The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1879-10-01
THE MORRISTOWN GAZETTE
FARM AND PLANTATION.
Success in Growing wheat.

success in Growing Wheat.
Both in preparing the ground and in
selecting seed suitable, the growing OF
wheat is a science only partially devel-
oped. We see proof of this by few feet
at the outer edge of every field being
better, and again the back furroW or
single drill row.
have always felt, until my expert
ence taught me better, that the only
thing which paid in farming was the
raising of corn to be fed to stock. Right
here I would like to break of and give
my experience in feeding cattle, but as I
started on wheat, viii only suggest that
those who wish to go into the cattle bust
ness-unless 1t be the raising of a few
fancy steers-go west, where there will
be some degree of profit for ones outlay.
Formerly, in raising wheat, we thought
best to stick to the Walker or Genesee
and few other varieties, for they had
been good, and once SO, must always be.
To this theory we chung without any
effort to keep up the seed, until all were
run out, producing tWO-thirds wheat,
balance cheat Eighteen bushels were
considered a good crop, and so little in~
terest was there in growing wheat that
in most cases it was only s0Wn in changS
ing the land from corn to grass, particu>
larry 30 on strong land, thus further de-
preeiating the yield, as 10 corn ground
will produce as well as stubble, for it is
never put in so well. / have known
fields of average land to produce fifteen,
and one eighteen, crops Of wheat in sue
cession, the last crop not being less than
One-fourth of the first. But the point in
this case was that the land was better
prepared and plowed earlier than it
could have been done from any other
crop. Six crops of wheat will not ex-
haust the land as will three of corn
Wheat must have root to stand the
winter and drought of summer, and to
secure this, must be ploWed as soon as
possible, and the land rolled and har-
rowed until thoroughly packed and pull
veriz-d. 1t cannot be worked too much.
Select pure, clean seed, best suited to
your land, and drill as soon as the 10th
and not later than the oath of Septem-
Der. Throughout the belt of country
lying between the Illinois and Missis-
sippi rivers, as far north as Quincy and
south to include the whole of Calhoun
county, we are almost sure of a good
crop, if properly put in. Do not
scratch" it in; then, when you come to
harvest and have no wheat, tell your
neighbOrs-as / have done, and am
ashamed of it to this day-that it "froze
out" when there was no wheat to freeze.
Now about seed. 1t should, ifDossibIe,
be selected from wheat grown north,
never south, of the latitude expected to
be sown. Then the seed will be harder.
Otherwise you must wait to have it
acchmated; and that most farmers can
not afford to do. Do not SOW the same
seed upon your land more than three
years-less would be better-but change
with some one, if only q mile away, or
better If farther getting the advantage of
different soil. My experience has been
In favor Of FultZ wheat. OF this bought
fifty bushels two years ago, and from it
raised over q thousand bushels, some of
It yielding over forty bushels to the acre. |
It grew rapidly at fall, looking much |
like rye, seemed much earlier than other |
wheat, and when cut was woody, why |
straw, none Of any consequence falling. !
Nor was there a particle OfTust, notWith.
standing the very wet season. In the
same field were two acres more than the
fifty bushels would plant. For these |
took my old seed, the ground being
prepared and drilled the same way, and
finished the same day. All winter
could be noticed the difference, right up
to the drill row, and when it was cut and
threshed, it yielded sixteen bushels per
acre, while the other by the side OF it
yielded forty. This year / have over s |
hundred acres of the FuItz, and again |
the wheat is fine, even better than last |
year. Some of it will produce over forty
bushels. Considering the two extreme |
seasons we have had, it certainly has
proven great success. Last year it was
generally scattered throughout this part |
of the state so hst farmers can have no
trouble IN securing it for seed, as was
the csse then. Some one in almost any
neighborhood will have enough to supply
those who may want it. This or any
wheat will in time run out, as has the old
Blue Stem and other varieties, unless
kept up. But if we will only take little
pains each year in selecting a few Of the
purest heads, if only peck, aad plant
by themselves. wewill not only maintain
the standard of wheat, but improve upon
1t. There is no pure wheat in this
country, and if the samples exhibited at
the Centennial were criterion, I doubt
if in any, from want of care in selecting
seed. Men breed shertehorns, fine horses
and sheep, and ''oiled" Berkshires. But
what of wheat? A mixture of wheat,
rye and cheat, Or in fact anything that
will run through drill is sown, and
when harvest comes and the grain is
missing, swear that this is not a wheat
country. These are facts which 1 have
grubbed out trem my own experience,
and cost me money and years of toll.
And l don't know it all yet Allen O.
Rush in Western Agriculturalist.