, by a slight movement of the hand
or foot, causing either rake to rake off the cut grain, in
any sized gavels required.

WARNER'S SULKY RAKE.

This wooden rake combines all the advantages of
both the Sulky and Old Revolving Rakes. By means

Frc. 70.— Sulky Hake.

of the lever with its cams and stops, the driver has
more perfect control over the rake than can possibly be
had over the old-fashioned revolver. It does not dust
the hay as wire teeth usually do ; is easily handled by
a boy ; and the inclination of the teeth is easily regu
lated, so as to pass over any obstacle, or dip into a

402

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

swale. The draw-bars are jointed, so that the rake can
be folded up, upon the sulky, and thus be easily trans
ported. This rake is made by II. N. Tracy, Essex Junc
tion, Vermont ; by Blymyer, Day & Co., Mansfield,
Ohio ; and Blymyer, Norton & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.

ALDEN'S WHEEL HAKE.

The illustration herewith given (Fig. 71), represents
an excellent upting-tootli rake, which I can recommend

FIG. 71.— Alden's Wheel Rake.

as being a valuable, labor-saving implement. The cut
furnishes such a correct idea of it, that I shall give no

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

403

description of it. M. Alden & Co., Auburn, New York,
are the only manufacturers that I know of.

THE BUCKEYE MOWER AND REAPER.

life ' . jifii *

The illustration accompanying these notes represents
the celebrated Buckeye Harvester with the self-raker

404 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

attachment, which is very light, simple, and compact,
its weight being no greater than that of an ordinary
hand-rake attachment. It does not interfere in the
slightest degree with the simplicity of the machine as a
mower, and is very readily and easily attached and de
tached. The following is the description of the Self-
Baker given in the official report of the great Auburn
trial, when the Buckeye won such world- wide fame :

" A disk with four joints carries four rakes or sweeps
with rollers at right angles, which work in inclined
ways, with a switch, which makes them act as beaters
or rakes at pleasure. The rake-teeth drop down nearly
to a level with the guards to catch lodged grain, and
pass over a rake-guard, to prevent the teeth from
springing down on the guards in rough ground, the
rake rising quickly afterward. The inclined ways are
adjustable, to give different motions to the rake. The
ability which this arrangement gives to the machine,
to cut long or short grain with equal facility, without
making tedious adjustments, constitutes its greatest
merit. It will deliver the gavels in regular intervals
of space when the grain stands equal in height and
thickness, or the rakes may be regulated by the hand or
foot of the driver so as to deliver any size of gavels that
may be desired, or by fastening the switch open, it will
deliver the grain in swath. It has cleaners hinged
so as to brush back the grain which collects on the
dividers while acting as reels, leaving it in good shape
for the rake to deliver."

The "Buckeye" is still manufactured by Adriance,
Platt & Co., 165 Greenwich street, ISTew York city ;
and the best thing I can record for this reaper and self-
raker is to mention the fact that, after having been put

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 405

to the most severe tests in mowing and harvesting
heavy and tangled grass and grain, it was driven into a
field of heavy rye, which was seven feet high, and every
part, self-rake and all, worked as beautifully as a lawn
mower. The "Buckeye" needs no words of commend
ation from my pen. American farmers are familiar
with its worthy record.

THE MONTGOMERY FORK.

I give an illustration of this celebrated fork, made by
the Montgomery Fork Company, 254 Pearl street, New
York city, because it is just such
a fork as farmers will find to please
them. The illustration shows how
the tines are secured to the handle.
Some of the merits of this fork are

FIG. Tontotner these : In case a tine Breaks, an-
other can be replaced instantly at
a trifling cost, and without loss of time. In repairing
one tine of a common fork, the other tine is invariably
spoiled, rendering the fork good for nothing. Should
the handle break, the tines can be refitted to another
handle in a few minutes. The handle is not tapered
at the end near the fork ; but, the whole strength of
the wood is left ; and when the ferrule is in its place it
binds the whole -together, as if one solid substance.
The process of manufacture gives a more uniform
texture of steel than can be produced by any other
method. The weight is no more than the common
fork. The tines are warranted not to work loose.
This fork took the first premium at the New York State
Fair at Buffalo., 1867.

40G

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

CHAPTER V.

MILDEW IN WHEAT.

THERE have been volumes penned about mildew in
wheat, and other plants ; but I am sorry to be obliged

FIG. 74.— Mildew in Wheat.

to record that, after all that has been said, we know
very little about it. In order to give wheat-growers
something of an idea of mildew, I herewith furnish an

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

407

illustration (Fig. 74), which represents the mildew of
wheat, greatly magnified. To the naked eye these beau
tiful fungi seem more like the minute particles of dust
on a miller's hat, than anything else.

To the practical wheat grower the great question is :
What is mildew? what causes it? and, what is the
remedy f

I answer in brief: Mildew is a disease of the grow
ing wheat. The plants are covered with a white sub
stance, which is made up of minute fungi, which ap
pear in spots on the straw. These parasites, repre
sented by Fig. 74, are minute
plants, growing on the wheat
plant, and extracting the juices
that should be appropriated to
the development of the grain.
After reading scores of pages
about mildew, in w^hich various
plausible theories are broached
by one author, and the same
theories controverted by an
other author of equally reliable
authority, I have to again ac
knowledge that we know little
about the cause, or the remedj^.

