Middletown transcript., 1868-11-07

the unrest and most forward heads
enough, say, to yield bushel of grain.
This he sowed in a lot by itself, and the
second year the product was sufficient to
seed his whole crop. BY this means the
quality and productiveness of his crops was
kept up as long as he lived. A similar
practice universally obtains among market
gardeners, whose profits depend very much
on having the earliest and best vegetables
in market.
Nor should such practice be deemed
too troublesome, especially when tits borne
in mind that of all the productions of the
earth on which human life is dependant
wheat is the most precarious, and its treats
lnent the most artificial. Rye is liable to
few casualties; oats, if the season is at all
propitiops, yield abundantly; and corn,
we all know, is the groaseRt of feeders
whilst wheat requires almost as careful
nurture as an infant
After some experience, and much obs
servation and study for fifty years, the
writer is convinced that the preparation of
land for wheat is, in the majority of cases,
the very opposite of what it should be.
Formerly, before all these improved plows
came into use, the custom was to break up
the soil only few inches deep, and re-
duce the surface to fine tilth by shallow
cross -plowings. Now, it is turned over
to the depth of eight or ten inches, bury
ing not unfrequently vast quantity Of
vegetable matter. Most farmers are averse
to re-fallowing, because the coat of vege-
tation is thought to improve the soil.
| al l.,,A - ;aAa AZ
ject, and indeed the chief object, is to get
good crop. That this object can be at=
tanned under these conditions we beg leave
respectfully to call in question. A por-
GUS soil is fatal to success in wheat cul=
ture; a necessary condition is compact=
ness. Having strict reference to the man
uer of growth, it is believed to be porfect=
ly philosophical to say that the roots of
the wheat plant should have solid bed to
rest on, and rich, friable soil to spread
in. The most successful wheat grower No
ever knew-or one of the most successful
turned in his clover sod with a light
two-horse pillow as early as practicable In
the season for following, not burying the
vegetable covering so deep but what the
atmosphere speedily acted upon it and de-
comsosed it. At seed time the ground
was further prepared by the old-fashioned
culturc-not reversing the soil, but simply
stirring it up. Here was bed prepared
for the wheat, having all the benefit of the
clover fallow and of the fertilizing gases
derived from the atmosphere. The writer
could refer to another farmer. equally sue
cessful until he introduced the three.horse
plow on his farm ; after which, like Sam
son shorn of locks, he was as other men.
No man who has not tried it can esti-
mate the amount of benefit which loose
surface derives from the atmosphere. Af-
ter exposure for month or two, the eruat
being occasionally broken, the effect is ale
most equal to an application of guano
and it is certainly the cheapest of oil modes
of fcrtilizing,
1t is respectfully submitted that the
great falling off in the product per acre Of
all the old wheat-growing districts, both
North and South, of the United States. Ii
attributable in great measure to the irra-
tional method of preparation of the soil,
as not being adapted to the requirements
of the wheat plant. and not to the exhaus-
tation of the soil of the mineral ingredients
entering into the formation of the grain.
s.