Middletown transcript., 1878-09-21
IMPORTANT
10 FARNERS!!
Great satInpr0VGnelthElGatCT Culture

Great ImprOVGnenthW CTltTf
After having thought much and given con
siderable attention to the culture Of Wheat
and gathered all the information I could b.
experiments of my own and that of Others
and whatever Information | could obtai
from Agricultural journals, became full
convinced that as yet we were losing much il
that old and common method of raising whea
and that the only true and profitable manne
of raising it is TO cultivate Il as near as posi-
BILE like other cultivated grain mot by hand
power, neither by horsepower half done, bH
with some kind OF Cultivator that will d.
good work and be a success in attaining tia
which 1t was intended for. At the same tim
economic labor by doing as much work in
day as can be done in an ordinary WheR
Drill, which have no doubt would be salts
factory TO all parties. = + Sc &4i
To form these conclusions was one thing
but to get up the right kind Of machine Il
work satisfactorily was another. l found
that wheat drilled in the old style would no
admit of cultivation, for the reason thai tht
rows were too near together, eight sowing
boots generally being allotted to an ordinary
Drill. Then after concluding to close every
alternate spout, or small seed.bOx, aud re-
move every other boot, ! again found thai
would not answer, as the spaces between the
sowing boots would OF be equally divided,
And Just here another very important poihl
presented ITSELF One of the principal objec-
lions against the old style Drill is, that il
sows the Wheat too thick or too close togeth-
er in the small row. For example; an ordi-
nary Drill has eight sowing boots, and out Of
a dozen different makes not one will spread
the wheat one inch in the row. Thus it is
easy for any one to understand that in a
whole Drill breadth. the wheat from all the
eight boots. at one inch in the row, stands on
oaly inches Of ground, iChile the nelS style
Drill has four solcilg boots instead Of eight, and
eIch one is so arranged Nth Sp. eader, so as to
put the seed regular in the ToVS 4 inches tDide !,
therefore this Drill, auth four sOtOing boots, and
each soUing II inches tDide, iOiU deposit he seed
oUer l6 inches of ground instead Of 8, consequent
IN Il Is very eDident that this Drill Sotcs the same
quantity Of seed on an acre only half as thick or
close together in the row as the old style Drill
thus doing GtCdy scih the thick solciRg objection !;
and in addition 10 this, it still leaves 10 2-5
or nearly II inches between, he rows for
Spring cultivation, the one great point neces-
sary in the raising of all crops. Itis andaCk-
nowledged fact and well known TO every prac-
tical farmer, that it is by cultivation only he
raises his fine crops of corn, tobacco and po-
tatoes and il he did not cultivate those crops
they would not produce one-third they do by
cultivation, though they are planted soon af
ter blowing, or in other words, in fresh plow-
ed ground. These are solid facts, and SO ad-
mitted by all therefore, it is but fair to say
that two-thirds of the crops for 662 per cent.
is due only to having been cultivated. Now,
then, if so large per cent. of the crops, is
due alone to cultivation, why should not cul-
tivation pay fully as large per cent, or even
larger, in the Wheat crop. The principle of
cultivation would answer Certainly 4 lOiH
pay fully as Veu. For this reason Wheat
ground is generally plowed in August. About
the 18th of September the average farmer is
done seeding; then from that time on that
ground 10 left to produce q crop, such as it
will be after being exposed to all the beating
storms, snow and rains of all Winter and
when Spring comes, is beaten down as hard
as though il had not been plowed at all the
previous August. What iS the result; anRv-
erage Of IA bushels per acre in the United
States.
From the 18th of September, when wheat
ground is seeded, TO the 18th Of the following
Apri is seven months; and as it is a well
known fact that no plant will thrive or even
grow at all without the influence OF the at
mosphere and the sun, neither can penetrate
ground that has been beaten down for seven
months until it is quite hard, near as well,
and with anything like as good results as il
can penetrate fresh cultivated ground; and
any person having The least idea of the good
result derived from the cultivation ofany kind
Of a crop will admit this Now, when we see
plainly that such are the undeuiable facts,
must we not therefore at once admit thAt,th
cultivation Of the Wheat ground is all the
more necessary in the Spring of the year, af:-
ter having been beaten down for seven months
and left untouched all that time, and will
therefore show. larger per centage of benefit
and gain from having been cultivated than
other crops accordingly After taking alIthe
above mentioned facts into consideration, Is
yellnsi The good and sound pglaeipieg Of cnl-
tivatiOh | cohclHded 70 test ths haAt4 fairly
and exact, for my OWu atlsfaEaiaH 10 veil as
for that Of others, who acknowledged that
their Wheat crops are only about half the
product they should be. T0 do 90 | induced
one Of our farmers, Levi W. Croft, Of West
Earl Township, Lancaster county, Pa. Ito
SOW about the half Of a heId on this new
method, and the other half on the old style.
The sowing was done about the oath day of
September, 1876 the quantity of seed sown
was bushels Of Wheat per acre. and ex-
actly, or near as possible, that quantity was
soWed on every acre in the field As to choice
Of quality of land in the field, there was none:
for the reason that there is no hill in the field,
it being nice level tract, AMI the quality of
land very fair, and as near the same all over,
think, as it is possible TO have it. About
the middle Of April, 1877, the half that was
sowed on the new plan was cultivated, which
showed a considerable difference in improve
ment il one week time, when compared with
the opposite half which was NOT cultivated, as
i looked stronger and had a,fDs, thfifty and
better color; Notwithstanding that quite a
large per cent. Of it was cropped by this first
cultivation, on account of not having the pro-
tectors put on the eultivator then, yet to pro-
tect the growing grain from being covered
with earth, which was found very necessary
to do, or cover entirely too much grain, the
protectors were therefore put on the cultiva-
tor, and then cultivated the same part of the
held the second time, about the lst Of MAY,
which improved itstill more accordingly. Ii
"1S AhCu asniu CuitlVattu HDOuL Inc middle
Of May this being the third and last time.
This last eultivation thought did 1t as much
good as either Of the former times did the
result was it looked stronger, frmer, and had
a better appearance in general than the oppo-
site uRe6ltiEated tract had and when it
came into heads there was a marked differ
ence, as the heads on the uncultivated tract
we're about the same as are generally seen in
an ordinary field farmed on the old STYLE;
while the heads on the cultivated tract were
mach better filed and dilargsr, plenfFaof Them
over six inches in length. Even
The straw was considerably cOarser and strong.
er, which Of course makes Il less liable 10 fail
DR. 60 doWn-the difference was 90 great that
Il could easily be noticed without close ex-
animation. When harvest time came both of
these tracts were;ept on the same; ;day. Z Thus
i will be noticed that both tracts were treat
ID alike in the time Of seeding, quantity Of
'eed per acre, and also In cutting 1t ali Al the
'aTne time; the only difference being that the
Dne was cultivated and the. other was not.
Before cutting il, however, E. q. Burkholder.
| general Surveyor and Justice Of the Peace. |
was called 10 measure of two acres, side BY |
'ide, on each tract, which was separately |
.hreshed soon after and produced as follows:
rwO cultivated acres produced 70 bushels |
ind 30 pounds, or 36 bushels and l5 pounds |
per acre. Two uneultivated acres prodnced |
80 bushels and pounds. or 25 bushels and 3 |
pounds per acre. Difference in favor Of culti- |