Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1872-11-07
Wheat Culture.

! Wheat Culture.
| PERHAPS there is no one product of the
! soil that is more nearly related To- demes,
| TIC economy and i nations finances,
which affects the nations prosperity and
| well.being 10 an equal extent, as the in
! huehce eXerted by this single crop,
! whether short or an abundant one; for
| upon 1t, to o large extent, are the people
OF all nations dependent for their bread.
lis Importance, then, TO the people should
place IL high in the scale of culture and
| Improvement with all culturists How is
| the fact IN this respect in all the wheat
| growing sections of The United States
Let individual cult l,ists answer, and ask
themselves, DO | do my best, or am ] try.
ing to improve the quality and product on
my own farm? All improvement in this
| line must devolye upon individual effort;
| advice. and theory are good, so far as they
| 60, nut one ounce Of practice will weigh
down pound of the former; yet, with.
out them there would often be failure in
practice; the two together establish fact
and science.
All varieties Of plants have an appro-
pirate or natural soil and climate, in
which they will thrive best; vet many Of
them are endowed with a hexibiliLy of
structure to such an extent that their
| natural elements may be greatly increased
| by culture, The wheat, through culture,
has given great number of varieties,
some best adapted to one one soil and
climate, some to another, yet each pos
sessing the quality or power Of adapting
itself, by culture, toa widely different soil
etc; yetin our selection of seed for SOW
ing, reference should be made to the soil
on which 1t grew, as also the soil on
which it is,to be sOwn, as any radical
change affects the product materially,
and to thisicause often may be ascribed
the reason of failure or partial failure of
a variety to succeed in new locality
When our country was new, with a
virgin soil wheat succeeded in a large
portion Of it; yet after the lapse of years
It's culture ceased to be paying Que.
Why this deterioration in the yield and
quality? The question is frequently ask
ed, and as often answered, in theory at
least. Wheat is grain composed of GER
tain elements which it draws from the
soil; the soil, of course, must hold these
elements in proportion, and in such state
as to yield them readily to the growing
1Lolt uIt az tilC IjibJtI Sitgts VI IL w III
vary in quality as well as in the proportion
of its elements. If the soil contains all
the requisite elements, and a crop is taken
from that soil, it stands to reason that the
soil has lost portion of its elements, and
in order again to produce an equally good
crop there must be some return made
thereto although there may be such a
thing, if good culture otherwise is given,
that several crops may be taken from soils
without any perceptible deterioration; yet
still the fact is plain that if something is
taken from something less remains now
if that something is returned to the soil
there can be no deterioration from that
cause.
There are one or two leading principles
which should be adopted by all wheat
culturists, which viii here briefly refer
to; and first will allude to seed and its
preparation for sowing. All seed should
be thoroughly ripe and of selected
quality, grown expressly for seed,
carefully threshed and cleaned, all
lighter and imperfect grains thrown
out. You may say this is a big Job
where a large area is to be sown, requir-
ing large amount of seed am oerfect-
ly well aware of this fact, but it is no
more proportionally than for the
less area and the importance of the
crop demands, The selected seed should,
just previous to sowing, be washed in
salt water strong enough to bear up a po-
tato-drained and dried off in dry slaked
lime. In washing, all light seed and all
impurities should be skinned of, The
importance of this careful preparation
will be evident in the cropped product
The next and last item, which should
properly come first, is blowing and pre-.
pairing the ground for sowing The i'm
por'ance of thorough blowing and filming
the soil for the seed is seldom fully real.
lied, and less frequently practiced. The
soil cannot impart to the growing plant
its nutriment unless it is unlocked; and
the key to this unlocking is pulyerizatioh
OF the soil through blowing, etc OF
eqUai importance is it that the soil should
be broken up deep down in the subsoil,
that neither drought nor wet may affect
it, as il would were the soit less open;
neither will the frosts of winter be so de-
struCtiye because OF the heaving Of the
soil to throw out the plants, Another
advantage in thorough blowing is that
the roots Of the plants can freely spread
themselves and nDurishmcut is freely
impaired to them, a more rapid and early
growth ensues while insects and other
enemies have their destructiyencss thwart-
cd by the plants superior. rapidity and
strength of growth, getting ahead Of their
season of greatest destructiveness. A
little attention to the main hints in this
article, by the great class OF wheat grow
ers, would make an amense difference in
the aggregate product of this great cereal
". II. Wife, IN C0aH2Y Gtafeala4