By referring again to Fig.
74, it may be seen, that the
ends of the delicate creeping
threads bear spores, or sporules, Frr" 75--Eust magnified.
which fall off, an 1 fly like dust, in the a:r. Some
times these spores form quite a little cloud. Strange
as it may appear, these infinitesimally small parti
cles of dust are seeds, so to speak, from which millions

408

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

of plants spring. The spores are borne along in
the wind, among the growing wheat ; and wherever
the straw is not perfectly healthy, and able to resist the
attacks of such parasitic fungus, the seeds adhere to the
diseased leaves and stems, germinate, grow, and tend to
destroy the crop.

There are many kinds of mildew and rust, which
originate from spores. Fig. 75 represents a magni
fied view of a small portion of what is scientifically
called uredo rubigo vera, in which the spores are repre
sented with a sort of basket-work extending from one
to another.

SMUT IN WHEAT.

The illustration herewith given (Fig. 76) represents
a magnified view of what is scientifically known as

uredo caries, which is common
to wheat ; and seldom attacks
any other cereal plant. The
dark-colored excrescences rep
resent the spores or seeds of
the uredo caries. Unlike other
maladies, this one takes its ori
gin in the interior juices of the
wheat plant; and affects the
kernels, instead of the straw.
The pericarp of the kernels of
wheat contains a black mate
rial, greasy to the touch, in-
dust of caries, unlike that of
smut, emits an unpleasant odor; and the nauseous
smell is sometimes perceived in wheat bread. The
semeniform grains of the caries (Fig. 76) attach them-

Fio. 76.— Smut magnified.

stead of flour. The

THE WHEAT CULTUBI8T. 409

selves to the minute hairs that are usually seen with the
naked eye on kernels of wheat. Machinery will sel
dom remove . these spores. Therefore, their removal
must be effected by soaking the grain, and applying
some chemical substance, that wTill decompose the spor-
ules, without injuring the germs of the kernels of wheat.
Those spores adhering to the sound grains at the time
of sowing, remain in that state, till the young plant
starts its growth, when they are supposed to enter the
spongioles of the roots of the young plant ; and, with
the ascending sap, are propelled through the tissues of
the plant, till they reach the young ovum, where they
find a suitable place for vegetation, rendering fecunda
tion impossible. Yet the grains continue to swell ; and
when harvest comes, they are perhaps larger than the
healthy ones ; and curiously enough, the stigmata of the
flowers are not destroyed.

PICKLING SEED WHEAT.

In this important operation the science of chemistry
affords the practical wheat-grower important aid. We
have seen, on the two preceding pages, how smut or
" bunt " is propagated. The object now is to destroy
it. The basis of all pickling or dressing consists in
converting the greasy, oily sporules which adhere to the
sound grains into a soap, which facilitates their removal.

Sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) is sometimes em
ployed for pickling wheat, in the following manner:
Four pounds of the vitriol should be dissolved in about
two gallons of boiling water ; and when fully dissolved,
placed in a large tub — an old hogshead cut through the
middle answers the purpose very well; and add about

18

4:10 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

twenty gallons of cold water. Procure a wicker basket,
of suitable shape to go into the tub, large and strong
enough to hold a bushel and a half of wheat. Place the
basket in the liquid, and gently pour into it the wheat.
By adopting this precaution, the light and imperfect
grains, chaff, or small seed will float at the top ; and
may be skimmed off the surface. Having proceeded
thus far, lift the basket, and allow it to drain over the
tub. Empty the same, and proceed with the next lot.

While the seed is soaking, let it be stirred with a
stick, for a few minutes. By this means, all the light
and imperfect kernels may be worked to the surface,
and skimmed off the surface of the water. For each
four or five bushels of wheat, dissolve one pound of blue
vitriol in water sufficient to cover and properly soak the
wheat. Some farmers say, let it remain in this soak
twenty to twenty-four hours, and sow immediately after
taken out of the soak. But there is great danger of
soaking the seed too long. It requires but a short time
to destroy the sporules of smut. So soon as the spores
are destroyed, the seed should be removed from the
soak, or steep. The seed should not be kept in 'the
liquid long enough to moisten the germs. The main
point is to remove the material that adheres to the ex
terior of the kernels. Spread the wet seed on a floor,
and sift lime, or gypsum, or ashes over the surface ; and
rake it in. This will render the seed dry, so that it can
be sowed, or drilled in, without difficulty.

A North Carolina farmer says, that the best prevent
ive of smut is, to make a brine strong enough to bear
an egg ; pour this as hot as the hand can bear into a
half-barrel tub ; put in half a bushel of the wheat you
are about to sow ; stir it up well in the tub ; let it set-

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 411

tie two or three minutes ; skim off all the light grain
and chaff that rises to the top ; stir it up again ; repeat
skimming ; then pour off the brine, which can be
warmed again, and used for another lot of wheat.
Now spread the wheat on clean boards or a cloth in the
sun, or on the barn floor, or any convenient place.
Take slacked lime and sift enough over the brined wheat
to cover it well ; and as soon as dry, put it into a bag or
basket for sowing. Some farmers damp the wheat in a
heap on the floor, and mix up two or three quarts of
lime with it, and then spread it out upon boards. If in
the sun, it will dry in half an hour ; if in the shade, it
sometimes takes two or three hours. But, let no man
suppose that his crop will be safe from smut, unless he
has first secured a hardy variety of wheat, as laid down
in another part of this book. Yarious preparations of
vitriol, nitre, sulphur, and arsenic have been tried, in
some instances, with considerable benefit. Our agricul
tural papers and books are full of directions for the
treatment of seed wheat. But let the reader beware
of puerile experiments with his seed, such as he will
find recorded on page 318.

