Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-27
HOW TO RAISE WHEAT.

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Fifty Million Bushels of Wheat-Fifty
Million Dollars In Cash-A Few Facts
About the Cultivation of Wheat Which
1t is Claimed will Add Fifty to One Hun
dred Per Cent. to the Crop.
The great error of Minnesota wheat Gull
ture is the ambition of the people to be con-
sidered as large farmers, or to put in larger
area of wheat than can be properly attended
to. If forty acres of land was the limit of
the government bounty instead of 160, and
the other 12O acres sold to give the farmer
team and six months provisions, it would be
far better for the State and the farmers
themselves. AS it is now, the land is half
cultivated, SEED is wasted, slovenly, slip
shod blowing, narrowing, harvesting and
stacking are the rule, and half crop the
frequent consequence. I do not design in
this article to attempt to discuss all these
branches of wheat culture, but simply to en-
large little upon single topic which was
discussed at the weekly meetings of the far
mer members of the legislature and others
during the winter, with view to in
ducing further progress and further expert
ments. And here by way of commencing
experiments, and new departures and answer
ing those who object to anything new, allow
me to remark that we should still be carry
| ing wheat to the mill in one end of a sack
and rock In the other end, or threshing our
wheat with fail, if some one had not ven
tured to strike out on new venture.
! 1t is claimed that wheat should be cult
waited like corn, or narrowed when from six
to ten inches high to ensure the largest
yields. I beg leave to advocate this theory
and give to the farmers of Minnesota the
evidence, that they may give the theory a
test in the coming crop by trying it on few
acres.
The first witness will call to the stand is
the editor of the New York american AgrS-
caslturSst, the leading agricultural paper of
the United States. In the January (1879)
number in answer to "a. b." Clay county,
Mimi, he says:
$50 grow more than fifteen or twenty bushels
of wheat to the acre without manure, you
| probably need to prepare the land
better and to cultivate the growing crop.
As you only raise spring wheat, begin by
blowing the land thoroughly in the fall, then
pillow again early in the spring (if you did not
pillow last fall, pillow twice next spring. and
thoroughly pulverize with the harrow. Sow
the wheat in drills twelve to sixteen inches
apart, using three pecks of seed, to the acre;
then cultivate the growing crop with some
such implement as Travis wheat hoe. SINH
lar practice to this has doubled the crop in
number of cases that have come to our no.
| tice."
12S BUSHELS TO THE ACRE.
In the same number quote again:
| yields, due to drill cultivation and superior
seed, but the reportsjof the competitors for the
wheat premiums offered by Messrs B. K. Bliss
d Sons, excel anything else we have seen in
this line. First, ]. Brake
| field, Stearns county, Mimi, 528 pounds from
Wis county, ILL.,, 46515 pounds. Third, David
Brothers, Denver, Col. 342 pounds. Fourth,
A. G. Hickerson, Plumas county, CAL, 316
pounds. Calculating according to the areas of
the plots, one of these experimenters got at the
rate of 1913 bushels of wheat per acre, and none
of the number less than ffty-fve. One COM
petitor planted his seed in drills eight inches
| apart and two feet between every
alternate row. Reckoning only eight inches
| between the drills, this competitor states that
his plat occupied only 1-64th of an acre, and
that accordingly his yield was at the rate of
334 bushels per acre. These results were, of
course. due to the superior quality of the seed
to considerable degree, but largely, doubtless,
to the methods of cultivation adopted. Most
| of the prize-winners planted the seed in drills
eight to sixteen inches apart, placing the ker-
| nels four to six inches apart in the row, and
| then cultivating the crop as they would
choice corn-feld. The ground was carefully
| prepared and the whole treatment the best.
The unusual yields are indications of what
| wheat-growers may expect when they adopt the
| methods which these and similar experiments
| teach are the ones that lead to success"
FIFTY BUSHELS TO THE ACRE IN PENNsYL-
vANIA.
Since the discussion of this subject at the
| Legislative meetings, a gentleman interested
| in the subject has written East to
| inquire further into the subject and licited
the fact that in Pennsylvania they use what
| is known az Groff's combined seeder and
cultivator, and with horse, pillow between
the rows of wheat planted in drills as above
and succeed in raising forty-five and fifty
bushels to the acre-rarely realizing less
than fifteen bushels in excess of the yield
obtained in the ordinary way. This Guilt
vator is device costing less than $40, which
is attached to an ordinary seeder. So that
any farmer who has the ordinary drill may
try this experiment at small cost. A sim
liar idea was brought out in the legislative
farmers meetings, where one gentleman
stated that he had used an ordinary drill on
his wheat after it had attained few inches
of growth dragging or cultivating it in this
way-and had largely increased the yield by
this method of culture.
NARROWING WHEAT WHEN SIX INCHES HIGH
AS narrowing is a method of cultivation
it would seem to be sufficiently analogous to
the above methods of cultivation to justify
| its adoption where the wheat plows or Guilt
vators are not to he had. Important tesh
mony was elected on this subject at the farm
er's meetings alluded to. Hon. l.. B. Hodges,
who has had thirty years. experience as Min
nesota farmer, is thus reported in the indie
pendent Farmer, by its editor, Major New
son, of st. Paul, who reported the converse
tions at those meetings in the March number
of his Journals
| MIR. Hodges stated that some ten or fifteen
| years ago. he had had some experience in har-
| rowing wheat after it had come up. 1t was the
| first week in June, when he had occasion to
cross his field with harrow, expecting 1t would
ruin the wheat tear it out, etc., but he was
Obliged to make the trip, SO the harrow went
over the wheat and back again, and when he
got back the second time he found no wheat
left, it was apparently all torn out. The trail
was dark and clearly showed the SOIL The mat
ter passed out of his mind and he did not go
over the same ground for several weeks after,
when, to his establishment, the ground over
which the harrow had passed and repassed,-
the same trail, was dark and green with wheat
plants rank and thrifty. 1t shot ahead amaz-
ingly and looked the best of any in his field.
This incident, accidental in its nature, set him
TO thinking. He saw at once that the extra
cultivation had been beneficial; so that when
he found his soil hard and baked all over, he
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