American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-09-20
Seeding Fall Wheat.

THE failure to reap reMunerative crops
of winter wheat on the prairies of the
West does not lie in any organic difficulty
in the soil, but almost entirely in the liza
bility to winter killing, which on the old
soil is the rule and not the exception.
This is due to mechanical alterations in
the virgin soils, and the want of drainage
therefore, any plan which will obviate
this will, in just such a degree, render the
soil again fit for this crop, as it always is
in its natural state when first broken.
If drainage could be accomplished be-
fore the soil, through repeated blowing
when too wet, has lost its pOrOsity, there
is no reason why it should not continue
to raise crops of wheat SO long as its fer
tility remained. The fact that the more
arenaceous or sandy soils do SO con-
proof that the want of drainage is the
primary disability. To point out some of
the methods of obviating this difficulty is
the object of this article.
1t has been heretofore stated in the
Western Rural that the soil might be
brought back, to certain degree, to its
former condition by allowing the land to
lie for some years in pasture or meadow
if good clover sod can be turned over
and thoroughly prepared for the seed,
leaving the drainage open through the
dead burrows, wheat will winter all right,
unless the season be an exceptional one.
Where the seeding is to be done on old
land, following other crops on a fallOw,
the land should be plowed in such way
as will enable the dead burrows to most
easily and quickly carry off the supertu-
Gus water; in which case, if the seed be
sown early enough to insure good root,
and surface drainage be kept open be
tween the dead burrows and the low places
in the field, the freezing out will not be
excessive. In blowing, the width of the
lands must be governed by the lay of the
land, but in any case, they should not be
more than four rods wide; and, if the soil
be adhesive and level, two rods is better.
The dead burrows should not be seeded,
but should be cleaned out thoroughly, so
as to leave the water way perfectly free
after the seed has been covered. One of
the best plans for accomplishing this is
by means of large and strong shovel
pillow, with wings passed both ways in the
dead burrows, and drawn by Il strong,
slow, steady horse. If these directions
be carried out, there is no reason why
winter wheat should not take its regular
place in the rotation on prairie farms.
Again, where wheat is to be sown
among growing corn, the same plan of
blowing in land should have been adopt
ed, and after sowing and covering with a
double shovel pillow, or one of the nipple
ments made especially for seeding in such
fields, the burrows may be opened in the
way heretofore indicated; but after the
corn has been husked on the hill, we
should much prefer losing the fodder to
allowing cattle to feed thereon, unless it
be at a time when the soil is dry and I'M
frozen, or the earth covered with snow.
Next to allowing the soil to be poached
when wet, we consider the slipping of the
hoofs of cattle and horses on the frozen,
or worse, partially thawed soil, crushing
and breaking the crowns of the plants,
to be most injurious. If the stalks can
be left on, in the spring, until the ground
be settled, and the wheat have made some
growth, so much the better, since they
will protect the plants from the freezing
and thawing SO detrimental during the
early spring. If the stalks, when cut, be
allowed to lie on the ground, they will be
no hindrance to the harvesting of the
crop, since the harvester will pass at such
a height that the remains will not discom-
mode the reaper to any serious extent
Western RuTUL