EXPERIMENTS WITH SMUT IN WHEAT.

For the purpose of determining the influence of smut
on sown grain, Mr. Bailey, of Chellingham, tried experi
ments on seed in which were a few balls of smut. One
third of the seed was steeped in urine, and limed ; one
third steeped in iirine, dried, and not limed ; and the otliei
third sown without steeping or liming. The result was,
that the seed which had been pickled and limed, and
that which was pickled and not limed, was almost free

412 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

of smut, while that which was sown without under
going this process was much diseased. The following
experiments were made at Lord Chesterfield's farm of
Bradly Hall, in Derbyshire : The first was on a peck of
very smutty wheat, one-half which was sown in the
state it was bought, and the other washed in three
waters, steeped two hours in brine strong enough to
float an egg, and then limed. The result was, that two-
thirds of the wheat grown from the unwashed seed was
smutty, while that produced by the steeped and limed
seed had not a single ear of smut. The second experi
ment was made upon some very fine wheat, perfectly
free from smut. A quart of this was washed in three
waters, to make it perfectly clean ; it was then put for
two days into a bag in which was some black dust of
smutty grain ; and the result was, that a large portion
of wheat thus sown was smutty, while out of twenty
acres sown with the same grain, not inoculated, not one
smutty ear was found. Mr. Taylor, Jr., of Ditching-
ham, near Bungary, rubbed a number of ears of wheat
with the powder of smut, having moistened them to
make the powder adhere ; one-half of these were washed,
wetted with chamber lye, and limed. A similar quan
tity of dry w^heat was then procured, the whole being
dibbled, each parcel by itself. The produce of the in
fected wheat was three-fourths smut ; the same infected
wheat, steeped and limed, was perfectly sound. The
contagious smut-powder adheres to sacks and barns with
which it has been in contact ; it attaches itself to the
straw and chaff, and is thus probably in many instances
carried from the barn and stable doors, when the dung
is taken green to the fields, without being properly
turned and fermented. The infection may indeed be

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 413

carried by the wind from other fields, and in various
ways which cannot be guarded against. But no per
son, who is duly sensible that the disease may be
checked, if not wholly eradicated, by careful attention,
should hesitate to employ all those means of preven
tion which may be in his power. The barn in which
wheat has been either stored or thrashed, should therefore
be thoroughly aired, and every corner swept ; if also
the walls of the interior were well washed with strong
lime-water, the precaution would not be improper ; and
sacks which have held the infected grain should be im
mersed in a similar solution."

EKGOTED WHEAT.

A writer representing the Botanical Society of Can
ada West, records the following suggestions concern
ing the ergot in wheat, in that province. But little is
known of ergot in wheat in the States, except in certain
localities. The writer says :

" In addition to the various pests that have already
been noticed as affecting the wheat crops this season,
there is one .in more than usual abundance, viz. : Ergot.
This is a very remarkable fungus, Claviceps purpurea,
Fr., which swells up the grain into an enlarged, black,
tough mass. If a field of wheat be examined, it will
be seen that some of the ears have one or more large,
black, horn-like processes projecting from among the
grains. These are the ergoted grains. This disease is
common in many parts of this province.

" Ergot of wheat has similar properties to ergot of rye,
but is by no means so common in Europe. On the
American continent, however, it appears to be more

414: THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

abundant, and especially this season. The ergot now
present in the wheat fields will, of course, damage the
sample of grain by blackening, and render the flour to
a certain extent unwholesome, if not separated. For
tunately, the ergoted grains being much larger in size
than the uninfected ones, there is no great practical
difficulty in separating them during the cleaning of the
grain. The wheat ergot has no disagreeable taste, in
fact no decided taste of any kind, only a slight flavor of
mushrooms is perceptible, after chewing for some time.
When we reflect on the energetic physiological action
of ergot, it will be seen how important it is that the
ergoted grains should be carefully cleaned out, not only
to improve the sample, but to render the grain and flour
wholesome. Bad grain is apt to be given to pigs and
other domestic animals. Ergoted grain cannot be used
with impunity in the preparation of food for either man
or beast."

Whatever may be the cause of ergoted wrheat, the
remedy is effectual and practicable, which is this : pro
cure hardy and prolific varieties of wheat ; save the
seed from year to year as directed in this book ; culti-
tivate thoroughly on rich ground ; and put the seed
through a pickle, as directed on preceding pages. If a
man sows the wind he reaps the whirlwind. If he sows
smutty or ergoted wheat, the product will be smut and
ergot, just as certainly as he will be able to raise good
grain when superior seed is employed.

RUST IN WHEAT — THE REMEDY.

Without occupying space in attempting to tell what
rust is, and how it is produced, I shall endeavor to point

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

415

out the remedy for it. The reader can find all the
theories about rust that he will care to read, in works
on agriculture, where the remedies are not recorded.
The forlorn farmer often rails at the climate, and
cries out that his wheat is killed by rust, while in fact it
has died from starvation — from the want of that food
which, as a provident husbandman, it was his duty to
have provided for it.

FIG. 77. — Magnified section of Straw, showing Silica deposits.

The illustration herewith given represents a small
section of the thin pellicle, or skin, of the stems of grow
ing wheat, highly magnified, and showing the manner
of depositing silica in the epidermis of the stalk. Silica
is a substance that imparts stiffness to straw. The
liquid silica is deposited all around the straw, similar to
enclosing it with a thin glass tube. Silica is what ren
ders wheat straw so harsh and stiff.

