The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-10-16
How to Make Wheat.


We find the following article written
by a Maryland wheat grower, published
in the American Farn,er, and present it
to our farmers with the hope that some
good may result from its perusal, either
by adopting his suggestions or intro
ducing such other Improvement as may
occur to each individual mind. This
writer pays no regard to the use of pee
wires as fertilizer for wheat, and in this
we must regard his practice as defective,
at least for this section of the country.
We believe that heavy coat of peayines
plowed in with 100 pounds of acid phos-
phate to the acre will make good wheat
on our clay lands. But if we have no
peavines ready for use, then take 100
pounds of phosphate, 200 pounds cotton
seed, 100 pounds stable manure and so
pounds German Kainite, carefully COM
post and regularly distribute over each
acre, and good crop of wheat may be
expected from any kind of Land. The
vegetable matter in this compost will
make strong straw and hasten maturity,
and the phosphate will make plump,
heavy grain. Farmers submit to great
loss by using raw cotton seed. Manures
cannot make ground rich by mixing them
with the soil. They must be incorpo-
rated with it chemically so as to be alb
sorbed by the plant roots. There is a
great variety Of opinion among our.
farmers about the proper time for sowing
wheat. Some SOW whenever they can,
from October to Christmas, and some few
run their sowing over to January. A
good farmer Of Town Creek sowed the
18th of December and made 40 bushels
to the acre, and then pronounced that
date early enough to SOW wheat. So tits
in some places and under favorable cir
cumstances. That brother had the ben
eft of the exception; his land was well
manured and thoroughly prepared, and
he completed his sowing on that day.
Either early or late sowing is objection
able, and for that reason our farmers
should fix on some intermediate time.
The 10Th of November is late enough to
avoid injury by the fly, and early enough
to bring in the crop before the rust
damages it badly in the Spring. Mary
land farmers SOW from the 10Th of Sep
tember to the 10Th Of October, from 1 to
II bushels to the acre:
Ten, twenty, thirty and forty bushels
of wheat may be and have often been
made on one acre of ground. Why is it
that one farmer makes only FIVE bushels
of wheat on an acre, while another farmer
makes forty? The one has brains and
uses them-the other depends on "the
mercy of chance"
Benjamin Fitzhugh, of Frederick city,
says that the Lawson Brothers, living
near Urbana,s in Montgomery county,
made two years ago fifty-two bushels of
wheat per acre on eight-dollar land.
Mr.. Philip Ritz, living near Walla-
Walla, Washington Territory, informed
me that one of his neighbors claims to
have made one hundred bushels of prime
wheat on an acre. Senator Morton went
to see this man and obtained sample of
his wheat. Forty to sixty bushels is
often made in Oregon.
But the farmer who expects to make
twenty or thirty or forty bushels on an
acre Of poor land, badly farmed, will be
terribly disappointed. To make a good
crop of wheat, We mus have good land,
in good order, sown at the proper time,
in the proper way, and properly har-
vested.
We mix barn-yard or hog-yard ma
nure, or other fertilizers, to make the
wheat-plant grow. On poor land the
stalk is too small, too light. If the
growth is too luxuriant the wheat may
lodge, which hinders the growth and de-
velopment of the grain. But when on
good land small quantity of manure
acts finely on wheat crop, which ma
lures early on manured land.
"When there is no phosphoric acid in
the soil, wheat will not grow" says Lie
big. There is twenty-six pounds of phos-
phoric acid in twenty-five bushels of
wheat. IF the phosphoric acid of soil
has been exhausted by repeated crops, or
if that quantity of soluble phosphoric
acid cannot be furnished by the soil,
twenty-five bushels of wheat cannot be-
made on that acre. Fhosphoric acid is
furnished most certainly by bones of ami
mails. It is claimed that it is present In
the South Carolina rock also. Our ex-
perience is that those who use phosphates
make wheat-those that do not use phos-
pilates make little or no wheat.
If we had some means of strengthening
the wheat stalk, so that the wheat would
stand up, the heads would fill better, the
grains would be plumper and more per-
feet. Liebig says that Soluble silicate
of potash imparts strength to the growing
crop" It is claimed that soluble silicate
of potash exists in the mari of Calvert
county, in Maryland, and in some mari
from New jersey.
If che farmer wants to make twenty,
thirty or forty bushels of wheat to the
acre, he must have rich land. Land is
made rich by barn-yard or hog-yard ma
nure, or by clover. Lime will increase
the crop of wheat and of all cereals and
grass crops likewise, on all soils, rich and
poor. I think land cannot be made rich
aoithout lime.
The elements of fertility may be in a
soil in an insoluble condition; therefore,
the soil will be unproductive. The pro-
ductiveness Of a soil is in proportion to
the solubility of its fertilizing materials.
Liebig says: "Steel wire immersed in
nitric acid is not oxidized; steel wire i'm
mersed in sulphuric acid is not oxidized
but steel wire immersed in equal parts of
nitric and sulphuric acid is rapidly oxi-
died" The two acids combined have a
power which singly they do not possess.
Lime, applied to soil, may decompose
one Ingredient. and this decomposition