Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-09-15
y FARM AND GARlN,v Z: Z:
TIE TMPOSTANCE OF GROWING
SMALL GRAIN CROPS.

however, is not q paying crop. - son
valuable and high-priced small grain or
roughly prepared land Is bad economy
simply because the increased yield always
paws for thorough preparation. l am
aware It is futile to advise planters TO SOW
a smaller area, and increase by thorough
culture the yield per acre: and possibly
they are wise in not at this time listening
to such advice, for, where land is cheap,
aud laborers both scarce and inefficient,
and trained to performing their work in 8
helter-skelter manner, it may be extrava,
CANT to attempt scientific farming
on large scale. Labor, scientifically di-
rected, viii, at a certain cost, produce
thirty bushels of wheat per acre; with
perhaps less cost, and certainly with less
trouble TO the planter, an ordinary field
hand, after the old style, will sow and
reap from three acres about the same
number of bushels. Hence the planter
who sOws, surrounded by decentralization,
is apt to SOW for tie present, and adopt
that system which taxes least heavily both
his patience and his pocket He who
looks to the future expects to improve
his land, and determines to transmit to
his heirs an inheritance of increasing
value, will pursue different policy, and
while he curtails his area will increase his
yield
Z To accomplish this, the land to be sown
in small grain must be as thoroughly pre-
pared as if for a cultivated crop. Deep
turning of the soil should be avoided, and
deep breaking be the end desired. An
ordinary shovel followed ia the same fur
row by two-horse, or even oue-horse
Brinly, Utly or Mlfr.e sub soil, will repay
as well in small grain as in cotton or corn.
If stubble or fAllow land is to be re-seeded
in small grain, it should this month be
''turDed over" the subsoiling may be
done at the same lime or postponed until
sowing time, This subsoilng, if pro
perry done, prevents winter drowning as
well as suffering from drought in the
spring. In blowing under weeds, if
heavy chain be attached to the two ends
of the double tree, and allowed to drag
back just to the point of the pillow, the
work will be very complete.
Small grain should never be manurcd
with stable, cow-hOuse or compost manure,
simply because they all contain stray
grains which will surely terminate and
mix the crop. Land that was manured
from the stalls of stock fed on oats, and
sown in wheat, will produce mixed crop
of oats and wheat. Cotton seed sown
br jadcast, fifty bushels per acre, and
plowed in with the grain, is a specific
manure for wheat. Commercial fertilizers
pay well on any kind of small grain; one
half should be sown broadcast and plowed
in with the grain, the other half should
be sown on the grain in January or Febru-
aryl .- ..-
q Many planters wishing to ''rest" a field
SOW it in small grain, blowing across the
cotton and corn beds, and think the stub
bic will prevent washing. This Is mis-
take. If field be cultivated in corn or
cotton horizontally, to rest it, the land
when sown should be plowed as the rows
run, otherwise the washing will be more
injuriC us than if the beds had been left
and no small grain sown. Horizontal
fuTrOHs, fifteen inches apart, heavily
MANFRED and drilled thickly in small grain
on hill sides, will so completely prevent
washing, both while growing and when
in stubble, that the entire hillside may be
covered by the following fall with innu-
merable little terraces, each fifteen inches
wide. .-.-.-. ....-. ..-. -...
l propose giving my experience since
the war with small grain, Expressed
neither botanically nor scientifically, } and
viii begin with ......-
WHEAT.
On as many kinds of soil, have expo
rimented with i've kinds of wheat. Stiff,
red land invariably produced the best crop
and heaviest grain. OF the five varieties,
a large white wheat, introduced from Vir-
ginia, has been the most productive. 1t
has stronti, large stalk, slightly blue, re-
sembling the old blue stem or Mogue
Wheat Flour from this wheat cannot be
surpassed. Ii is neither late.nor early
wheat, and seldom suffers from rust. &C. ....
For two years have sown small,
plump, white wheat, originally from the
Patent Office, which resembled in stalk,
head and grain, the white Virginia, hut
natures later. Three acres of land, that
has been in cultivation since 1900, pro-
duCed of this wheat this season forty six
bushels. .....
Last season l sOwed two bushels of
Broughton wheat that produced well, but
took the rust in spots, aud matured very
late. This is decided objection. to any
grain, for they should all ripeu so as to
be harvested after ''choppipg OUT cotton
and E1aying by" corn. These three vari-
cites of white wheat seem this year to-
have become Redeemed in appearance, per-
haps from the unusually dry spring or,
perhaps, climatic influence has this natural
tendency. '.'.'
In 1866 l received from upper New
York ten bushels of beautiful white
wheat, sowed it on good wheat land,
highly manBredand well prepared. Yield,
about half a crop. The next year only
five acres were sOwn on land similarly
prepared; yield, almost nothing. In 1868
an acre was sown, and not one in twenty
seed terminated, and not 'bushel ma
tured. This experience suggests its own
inference. ''..'' '..'.'.' E.
For two years l have sown a large,
heavy, dark -red, uninviting looking beard
ed wheat, originally from the valley of
Virginia, that yields well, weighs 1t ayily,
and produces a dull gummy -four by no
means first quality. This wheat grows
tall, natures its stalks many days before
its head, and looks when ripe rs if it
were badly injured by rust. Though
neither rust nor excessive wet or dry
weather seem ever to affect it. 'n"..
The most satisfactory wheat have
ever seen sown is a small, round, plump
red grain, known as the Fuller wheat in
this section, because greatly improved by
a neighbor of that name. 1t ia the Clarke
of Alabama spring wheat, and natures
very early. l have harvested it by the
18th of May. For ten years it has never
failed to make good crop, and yields as
good flour, and as much of it, as. any
wheat have sOWn. .. .... .............
BY the middle of, July all wheat should
he thu, shed and thoroughly summed;
while hat it should be sprinkled with salt
and put in close bins CT covered hogs
heads Sassafras rods run through, or
into the wheat will drive out any wcyils
that may have attacked it, and prevent
their return. Wheat is, perhaps, less
profitable as market crop than any of
the small grains, though no planter should
ever buy fer his family or employees an
ounce of fonr. Wheat straw is consid-