Now, then, the practical consideration is to sup
ply the roots of growing wheat, in large abundance,

416 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

with such materials as glassmakers use for making
glass, which are sand and potash, or soda. The pot
ash can be obtained most economically by the appli
cation of wood ashes. By this means the growing
stems will be enveloped in a glass-like covering, which
will resist the attacks of rust and mildew. The more
ashes, wTith a dressing of sand, that can be applied to
wheat soil, the less liable the growing wheat will be to
suffer injury from rust, mildew, or insects.

INSECT ENEMIES OF WHEAT.

The principal insect enemies of wheat are the midge,
the Hessian fly, the chinch bug, and the weevil. As
almost every agricultural paper and book contains de
scriptions and illustrations of the insects injurious to
wheat, I shall pen but brief remarks about any of them.
The main point will be to offer suggestions relative to an
effectual preventive of the ravages of the wheat insects.

Every successful wheat-grower will readily admit
that one of the most effectual preventives of the ravages
of wheat insects, is a rich soil thoroughly tilled. It in
variably happens that the crop is most seriously injured
on lands that have been carelessly tilled, and have be
come impoverished by an exhausting course of cropping.
The thin, puny plants on such soils, that are not entirely
destroyed, are left still more enfeebled ; whereas, when
the fly-time has passed, on the well-tilled fields, properly
enriched, the wheat, in a great measure, recovers from
the slight injury. I might pen a score of pages about
the habits of wheat insects, and their mode of propa
gation and ravages ; but I will cut everything short by
simply stating, that the correct way to avoid injury from

THE WHEAT CULTIIRIST. 417

wheat insects is, to commence with the seed first, as
directed in the chapter on Seed Grain. Follow all the
minute directions about cultivating and fertilizing the
soil, so as to produce a luxuriant and healthy growth of
"both straw and grain ; sow the seed at the most pro
pitious period ; and the growth of the grain will be so
healthful and rapid, that the insects will do but little
damage. Read the remarks about The Best Time to
Sow Wheat, on pages 260-269.

Levi Bartlett, an experienced farmer of Warner,
K H., writes :

" To avoid injury from the ravages of the midge,
some farmers, when the season will permit, sow early,
sometimes in the latter part of April. In favorable
seasons the wheat gets into blossom before the fly makes
its appearance, and thus the grain mostly escapes the
midge and rust. Others prefer sowing their wheat late,
say from the 20th of May till 1st of June, the midge
having generally disappeared before the wheat comes
into bloom. But late-sown wheat is more liable to'
suffer loss from rust, mildew, etc., than the early sown.
From better manuring of the land, and more care in its
preparation for the reception of the seeds, wheat-grow
ing is evidently upon the increase in this State ; though
much of this increase is derived from the more extended
culture of winter wheat within the past ten years.
Winter wheat can be grown, yielding good crops, on
low-lying farms, where it was useless to attempt the
raising of spring wheat, for the reason that the winter
wheat would, wken sown early, and on suitable soil, get
so far advanced in growth before the appearance of the
midge fly, as to entirely escape its ravages, provided the
soil is filled with grain-producing pabulum."

18*

418 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

HABITS OF THE WHEAT MIDGE.

This insect remains in the earth in its larva state, at
least ten months in the year, and buries itself in the soil
from half an inch to two inches in depth. This is true,
at least in regard to the larger number of them. Others
remain in the chaff of the wheat, and are conveyed to
the grain-mow, or the stack. But there is no positive
evidence that these ever become sufficiently vitalized to
perpetuate their species, although, according to experi
ments made by Dr. Fitch, of New York, there is reason
to believe that they do. Certain kinds of wheat are
less liable to injury from the attacks of these insects
than others. See page 47. Dr. Rathvon is of the
opinion that the larvae of the wheat midges do not im
bibe the milky fluid of the young wheat grains ; but
feed upon the epidermis or outer integument, and that
the destruction or injury of this, is what causes the ulti
mate depletion of the grains.

Mr. Rathvon is also satisfied that the wheat midge
has not the power to puncture or penetrate the chaff of
the wheat with its ovipositor, for the purpose of deposit
ing its eggs upon the grain ; nor do the larvae reach
it through such a puncture. But the grain is reached
through the separation, or opening of the valvules
that enclose the grain, generally when it is in bloom.
The largest number of the eggs of the insect are de
posited on the outside of the chaff, where they are
either washed off by the heavy rains, or are burnt or
dried up by the hot sun. But, in whatever way
these insects may injure the growing wheat, the only
effectual remedy has already been given, on pages 415
and 410.

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 419

WHEAT WOKMS.

In several States, numerous farmers have observed a
kind of minute caterpillars on their growing wheat,
such as are frequently seen on red clover. The editor
of the " Western Rural " states that they are supposed
to be identical with the clover worms, which may be
seen spinning down from lofts on which clover has been
stored. The caterpillars assume the form of chrysalids
in September and October; and the perfect insect ap
pears in June, and deposits its eggs on the wheat,
shortly after the ears have shot out. These worms are
called by various names, in different localities. In some
places they are spoken of as gray worms, and in other
localities wheat worms. It is not probable that any of
the eggs are attached to the ripened grain ; but in order
to guard against danger from this source, and also to
kill any of the insects that have not been separated from
the grain by the fanning mill, the seed should be steeped
in a strong brine, and afterward mixed with dry lime.
By this treatment, insects and their eggs will be
destroyed, and smut prevented. Chaff which eon-
tains large numbers of these caterpillars, should be
burned.

