St. Landry democrat., 1881-10-22
Some Experiments with Wheat.

Some Experiments with Wheat.
In the fall OF 1878 put in two acres
of wheat and sowed one bushel of seed
on one acre and one half bushel on the
other. It.Mas soWns September s, and
when it first came up there was a
marked difference between the two
strips. But the fall was favorable for
growth, and before winter it was diff
cult to tell which was the thin-seeded
part. A neighbor cut it for me, and |
told him that one side was seeded with
half bushel and the other with
bushel, and asked him topay particular
attention and see if he could tell which
was the heaviest, but he could detect
no difference. We had 103 shocks.
tiftv-one on one acre and tifty-two on
the other, and the yield was thirty-i five
bushels per acre. The next year |
added four acres to the piece and seed
ed it with three pecks OF seed to the
acre. The yield was 180 bushels, or
thirty bushels per acre. / have grown
on picked acres over forty bushels of
wheat from three pecks of seed.
In the fall of 1873 / MANFRED strip
of thin land with bone meal at the rate
Of about 800 pounds per acre, and left
space one rod wide through the cen
ter to test the difference. AS soon as
the wheat started to grow in the spring
that ON which the bone was used out
grew the other, so that it could be
seen from distance in passing the
field, and at harvest the unmanured
strip was not worth cutting, while the
part s.boned' made fifteen bushels of
excellent wheat to the acre.
In the fall of 1879 sowed four acres
of wheat on corn land. 1t was cold
clay, and had rarely grown paying
crop on it, the corn that year did not
make twenty bushels to the acre. l di-
vided it into four equal strips and ma
nured the first with one barrel of sifted
hen manure; the second with twelve
loads of stable manure; the third with
200 pounds of ground bone and the
fourth with 200 pounds of superphos-
phate. left strips ten feet wide with
out any manure between the different
plots. From a comparison OF the I'M
MANFRED strips estimate that | doubled
the crop by the fertilizers. The tour
dCItS ylciucu 1Lo UuSuCio, 1uu ditiioet3 IL
l did not thrash the strips separately, [
found that the barrel of hen manure
made as heavy crop as the twelve
loads of stable manure. Possibly it
supplied just what was needed in the
soil or gave the wheat just the quick
start needed to enable it to find materi-
al already there. If a barrel of hen
manure, as the experiment indicates,
will add ten or fifteen bushels OF wheat
to the acre, it is time farmers were find
ing it out
| am much in favor of top-dressing
wheat land. and from experiments ex-
tending over several years, find one
! load of manure made fine and spread
on the surface, is worth to the wheat
crop two plowed under. II used in this
way every half cord of manure will
make an extra bushel of wheat-and
under favorable circumstances it will
often double this. l believe that ma
nure from She'd where it has been al
lowed to accumulate and retain all the
! liquid, is worth two or three times as
much for wheat as that from the barn
! yard, and am so situated this year
that | can test the matter. as I have
several loads of manure in a stable
where l have kept mare and colt all
summer. Waldo Il. Brown, in Rura
NeW Yorker.