Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1857-08-20
aqrnntard.

THaving Just threshed out my crop Of
wheat for the past year, from the remarka-
bic difference in the yield of the two fields
sown, am induced to report the notes Of
the crop TO your readers.
During the month of August, 1853, I had
thirty acres of land plowsd twenty acres be-
ing in one field, seventeen of wheat and
three of oat stubble, in the other felden ud-
diiional ten acres OF oat stnbble.
The land was ploughed at an average
depth of about eight inches, the quality OF
soil very similar in both fields. Some ma.
pure from sheds being spread upon the
wesker portions OF the land. as is my usual
custom before seeding to grass.
In the second week of September follow
ing, there was sown upon the twenty acre
field, ard about five of the ten acre field,tw O
bushels OF Blue stem wheat to The acre, the
remainder offhe Ten acre lot not being sown
until the fourth week. The grain in each
instance narrowed in with two horse dia-
mond shaped halrows, the harrows running
nearly in the direction of the ploughs. Two
lap herrows were used, the second follow
ing and tapping about one half of the first,
equal TO narrowing twice with single har-
row
Now mark the result. The wheat sown
previous to the middle of the month, (al-
though the season of sowing was compari-
tiveiy favorable in each instance,) during the
winter had much the most promising sp
pearance, was scarcely injured if at all by
the frost, and in the spring covered the
ground well; whilst that sown in the first
week of the month, ON the remainder of the
ten acre lot, was much injured by the frost.
and promised poorly for a crop in the spring
The wheat midge, or yellow weevil, made
its appearance in my neighbo'hood just as
the grain Of the wheat first sown began to
harden, consequently it did but little dam
age to i'll should say none at all on that
eDriy sown, as the grain weighed, both lots
mixed together in threshing, above sixty
pounds to the bushel
But the late sown was slightly injured by
the rsst, ,;and very much BY the weevil or
midge, and the einsect was srceened out in
such quantities as to surprise every person
present, the wheat much shriveied
The produc: of the twenty acres was just
four hundred and twenty bushels measured
from the machine, yielded twenty-one bush
els to the acre, the quality good, whilst the
ten acres yielded but one Hundred and ten
bushels, Notwithstanding the early sowr
escaped the weeVi! and was fair,) and the
qualify of inferior grain, sbrunken and light.
making the entire crop FIVE hundred and
thirty bushels; four hundred bushels of mix
ed lot gained at the mill where sold four
bushels and twenty pounds.
The wheat of the preceding year on the
twenty acre lot, yielded on seventeen acres
in wheat, ,abcut eighteen bushels to the acres
following corn. and the oats fair OF the
three acres remaining, the ten acres bore a
good crop oats.
Now to what are we to attribute the re-
markaSle difference in the products of the
two lots! No doubt to the weevil, and in
the one instance iniuring the grain,an the
absence of both in the other.
But some may doubt whether the time of
sowing had so much influence over the
yield in the case mentioned. /, however .am
confident that it had.
Had | sown all nv wheat at the same
time, say second week in September, it
would have yielded about twenty bushels TO
the acre, making crop in the aggregate of
600 bushels, or had sown it all in the fourth
week presume the yield would have been
about 800 bushels.
The early sown wheat ripened, and was
cut from eight to ten days earlier than the
last sown.
II might, however, be supposed that this
crop of wheat was mere experiment as to
the time of seeding; such, however, is not
the fact. My wheat on all stubb'e land for
the last five years has been sown in the first
and second weeks of September, and the av-
erage of the crops so sown has been from
seventeen to twenty bushels.
The great injury the wheat sustained for
several years from rust, induced me to sow
SO early as the time mentioned, having pre-
viously deferred sowing until the latter part
of the month or some times as late as Octo-
Der
In urging further this subject upon the at
tention of the farmers ofthis region, it will
be proper to state that abe agricultural pa
pers in Ohio and New York ara advising
their readers to avoid the weevil (which al
most ruined the last crop of wheat in Ohio,
and on the fine wheat lands of the Genesse)
foshow their grain-in September, as to the
surest preventive against its ravages.