The true remedy, in addition to the foregoing sugges
tions, is, to fatten the soil, so as to make the wheat grow
so luxuriantly, that the little which the insects consume
will not be missed in the growth of the wheat.

THE CHINCH BUG.

This pernicious insect is a very small bug, of a black
color, with white wings. In some localities they are

4:20 THE WHEAT CULTTTRIST.

called " Mormon lice." See Dr. A. Fitcli on Insects,
and Klippart's Wheat Plant.

Dr. Sherman, of Waukegan, Illinois, after a patient
series of microscopical observations, made a discovery
which will surely interest wheat-growers who have been
troubled by the chinch-bug pest. His investigations
have shown that the seed wheat or kernel was used as
a sort of "foster-mother" by the bug ; and that in all
wheat grown upon land where there are bugs, there is
deposited, in the fuzzy end of the kernel, a large quan
tity of eggs, which produce the bugs next season. It
follows that, if the kernel of seed wheat is the general
depository of the eggs of the chinch bug, our farmers
have been sowing the pest each year, as regularly as
they have their wheat ; and if such is the case, the erad
ication of the bug will be easily accomplished — either
by sowing no wheat that has been in contact with the
bug, or by steeping the seed in some solution before
sowing, which will destroy the larva. If this remedy
fails, when the seed has been selected for a few years,
according to directions in Chapter III., the wheat crop
must fall a prey to these devouring insects.

It nvill be an interesting exercise to read all that
may be said about the numerous insects injurious to
growing wheat, in the books alluded to above. But,
after all that can be said, the practical consideration is,
What can le done to prevent or escape their ravages f
I answer, for the third and last time, Save your seed
with care • select varieties that are insect-proof, if pos
sible / sow the seed at the most auspicious period / and
fatten the soil with rich manure. Let wheat culture
receive the same attention that breeders of choice ani
mals give to rearing improved stock.

THE WHEAT CULTURI8T.

421

IMPROVED THRASHING MACHINES.
The illustration shown on this page represents a

new style of thrashing machine, made by Wheeler,
Melick & Co., Albany, New York, for thrashing wheat

422 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST.

and long rye without breaking, or tangling the straw.
This thrasher is one of the most ingenious labor-saving
machines that I know of. It is similar to a thrasher
invented by Rev. N. Palmer, Hudson, New York, which
operated with two long cylinders about five and a half
feet long and fourteen inches in diameter, made to re
volve toward each other.

The unthrashed grain is fed sideways into the machine,
instead of lengthways. If some of the straws enter in
a diagonal direction, they will be brought out straight.
The straw is carried by the carrier beyond the rear end,
where it is deposited in gavels of any desired size. When
the machine is in operation, two active laborers will
bind the straw as fast as the machine thrashes it.

Straw thrashed with such a machine is much more
valuable in market than if it had been thrashed with a
machine that breaks it into short pieces ; and more than
this, the bundles can be stored in a smaller space, and
it is more convenient for being fed into a straw-cutter
after being thrashed. This machine will thrash all kinds
of cereal grain as fast as spiked machines ; and when
the straw is long and heavy, I think it will thrash faster,
with the same power, than the other thrashers which
shell out the grain by means of spikes. Two horses will
drive such a machine, when attached to a railway power,
and do a fair business ; but a three-horse railway power
will give the cylinders a furious velocity ; and an active
man will be obliged to work lively in order to feed the
machine to the capacity of the thrasher.

The reason why such a machine will thrash long
heavy straw more rapidly than a spiked thrasher, is,
that a large proportion of the effective force of the team
is absorbed in breaking the straw to pieces by means of

THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 4:23

the spikes, while the corrugated cylinder works the long
straw through the machine with the expenditure of
little power.

THE NATIONAL FODDER-CUTTER.

The accompanying illustration of a fodder-cutter re
presents a machine of great superiority, made by J.

FIG. 79.— Fodder-cutter.

I). Burdick & Co., New Haven, Connecticut. These
machines are made of several different sizes,' to suit the
requirements of small as well as large farmers. The
small ones are worked by hand, and the large sizes can
be driven by horse, or steam power.

I consider a good fodder-cutter to be an implement-
that every successful wheat-grower needs. In order to
raise wheat successfully from year to year, a farmer
must keep neat cattle or sheep ; and if he makes such

424 THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST.

use of his wheat straw as will be necessary, in order to
maintain the fertility of the land, he must cut his fod
der and make rich manure by feeding cattle, or sheep.
In order, therefore, to be able to cut straw or any kind
of fodder economically, one must have a first-rate
machine. I know of no kind better adapted to the
wants of common farmers than the National Cutter.

MANAGEMENT OF WHEAT GLEANINGS.

