Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1872-09-12
Hints About Wheat

It Is mistake to suppose that wheat is
not paying crop. Very often it is not
pEoftably grown, but it is looked upon as
a necessary evil, hardly to be avoided
Tor the reason that there is no other crop
to be substituted for it in tie rotation
Yet wheat is absolutely necessary for us,
and it would be strange if crop which
the world cannot do without could not be
grown TO q profit anywhere and every
where. The competition with the easily
cultivated and productive new lands al
the extreme West need not necessarily
be overwhelming to the more eastern cal
tivator, who, Oh his side has an sdvan-
taee in nearness to market, and cheaper
tools and implements, and less waste and
cost in harvesting. But the trouble
lies IN the snail yield with which the
eastern farmers are con.ented consequent
on the general careless and insufficient
me hods Of preparing for and sowing
the crop. Very rarely is he oat-stub-
Die, which the wheat crop generally fol.
lows, powed more than once, and very
often the corn-stubJle prepared in the
most buried manner by a simple har-
rowing ia made TO bear this crop, which
is more than all otherp dc pendent fol sue
cess on well-prepaEed sced-bed. The
consequence is, that the young wheat is
smothered by the more vigorous oats
which spring up shickly on the newly,
plowed ground, and thus weakebed is
unable to stand the first heavy frost OF
the fall or winter, and is killed out. So
on the narrowed corn-s!ubble there is
no depth of root to sustain the plant in
the hard beaten soil, and it is in worse
condition in this case even than on the
plowed oat-stubblc.
At present there ~ not sufficient vigor
in the soil to enable the plant to make
head agains. the difficulties 1t has to con-
tend With, and it succombs, and the crop
either fails completely or is very unpro6-
table in it's results. We mnst work on q
different system. Old things have pass
ed away, and if this crop is to succeed .
new system must be adopted. The wheat
crop must be the pivot on which our
farming must hinge both in the East and
West The West, as we used to under
stand the term few years ago, is now
the East, and is in exactly the same
circumstances as to condition Of soil and
needs of cultivation as that part of the
country We used to call the East. 'Thorns
and thistles' have taken possession of the
soil. ard the virtue has gone ont Of it by
which it used to grow crops by merely
scratching the surface No fair wheat
crop can now be got by merely narrowing
coln-stubble, OF once blowing an oat-
stubble; nor can We lay our Gelas down to
grass With poorly grown wheat crop
and hope 10 have good catch or good
crop of clover or grass. Grass is often
called our pivotal CROP that on which
the whole rotation depends; but wheat is
the precursor of grass, and as it succeeds
Or fails, or will our clover and grass
flourish or fail. Then it Will no longer
do to hurry it Into the ground as We have
done. A difference Of ten bushels per
acre depends on this alone, and this is
Sufficient to make crop profitable Or
otherwise. Two plowings at least should
be given. and unless very fair allowance
of fairly good manure can be afforded,
some OF the purchaseabls manures should
be applied, and thoze rich in nitrogen or
ammonia are preferable to the phosphated
Or at least have shown themselves to be
more efectual as fall APPLICATION Then,
again, there is much in sowing. It is
plain, as the rapidly accumulating result
Of experience of late, as the attention of
farmers has been more closely drawn to
this matter, that broadcast sowing must
be abandoned RS no longer profitable. It
5 too costly a method.
Especially has the late hard winter
shown this Drill-sown wheat has escap-
ed the evil effects Of drouth, frost, and
excess of wet, while broadcast-sown has
has been seen dead and cast upon the
surface, with its roots all drawn from
the soil, and 30 resource left to the
farmer in the spring but no replant bis
bare fields with other crops. The differ
ence here in the yield of the crop will
be from FIVE bushels per acre to the
whole crop lost, SO that should farmers
generally adopt this and the previously
mentioned plans, it is probably safe to
say that the yied of wheat would be
doubled. Certainly. we have often seen,
in fact we have grown, crops of wheat OF
twenty-five or thirty bushels per acre,
which have been carefully put into the
ground, which we are satisfied would not
have yielded ten bushels had the old
fashioned system here pointed out been
followed. In the one case, at least e1-
penses were paid. if no great profit was
made, and good hay crop followed;
in the other case, there would have
been serious loss both on the wheat
and hay crop. Further in selecting seed,
it will pay to exercise care and judge
ment. None but the plumpest grain
should be chosen. The wheat should
be cleaned two or three times, and our
experience has been that it will pay to
steep the seed in solution of copperas,
which destroys smut, and helps to seper.
ate the light grains from those which are
fit for seed. A crop sown in good season
is to be preferred, but it is far better to
delay week to complete the prepara-
ton, and get the soil into the best condi-
ton, than to hurry over it and make
more haste butle speed in tae end
american Agrriculuurisf.
---~~~s--
An elderly millionaire. being poster. d
with all manner Of applications for mon, y