Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-09-12
Preparing Land for Wheat.

THE yield and quality of the wheat crop
of next year will depend very much upon
the preparation of the land during this
summer and autumn. This fact is far too
generally overlooked, and many farmers
appear to think if the seed is got into the
earth, in season or out of it, nature will
take care of the rest, and should the crop
be failure, nature again comes in for all
the blame. Now we will venture to assert
that in nine out of every ten cases of failure
to produce good paying crop of wheat in
regions adapted to its culture, the farmer
himself, and not the soil or climate, should
bear the responsibility for it is through
his negligence that the loss occurs. The
first neglectis in nctthoroughly preparing
the soil for the reception of the seed. As
a rule, the surface is barely skinned two
or three inches deep, when it should be
plowed eight or ten, or even deeper.
Then, again, one plowing of the land is
all that some farmers think necessary,
when two or three times, with interme-
diate narrowing, are positively necessary
to put any good wheat land in proper con-
dition for the reception of the seed. Thor
ough summer following is the old plan of
preparing land for winter wheat, and we
are inclined to believe it is better than
the green fallow so extensively prac-
tised in Europe. Upon poor light soils
requiring enriching, there are no doubt
some advantages gained by growing a
crop of turnips, peas, clover, rye or other
plants upon the land, and then turning in
stock to consume them in the early part
of the summer, thereby adding decaying
vegetable matter as well as manure to the
land. But whenever this system is adopt
ed, the land can scarcely be put in good
condition with one blowing, for there
will be more or less vegetable matter col
lected into heaps, which will require tear
ing asunder and distributing. By this
green following a man may enrich his
land with less labor than he could by
soiling his stock-drawing the green food
into the barn-yard, and then in turn haul
ing out the manure; but in heavy clay
lands there is great gain in the old plan
of summer following, for the chemical
action constantly going on within soil
that is frequently plowed and aerated, is
of considerable importance to the sue
ceeding crop, even more than majority
of our farmers have any conception of,
| and this is one of the reasons why we ad-
vocate the thorough pulveriZation of the
soil.
Land that is to be sown with spring
wheat or other grain next year will be
greatly benefited by plowing during the
warm weather of August and September,
but if this operation is delayed until cold
weather no decomposition of vegetable
matter or other chemical changes will
occur; hence late fall plowing in cold latl-
tudes is waste of time, unless it be fol
the purpose of exposing lower strata OF
soil to the action of the frosts of winter
which in some instances may be slightly
beneficial. AS a general rule, wheat re
quires land made fine and free from sods
and other coarse, half decomposed vege
table matter, and the more frequently II
is plowed before putting in the seed the
better.
In some localities and soils it is proba
bly, best to work whatever coarse manure
is added into the soil before or at the time
of sewing, but there are locations where
such fertilizers should only be USED
as a mulch, spreading it upon the sur
face after the grain is sown. Where
there is very little snow in win
ter, as usual in the Middle an(
some of the Western States, mulchin!
wheat Just before cold weather will b'
found very beneficial, not only prevent
ing winter killing but greatly assisting
growth the following spring by keeping
the soil moist about the roots OF tn
, Young grain. Strange as il may appear
the very localities where mulching whea
is most needed the materials for this pun
, pose are most abundant, but less frequent
, iy used than elsewhere. Will some u
! our readers who reside in Kansas or M