The grain that is gleaned with horse rakes in wheat
stubbles, after the crop has been harvested, should never
be mingled with the other grain, as the gleaned grain is
seldom fit for seed, and never suitable to be ground into
flour for human food. When the scattered heads of
grain are gathered with the horse rakes, the teeth of the
rakes will always tear up sods, grit, and small stones,
much of which will be collected with the gleanings.
Then, when this unthrashed grain is put through the
thrashing-machine, small hard stones are liable, in many
instances, to injure the machine more than the value of
several^bushels of gleaned grain. Gleaned wheat is
only fit for cattle feed, because the heads have usually
lain in the rain, dews, and sunshine, until the kernels
have been swelled and shrunken and dusted over with
grit which is dashed over the straw during showers of
rain. This alternate wetting and drying of the grain
injures the germ of every kernel. Therefore, if the
grain be mingled with clean grain for seed, a loss must
•be sustained equal to the value of such grain. Such
kernels will make meal for domestic animals ; but if
employed for seed, they will not vegetate. When such
grain is ground into flour, after having been mingled

THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 425

with clean wheat of a bright color, a small quantity
will injure the excellence of the bread, by rendering
the white flour dark-colored and the bread gritty. The
truth is, that no one can make light white bread, such
as an ambitious farmer would place on a table before
his guests, when a portion of the flour is made of grain
that has been gleaned. If such grain be ground into
Graham flour, the bread made of the unbolted flour
will be dark-colored, heavy, and gritty. The most skil
ful baker in the land cannot make excellent bread of
any kind, nor pie-crust, nor cake, out of the flour of
gleaned wheat that has been wet and dried.

Most farmers contend that such grain will sell for just
as much per bushel, if mingled with the crop — which is
all true. But dealers ought to make a deduction in the
price of every bushel of wheat, which has gleaned grain
mingled with it. The large quantities of gleaned wheat
that are gathered with horse rakes, in the wheat-growing
districts of the country, is one prime cause of so much
dark-colored flour and heavy, soggy, and clammy bread,
of which the great mass of people have just cause to
murmur. Farmers alone are. the parties on whom the
blame ought to rest. And farmers are the persons who
should correct this world-wide evil, of which so much
complaint is constantly made in relation to dark flour,
heavy and gritty bread.

Wheat gleanings should be kept entirely separate
from the clean wheat, and thrashed separately, or be
thrashed with other cereal grain that is to be employed
for feeding domestic animals. Gleaned grain will make
excellent chicken feed ; and if the gleanings be thrashed
with oats, barley, or rye, which is to be ground for feed
ing stock, its value will not be lost. And although a

420 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

person may not realize quite so much money per bushel
for his gleanings, when used up in this manner, as when
the gleaned grain is sold with the crop, still, he would
have the satisfaction of knowing that his wheat went to
market in a merchantable condition, and that the flour
produced from it, would not fail to make excellent
bread, both for the rich and the poor, who depend on
the farmers to deliver them a good article of food, which
no one would hesitate to set before his guests.

When grain has been gleaned with horse rakes, the
wads or rakefuls should be shaken apart with much
care, for the twofold purpose of removing all stones and
sods that may have been gathered by the rake-teeth,
and for exposing the damp straw to the influences of
the sun and drying wind. In case of a storm of rain
before gleanings can be secured in the barn or stack,
let the windrows be forked into large cocks and covered
with hay caps. Then as the gleanings are usually
hauled to the barn after the sheaves have been gathered,
they can be thrashed and kept separate from the clean
grain with little or no difficulty.

CUTTING VEGETABLES FOR STOCK.

Every careful farmer who has been accustomed to
feed fruit and vegetables to any kind of stock under
stands and appreciates the importance of reducing all
kinds of vegetables to small pieces, before feeding them
to any kind of domestic animals, except horses and
mules, which have front teeth on both jaws, with
which they can nip their food. When neat cattle and
sheep are required to eat pumpkins, turnips, carrots, po
tatoes, or apples, when the pieces are so large that they

THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

427

cannot be placed readily between the double teeth, the
animals are exceedingly liable to get choked. Besides
this, if an animal's teeth are poor, they are required
to make a great exertion to eat vegetables unless they
are cut into small bits.

The accompanying illustration represents a vegetable
cutter, which has given excellent satisfaction, for cutting
pumpkins, turnips, and all kinds of roots into small

FIG. 80.— Excelsior Root Cutter.

pieces for sheep or cows. I think it is the best cutter
in market, at the present writing, as J. S. Robertson,
Syracuse, !N". Y., the inventor, has received many pre
miums and medals from Agricultural Societies, on this
cutter. At the State Fair, Buffalo, it cat a bushel of
potatoes fine enough for sheep in twenty-six seconds.

428 THE WHEAT CULTURIST.

The pumpkins or roots to be cut are put in the box so
that they come in contact with the cylinder, the upper
side of which is shown in the figure. The cylinder is
hollow, being made of hard iron. Small gouge-shaped
cutters are secured to the surface of the cylinder, which
gouge out pieces of the vegetables about as large as a
man's thumb. Such pieces are of convenient size for
sheep or any other stock to eat with facility. A small
lad or girl can cut a bushel of roots in about one min
ute, with comparative ease.

The cutters can be adjusted to cut very fine, or
coarse. If the knives become dull, the edge can be put
in order in a few minutes with a round file. If vege
tables and apples could be reduced to a fine pulp before
they are fed to stock, the animals would extract more
nourishment from the feed, than if such coarse materials
were simply run through a vegetable cutter.

It is an excellent practice, when feeding stock of any
kind with cut or pulped vegetables, to mingle meal of
any kind of grain with the pulped feed, as there is al
ways more or less advantage in mingling several kinds
of food together, before animals are supplied with their
usual allowance. Every wheat grower should have
such a root cutter. When raising roots, feeding stock,
and growing wheat are properly combined, our country
will be noted for beautiful crops of excellent wheat.

