Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-18
LOST.
FARM AND GARDEN.


WHEAT HEAVIEST AND CULTURE.
Tennessee farmers are now busy cut
ting and threshing wheat, and we are
happy to learn that the yield generally
is such as to encourage the extension
of this branch of rural industry. 1t is
susceptible of very considerable i'm
PROVEN mt both in the quality of grain
and TIE quantity grown per acre. After
good rains in June and July, wheat
grower may properly break his land
Tor this staple crop, turning under all
weeds, grass or clover there may be, to
rot and enrich the soil. A summer
fallow of this character has many ad-
wantages which farmers fail to
appreciate, one of which is the de-
velopment of mineral food for
growing wheat by chemical action.
Between the harvest, say the middle Of
June and the middle of October, when
wheat should be sown or planted, If
not before, are four important months
for bringing fertility out of compare
lively lifeless earth, by the aid of the
plow and harrow and the operation of
natural forces in light, heat, air and
matter. To make twenty bushels of
wheat or more grow on an acre of COM
mon land requires first rate tillage at
the right time In the matter of cultiva-
ton and good husbandry not to per-
NIT any Of the most essential elements
of crops to lie dormant II the soil, nor
run to waste, borne along mechanical /
~ or in solution, by moving water.
Early and deep blowing prevents sur
face washing, SO injurious to any val
liable agricultural plant, and especially
10 wheat with its rather feeble fbrous
roots. By all means give these roots a
well prepared seed-bed with both or
ganie and inorganic pap or pabulum,
ready for use. No farmer thinks of
feeding and fattening hogs or other
animals without providing suitable food
for them in advance. To make money
by raising wheat, one must learn TO
feed growing wheat plants both bOum-
tifully and economically; and to do
this he wants three or four months
time before seeding to prepare
the ground to do its best.
With plenty of wcll-rotted manure,
or Peruvian guano, and on naturally
rich wheat land, this summer-fallowing
is Tot necessary. But most of our
wheat is grown on land not rich in
phospbates, nor other elements Of
grain; and we wish to make the most
of the natural resources of the soil.
This must be done by. the pillow, the
harrow, and the roller after the drill,
or the seed is in the ground. To sprout
the seeds of weeds, sedge and grass,
and kill them, it pays to pillow two or
three times from the middle of June
till the preparation for seeding is COM
pleted. Gang-plows and cultivators
frequently come in play.
Tennessee ought to be great wheat
growing State, and raise clover, Euro
pean grasses and good stock in connec-
ton with this grain. Our soils, rocks
and climates favor this European sys-
tenn of tillage and husbandry. 1t will
tend powerfully to invite immigration,
and appreciate the market price and
productive value Of our farms. Thirty
four years ago Monroe county, n. Y,
showed by an official census that its
farmers raised nearly million and
half bushels of the then famous Cen
esee wheat in year. Several other
counties exceeded each million bush
els, and g8Od wheat farms went up
high IN value, never TO recede.
A9riculturHhistory is sound philoso-
ply teaching by example. The old
Gennesss Farmer, edited by the writer
in those days, lies before us; but we
need not cite its facts to sustain views
which are not likely to be called Ia
question. Use. clover and land plaster
to enrich Tennessee farms till three
million acres may be annually sOwn to
wheat and yield an average of twenty
bushels per acre, and Tennesseeans may
then keep fifteen million bushels for
home consumption, and have forty-five
millions for export. We can find the
land and labor to make such crops in
.sperpetuity; but will we carefully study
wheat culture as an art VIII we try to
learn how much Of this crop comes from
the air?
In an address delivered before the
Monroe county, n. Y, Agricultural So
ciety, in October, 1914, and published
in the Genesee Farmer, the writer said F.:
Il gard it as one Of the greatest
discov, :jss Of the age that about nine
ty-seven per cent. of the ingredients
which make up the whole substance of