The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-07-15


From the Southern CultiuGtor.
How Much Does Bushsl of Wheat Yield ?
Did you ever consider how: much of q
bushel of wheat sown on an acre Of land,
produces fruit ? 1t must be q low estimate
to give two stalks to.-erery grain that
brings fruit-many two or three tinos
that number. 1t Is sorry crop OF wheat
that does not give thirty grains to the
head, 80 that in poor crop you have
sixty fold for every grain that comes to
ANYTHING, and consequently sixty bushels
for every bushel. Now when you make
ten bushels per aero, you are getting on
" one sixth of what you onght to get-a
poor yield, if every grain produces fruit.
The conclusion is irresistible that where
you. SOW q bushel to the acre, and reap
ten. not more than one.sixth of the seed
sown produces fruit, and often not one
tenth.
This conclusion would seem to indicate
that we waste a vast amount of wheat
IN seeding our crops OF this, there can
Bio no doubt. But it may be said, if we
sowless>than,a hushel per acre, we shall
have not enengh to germinate and pro-
daces a fair stand. This may be true; but
the necessity of such waste grows out OF
the careless manner Of seeding, both in
the preparation of the land, and blowing
in the seed DR.. James Lumpkin, am
told, ,sowed about two bushels on an acre
we'll broken, deeply plowed land, and
covered it with a two-horse Brinly plow,
and his acre is among the most beautiful
of our neighborhood. Now it is manifest
that not more than peck ot the two.
bushels sown by the Doctor. eNereame
uo.;;for doubtless three fourths of it was
covered beyond the reach of che warmth
necessary to sprout it, and half that did
sprout, perished-enough seedhappening
to be coverad at the proper depth to give
a.eoedcrop, The quantity ofseed sown,
where wheat is two dollars and half a
bnshel, is matter for consideration.
liam looking to the result of DR.. Ham
iltnn's experiment with great interest. l
believe it will succeed. mean the plan
ting in drills, eighteen inches apart. The
advantages are: 1st. The small quantity
of seed needed; I'd. The concentrating
the manure; and lastly, and more impor-
tant, the cultivating of the land during
the growth of the crop. The experience
of the past few days confirms me in
theory have long entertained, of the
rust On the etem Of wheat, and that is,
that it. is the effect of the hot weather on
the wheat at a particular stage of its
growth, and that stage ison and after the
formation of milk in the grain. Perhaps
the injury is attributable to the great
change OF temperature; for i suppose it
to be true that vegetable life lis as sensi-
tive to violent changes of atmospheric
temperature, as is animal life. 1t is not
the frost only which destroys fruit, but
the sun which shines on it before the frost
melts. We have had an unusually cool
May till the last of it, when the wheather
became suddenly very hot-not merely
comparatively, but absolutely. The ef-
1efbct was the appearance of rust on the
stem of wheat, ten or twelve days earlier
than usual We have heretofore consid-
cred wheat safe from injury by rust, if it
were harvested by the 10th of June. The
purpert of all this is, to show that we
can find no preventive of rust. hold it
to be produced by atmospheric causes
purely, whether it be animal or vegetable
product. Our only remedy is to procure
earlier varieties or to SOW earlier: and
then we are ID danger of fly and spring
frost, SO that in avoiding the rock Scylla,
we rush into the whirlpool Charybdis.
Bat amany shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased"
sincerely congratulate you on the
rapidly growing popularity Of the Guilt
uator. l rejoice to SEQ the great interest
felt by almost all classes of our people in
the success Of agriculture, and particular.
" the increasing modesty of some of our
farmers in.relation,to Beok: farmers, as the
men of understanding have been sneer-
ingly called.
think the time is not distant, when
men, will be ashamed to ''look for a rain
certain, at the next change" or to regard
these changes, Of the moon in sowing or
planting seeds, or cutting children's hair,
or spaying pigs or killing hogs, OF to
believe that "wheat turns. to cheat" or a
thousand. other Give heerd, 'em say"
equally non.sensical. I have no doubt our
chig6nen will be amazed and amused, to
learn that their fathers ever entertained,
such silly petions.
- While Tom Corwin. was q member
-7of the General Assembly of the State of
Ik L. ho0,y