Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-03-14
avashiagton Standard
OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON TER.
FRIDAY, MARCH IA. 1879.
For Wheat RaiSerS.

WhCat ahNA We ahe's 49,
friends will indulge us if we make a
few suggestions in regard to this
most important branch of the farm
er's vocation. Committing seed to
the earth by broadcast sowing is
ancient and honorable and perhaps
the principal method now. In a
country, however, where drou9hts
are liable, or where they prevail to
some extent every year, the wheat
drill becomes a valuable agricultural
implement. And yet, STANCE to say,
from its first introduction, the pro-
gress it has made in gaining the con-
fidence of grain producers has been
q slow and tedious one. Its mis-
take, too often made, to think that
every new agricultural machine is
merely and only a labor-saving con-
trivance. The fact is either over
looked, or not at all understood, that
most machines do their work as
much better, as they do it faster, than
the old hand-methods. The thresh-
ing machine may be cited as a famil-
lar example. Not only can it do the
work of an army of men in the same
time, but it works faithfully and,
witbal, proftably for its employer;
since, as was remarked, in its early
days, it takes every kernel from the
-sheaf; there being almost absolutely
no loss from wastage. So in all Ia
bor-saving devices; their great value
being as much on account OF the
quality of the work performed, as on
account of time saved. Thus, while
. good deal of loss attends the broad
cast method of sowing grain, by the
use of the most approved drills now
in use, all the seed is dropped in
the burrows prepared for it and duly
covered by uniform stratum of soil.
An intelligent agriculturalist, of
large experience in several OF the
Northwestern States, gives it as his
opinion that wheat might be grown
upon the gravelly prairies skirting
Puget Sound, with almost uniform
success, if the drill were judiciously
used in lieu of the hand method.
One thing which may be adduced
In favor of drilling in wheat, is the
signal fact that, in nearly every case
of wheat failure on our sandy or
gravelly prairies, the seed was COM
mitted to the ground by the old
fashioned broad. cast method of SOW
ing. More than this, investigation
will show that, where drilled wheat
has failed to reward the farmer with
an average crop, even in extremely
dry seasons, such cases are the ex-
ception and not the rule. Most of
the agricultural colleges in this
country and Europe, have laid it
down as principle, that the use of
the drill is one of the most reliable
precautions against dry weather.
This is explained by supposing that
the grain is more evenly covered by
the drill than by the harrow in fact,
that not kernal is neglected, but,
being duly covered, it sprouts,
breaks through the mould and pro-
duces its quota along with its fell
lows. 1t should not be forgotten
that the upper stratum of the soil
is mainly indebted to the atmos-
phere for its measure of humidity in
exceptionally dry seasons. The
moisture in such cases being mechan-
ically detained in the pores of the
soil.
A late agricultural writer has gone
so far as to assert that the mischiev-
GUS effects of drought might be re-
duced to small fraction were the
soil carefully pulverized and its
porosity preserved, since it is we'll |
known that when the ground is suf-
fered to bake into q hard surface
crust, atmospheric moisture cannot
permeate it, and the most destruc-
tive results of the dry term are sure
to be experienced.
A NUMBER of wealthy citizens of
Cincinnati appear to have struck
bonanza in being the fortunate own
<y-c of ono of tho Idaho ,,,;nns rUL. |