The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-08-10
;mmhe Esart't.
Walks and Talks on the Farm.

We are through thrashing, and can now
take breathing spell for few days. 1t
has been trying season. Poor upland
has suffered from drouth, and drained
lowland has suffered from water. Some
of my corn was drowned out, and some of
the late planted on the sandy knobs, with
cred up just as it commenced to ear. The
truth is, no season suits a poor farmer.
Some of my wheat this year could not have
yielded over five bushels per acre, while
other parts of the same field must have
yielded thirty-five or forty bushels. About
900 acres of my farm is what is called "rol-
ling land" The knobs are full of lime
stone rocks, and the soil is thin and of
light, sandy nature; while the level land is
comparatively free from stones, and the
soil is deeper and heavier, though not
clayey. Before it is drained, it looks like
clay, and bakes in spots as hard as brick,
but after it has been drained a year or two,
and well worked, these "clay spots," as
the men formerly called them, prove to be
rich, friable loan. 1t was here that
got my good wheat. The moment the
reaper struck one of these underdrained
valleys, the rake had all it could do to keep
the platform clear, while on the sandy
knobs the reel barely reached the grain,
and the reaper had to run two or three
rods to get sheaf large enough to bind.
This spring saw something was the mat
ter with the wheat on these knolls, and
thought of winter kill, Hession fly, wire
worms, etc.; but it isjust pousrty-this and
nothing more.
I have thought that this poor yield of the
sandy knobs was due to the fact that they
had been plowed very deep. They were
full of stones, and we made business of
getting them out by blowing round and
round, and turning the burrows down hill.
In this way, the land was plowed foot or
fifteen inches deep, bringing raw, poor
sandy soil to the surface. Last year had
wheat on knoll treated in this way, and
it was about as good wheat as any in the
field, and the previous crop of barley was
also just as good as the rest of the field
But the land haG been well MANFRED. This
year my wheat was not MANFRED, and the
sandy knobs were exceedingly light, and
the clover on them is by no means as good
as like to see.
One OF my neighbors had a field of SINH
lar soil to these knobs of mine, which he
-fallowed, and sowed to Diehl
wheat; and understand that be only got
fifteen bushels per acre, and the grain is
so inferior that it will shrink away one
third in cleaning. Another neighbor, on
adjoining land, near his barnyard, and
likely on this account to have received
more or less manure in previous years,
had over thirty bushels per acre of hand
some DieBl wheat as could be desired.
The Deacon thinks this does not say
much for summer following. But never
supposed any one ever summer-fallowe d
such light, sandy soil with any expectation
of enriching it. What have advocated
is summer-fallowing land of clayey ma
ture. Our clay loans usually abound in
latent plant food, and a summer fallow
favors its decomposition, and renders it
available. But light, sandy soils are por-
GUS enough already, and the organic mat
ter they contain will decompose rapidly
enough, without constant stirring and
exposure to the atmosphere.
American AnrscalIk,lriaf