THE END.

INDEX.

Absurdities Exposed, ... 78

Alabama Wheat, .... 100

Alden's Quack Rake, . . . 145

Andriolo Wheat, four -rowed, 104

" Red and Hairy, . 102

" Black, 101

Bands, How to Make, . . . 357

Band Maker, 363

Binder, Skilful, 359

Binding Disadvantageously, . 361
Blossoms of Wheat, ... 39
Black Sea Spring Wheat, . . 116
Blue Stem Wheat, .... 96
Botanical Description of

Wheat, . 24

Bull Wheat, 97

Cahoon's Seed Sower, . . 297
Caps, How to Make, . . .375

Cayuga Chief, 386

Carbonaceous Material, . . 168
Cattle and Wheat, .... 196
Charcoal Dust for Wheat, . 228
Chemical Structure of Wheat, 10
Climatic Influences, ... 12
Climatology of Wheat, . . 57
Clover Sod for Wheat, . . .213

" Ploughing in, . . .215
Conclusion of Wheat-growing, 294
Coulter, Spink's, .... 295
Crevecoeur's Speech, ... 23
Cradles, Suggestions about, 346
Form of Scythes, . 347

" How to Handle, . . 350
Cultivator, The Star, . . .296

PAGE

Cultivator, Alden's, . . .209

Ide's, .... 142

Fink's, .... 199

Cultivating on Sod Ground, . 203

after Potatoes, . 186

after Turnips, . 188

after Peas, . . 190

growing Wheat, 200

" Shallow Plowing

for Wheat, . 184
Culture of Wheat Chemically

Considered, 133

Cutter, National Fodder, . . 423
Cutting Vegetables for Stock, 426

D
Day's Work, 365

Depth to Cover Wheat, . . 284
Degeneracy of Wheat, . . 253
Dibbling Wheat, . . . .303
Difference Explained, . . .289
' ' between Winter and

Spring Wheat, . 63
Dodge's Reaper, .... 400
Drilling-in Wheat, .... 309
Drill, Beckwith's, .... 306

" The Star, 321

" Brown's Celebrated, . 314

" The Buckeye, . . .316

Drilling-in, Philosophy of, . 312

Drilling Crosswise, .... 316

E

Early Wheat, How to Raise, 280
Emblem of Civilization, . . 18
Ergoted Wheat, 413

Fanning Mill, Nutting's,

301

430

INDEX.

PAGE

Fanning Mill, Harder's, . . 803
Fallows, about Summer, . . 143
Fastidiousness of Growing

Wheat, 66

Fattening the Soil for Wheat, 139
Fields, Rough vs. Smooth, . 212
Fingers for Cradles, How to

Make, 351

Fink's Cultivator, . . . .199
Flint, Old White, .... 97
Force in Vegetation of Wheat, 67
Fork, Montgomery's, . . . 405

Fodder Cutter, 423

Freezing and Thawing of Soil, 123

G

Gavels, How to Rake, . . .356

" How to Bind, . . . 358

" Size of, 354

Genesee Wheat, 99

Gilbert's Subsoil Plough, . . 162

Gleanings, How to Manage, . 424

Great Yield of one Kernel, . 85

Grain, Remedy for Lodged, . 163

" Sowing Broadcast, . . 299
Growing Wheat Then and

Now, 14

Guano for Wheat, .... 180

H

Habit of Wheat Plant, . . 49
Harvest, When to Cut Wheat, 343

" Cutting Wheat too

Green, .... 343

" Time, . ... . .333

Harrow, Monroe's, .... 290

" Nishwitz's Disk, . .324
Harrowing Wheat, . . . .201

Hard Wheats, 74

Heavy Kernels, 238

Holbrook's Plough, . .232, 234
Hybridizing of Wheat, . . 40

Illustration of Winter Wheat, 126
" Wheat Head, . 25
Improvement in Wheats, . . 81
Introduction to Wheat Cul
ture, f

Influence of Climate on
Wheat, 12

Insects, Enemies of Wheat, . 416

" Midge 418

" Wheat Worms, . . 419
" The Chinch Bug, . 419

Kernels in a Bushel, . . . 278
" Greatest yield of one, 85
" Large or Small, . . 242
" of Wheat, how

formed, .... 137

' ' How they Germinate , 26

Kentucky Red or Whig Wheat, 103

Kernel Magnified, .... 27

Knives, Keeping Sharp, . . 331

" Reynolds', .... 332

Laboring Disadvantageously, 361
Lodging Grain, Remedy for, . 163

M

Manures, Nitrogenous for

Wheat, ... 177
" Burying Deep or

Shallow, . . .183
" Surface Manuring, 216
" Manuring Sandy

Soils, . . . .219
Machine, Thrashing, . . . 421
Manufactory of Poudrette, . 176
Manure, Different Kinds on

Wheat, 172

Manuring the Surface for

Wheat, 216

Material, Carbonaceous, . . 168
May Early Wheat, .... 98
Mediterranean Wheat, . . 114
Mildew in Wheat, .... 406
Monroe's Harrow, .... 290
Mulching Wheat, . . . .225
Mucky Soils for Wheat, . . 218

N

Names of Varieties, ... 90
Nomenclature of Wheat, . . 87
Nutting's Fanning Mill, . , 301

INDEX.

