Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-08-02
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP

EARLY hIPENING WHfAr.-Ane ~
Tribune says that John johnson, oil Neotern,
New York, the pioneer in the science OF " un'
derdrainipc" in this country, offers premium
of ST 900 to any one who will tell him how to
ripen his wheat ten days earlier than it ripens
now None but observing farmers comprehend
the vast benefit to the country which the acqui-
sition of good wheat ripening thus early would
be. 1t would do away with three fourths Of
the damage now done by the rust at the South,
and by the nudge at the North, as we'll as per-
haps half the damage from the fly, joint worm,
&C., which invariably affect tender and back
ward wheat first, the more vigorous stalks being
comparatively free from their ravages.
Our plan for trying to get an earlier ripcning
wheat is as follows: The plan we are pursuing
being to select for seed the produce of the por-
tions of the fields ripening first, and in clean
ing it to as far as possible rid it of every grain
not entirely perfect and we'll developed. To
pillow very deep in breaking up, and to fertilize
highly and, further, to SOW the seed so Sc
lected on exposures suited for early ripening.
We think that the result will be that in few
years we shall have a wheat which will out
grow almost all danger of the fly and rust--a
vigorous wheat with early ripening tendencies
as one of its particular characteristics.
We are satisfied that with the seed plump
and perfect, and the land properly prepared,
the best time for sowing wheat in this region is
between the 1st and 10th of October, as near as
may be. The use Of the drill will enable any
farmer even though designing to put in thou
sands of acres of wheat to get it in between
those dates unless rains prevent, which our ex-
perience teaches does not often happen. A
machine drill requires the services of two hands
and three horses, and should plant fifteen acres
per diem, which, to be plOughed in the same
time would require the service of ten hands
and ten horses. Additional hands are hardest
to be obtained every where, just when most
needed by the farmer, who does not resort to
the drill and the machine reaper, at the seasons
Of planting and harvesting. These machines
are, in fact, farm hands of the most valuable
kind requiring nothing for their support, while
their services arc not needed, and being always
ready to do efficient and Invaluable labor when
required to 60 to work, rs the use of the drill
enables the farmer to select his own time for
getting in his crop, by making him entirely
independent of the additional, and, usually,
unobtainable, labor Ito his regular force) he
otherwise invariably stands in need of in plant
ing time, so the machine reaper makes him
entirely independent of assistance to his regu-
lar force in harvesting. A Nanny and Wood
reaper, with a hand to drive and another to
rake, will certainly do the work of four best
Graders without the danger to health, if not
life itself, conseque upon hand harvesting in
July. Fifteen acres per diem is fair average
for the work Of such a reaper.
Every farmer knows the importance--in its
effect on the value and quantity of his grain
harvested-of being able to select his own
time for cutting it, lack of force, causing a
delay of from one day to a week, owing to the
great variableness of the weather, just at that
season, not unfrequently makes a difference of
from ten to twenty five per centum in the mo
ney realized from the sales of the crop. The
farmer who sows three hundred acres to wheat,
if harvesting by hand labor altogether, should
be able to run at least fifteen cradles to be en-
tirely certain that he will not be damaged by
moist or cloudy weather. Not one farmer in a
hundred, planting no more than three hundred
acres to wheat, is able to set such "a squadron
in the field, in addition to the necessary force
of binders and rakers. So, if he would use
due precaution, be must resort to the machine
reapers, keeping as many of them as his crop
may require. He would make money hand
over-fst by having always ON hand sufficient to
cut his whole crop in four fair working days
We know, from experience, that the wear and
tear of the Nanny and Wood reaper, when
kept properly preserved when not in use) is
so inconsiderable as to amount to almost moth
Tak a oil in oil iS e.
hey saver As well as money-makcr. Our only
wonder is that any farmer, who has as little as
thirty acres of grain and as many of grass to
cut annually, ventures to attempt to get ON
without one, or without a machine drill-but
there sis no accounting for tastes in agricul-
tural matters, as in all things else.
We repeat, our plan for securing the wheat
crop above and beyond most of the dangers
that produce failures is to seek to plant only
the earliest ripened seed, as explained above,
and to have at command the means of choosing
our own time for both planting and harvesting,
without going outside Of our own premises for
any assistance whatever. We may add, that
the use of drill certainly saves peck of seed
to the acre sown and deposites the fertilizer in
the soil just where the farmer wants it; while
the use Of the machine reaper secures the crop
far better than that can be done by cradling-
the per centage of difference being suffi cient to
make Of least fifth of what may be considered
fair profit on hcat-growing.
A SENSIBLE VIEw.-The following remarks
from the New York JournaI Of Commerce
relative to Mr.. Appleton, Assistant Secretary
OF State, are so decidedly sensible that we can
not refrain from laying them before our read
ers. They are responsive to the following sc n
tence in the New Bedford Mercnry:
" For the honor of the fraternity IeditoriaII Mr..
Appleton should, however, put an end to these
disgraceful charges.''
The J0"Tnal Of Commerce replies "sFor
the honor of the fraternity we hope he will do
no such thing. If gentleman who for years
has stood the fire of the political press in Maine
and throughout the Union, cannot outlive and
despise the charges which are systematically
and maliciously made against his honor by the