The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-09-09

t. Qlnnd gn11r'lal.
sTscLOUD, MINNESOTA
Thursday September 8, 1875.
PREPARATION OF GROUND FOR
WHEAT. # Ia 1870
The approvedpractice Of best farm
ers is to plow only once for wheat.
Turn as good a sod as possible under
the furrow and afterwards work alto
gether upon the surface. Work the
ground often, for the more frequently
it is stirred the shallower it can be
cultivated, killing all weeds at the
first rather than letting them take
root, making deeper cultivation nee
essary. Tim old.fashioned harrow, or
drag, is one of the very best nipple.
ments eyer put into summer fallow,
and it would be good thing if all
fallows could be cultivated by that
alone. The drag compacts the soil
and rarely if ever scratches more
than two or two and a half inches
deep. The deep cultivation some
times given by horse cultivators 60
ing down and turning four or FIVE or
more inches is little less injurious
than the old-fashioned method of
cross-plowing. We know too well
why this deep cultivation is practiced.
Weeds are allowed to grow in sum-
mer fallows until nothing but deep
blowing will uproot them. Even then
it is better to make the cultivator
teeth sharp, so as to cut off obstinate
roots, and then keep it not more than
three inches deep. If the fallow is
dragged once week with we'll shar-
pened tooth-drag, it will cut off or
break off thistle roots more perfectly
than less frequent but deeper cultiva-
ton would do.
Next to a drag the roller is the
best implement to use in preparing q
seed bed for wheat, and for much the
same reason. The drag alone rakes
the clods of earth on the surface,
leaving it rough and uneven. This is
not an advantage, as many have has
tily guessed from few experiments.
Land left looking rough and full of
hard clods of earth generally produc-
es better wheat than where the sur
face is mellow and smooth. The rea-
son is that these rough clods on the
surface show frequent use of the drag,
while the mellow, smooth surface
shows more frequent use of the cult
vator. Break these surface clods
still more by going oyer after each
dragging with a cultivator or clod
crusher, which will compact the soil
but leave the surface in better filth
for a seed bed, and the wheat will be
still better. The drill will bring up
enough clods to the surface to protect
the wheat all that is possible and
these ridges left by the drill should
be left as nearly perfect as
possible. A mellow seed bed, but a
shallow one, is the result to be aimed
at. With this mellow seed bed Sc
cured, we do not care how hard and
unpromising the soil beneath may be-
Winter frosts will mellow it sufi.
GENTLY for the roots of wheat the sec.
ond season, and if we could prevent it
we would never have a wheat plant
strike its roots deeper than three OF
four inches in the fall. Lateral ex-
tension of the root to hold the surface
soil in a solid body to rise and fall to-
gether is what is wanted. With
such a mat of roots, even the past Sc,
verest winter within our remem.
brance did not destroy nor greatly
injure some fields of wheat, while 9TH
ers apparently nearly as thrifty in
the fall but whose roots stuck down.
ward, were almost entirely winter
killed. This lateral growth of roots
is encouraged by keeping the under
soil hard and also by surface manur.
ing and the use of commercial man.
ures drilled in with the seed. In nc
other way can we account for the re,
markable effects of light applications
of superphosphate on wheat the past
season..
Where stubble ground is plowed
for wheat the same general principles
hold good as for summer fallows,
Half the failures of wheat ON oat or
barley stubble come from q second
blowing, or such deep cultivation as
to amount to the same thing. + It is
the common experience of. farmers
that stubble ground got IN hastily
and roughly gives better wheat than
with more careful culture-often bet.
ter than the pet summer fallow
This would not be so were not the
labor so generally misdirected. Plow
az early as possible. Work as much
az possible with drag and roller, and
II you cultivate, 60 shallow to disturb
the decaying stubble as little as posi-.
BILE. By always cultivating shallow
and using the drag and roller az
much as possible stubble ground
may be made very nearly equal tc
the best summer fallow, and better
far than the average Of those which
are thought to be most thoroughly