431

Organic Elements of Wheat, 153

Pasturing Wheat, . . . .223

Pedigree Wheat, .... 91

Ploughs, Gilbert's Subsoil, . 162

" Cast-Steel, . . .323

" Gang, 142

Ploughing Deep for Wheat, . 157
Plant of Wheat Illustrated, . 52
Plumule Magnified, ... 30
Potatoes before Wheat, . . 186
Polish Wheats, Hard and Soft, 74
Poudrette, Home-made, . . 174
" Manufactory, . . 176

Prolificacy of Wheat, ... 69

Quack Eake, Alden's, . . . 144
Quantity of Seed per Acre, . 276

R

Rake, Warner's, 401

" Alden's, 402

Raking and Binding, . . . 352

Reynolds' Sections, or Knives, 332

Reapers, The Kirby, . . .327

" Dodge's, . . . .400

" Buckeye, .... 403

" Cayuga Chief, . . 386

Roots and Spongioles, ... 31

Root Cutter, Excelsior, . . 427

Rule about Seeds, . . . .241

Rust, and Remedy for, . . 414

S
Sandy Soils for Wheat, . . 219

Salt for Wheat, 227

Scythes, How to Grind, . . 35
" for Cradles, best form

of, 347

Seeding without Ploughing, . 222
Seed Wheat, How to Save, . 235
Seed Wheat at the North, . 249
Seedtime, The Best, . . . 259
Seed Wheat, Suggestions, . 281
" Proper Depth to

Cover, . . 284

Seed Wheat, Fatal Experi
ments with, 318
" " Brining, . . 320
Seeding Thick and Thin, . . 274
Shallow Culture for Wheat, . 184
Sheep and Wheat, . . . .193
Sheaf of Wheat, . . . .863
Sheaves, Setting up, ... 367
" How to Handle, . 367
" How to Pitch and

Load, . . 380, 381
" How to Mow, . . 384
Sheep in connection with

Wheat, 193

Shocking Wheat, .... 3G6

Smut in Wheat, 408

" Experiments with, . .411

Silica, Deposits of , . . . . 415

Soils, Sandy Loam for Wheat, 221

" Best for Wheat, . . .128

" How to Raise Wheat

on a Poor, . . .210
" What it Requires for

Wheat, 167

Soil, What Barren Lacks, . . 170
Soil, Best Quality for Wheat, 128
" What it Requires, . . 167
" and Preparation for

Wheat, 120

Sowing Wheat Broadcast, . 313
Sowing Wheat in Winter, . .266
Sowing among Indian Corn, 205
Sowing on Com Stubble, . . 206
Spring Wheat, When to Sow, 270
" " Sowing Broad

cast, . . 213
" Culture of, . . 287
Spring and Winter, Difference

between, 63

Spring Black Sea, .... 116
Spongioles Magnified, ... 29
Speech of Old Crevecoeur, . 23
Spring Wheat, Triticum CEsti-

vum, 17

Straw, Color of 341

Stories about Large Crops, . 71
Stems, How Formed, ... 55
Stocks, How to Make, . . 370
Stool of Stubble, .... 54
'< Wheat, 53

432

INDEX.

Stem of Wheat Magnified,
Stories, Large Wheat, .
Subsoil Plough, Gilbert's,
Subsoiling for Wheat, . .
Summer Fallows, . . .

" Object of,
Fallowing an Ex
hausting System,
Stacks, How Made, . .
" Topping Out, . .

PAGE

30
71
162
160
143
150

153
390

Tappahannock Wheat, . . . 114
Turnips and Wheat, ' . . . 188

Varieties, How to Produce

New, . . .244
" Names of, ... 90
" Undescribed, . .119
" Should be kept

Pure, . . .247
Vitality of Seed Wheat, . . 239

W

Wheat, Degeneracy of, . . 253
" When to Sow, . . .259
" Sowing in Winter, .266
u Sowing Early and

Late, . . . .270
" Thick and Thin Seed
ing, 274

" Amount of Seed per

Acre, .... 276
" What becomes of

Seed, . . . .278
" Baking and Binding, 352
' ' Chemical Structure

of, 10

" Emblem of Civiliza
tion, .... 18
" Botanical Description

of, 24

" Hybridizing of, . . 40
" Hard, Soft, and

Polish, ... 74
" Prolificacy of , ... 69

Wheat, After Spring Crops, . 145

" Stems of, How

Formed, ... 55

" Fastidiousness of

Growing, ... 66

" Force in Vegetation

of, 67

Organic Elements of, 135
Limit of Begion, . . 75
Improvement of, . . 81
On Clay Loam, . . 131
Fattening the Soil for, 139
Culture of, on Prairies, 140
On Sod Ground, . . 203
Among Indian Corn, . 205
On Corn Stubble, . . 206
On Mucky Soils, . . 218
Pasturing, .... 223
Mulching, .... 225
Salt for, . . . .227
Alabama, .... 100
Andriolo, .... 101

Diehl, 105

Egyptian, .... 107

Bald, 94

Black Sea, .... 116
Blue^Stem, .... 96

Bull, 97

Early May, .... 98
Genesee, .... 95

Indiana, 98

Kentucky Bed, . . 103
Golden Straw, . . 112
Fife, Spring, . . . 118
Mediterranean, . .114
Bio Grande, . . . 117
Tea, China, . . .117
Silverstraw, . . .118
Pedigree, .... 91
Tappahannock, . .114

Whig, 103

White Flint, ... 99

Week's, 109

Tillering of, ... 53
Winter, Triticum Hy-

bernum, ... 17

" Spring, 17

Winter Fallowing, .... 154

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