Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1882-11-02
Wheat CuIture-Time and Mode OF
Seeding.

IS in putting in the seed too deeply. The
drill is often recommended because it
will deposit the grain at more nearly
uniform depth than can be obtained by
broadcast seeding on rough surface.
If, however, the ground has been titled
so as to make q mellow seed bed, this
uniform depth will usually be too deep
unless the roller precedes the drill and
the drill teeth are set back so as not to
dig too deeply. In the old days when
broadcast sowing was the rule, the best
crops were those where the wheat was
sown and rain fell so quickly that it
could not be thoroughly narrowed in,
My father used to tell of one field which
was never narrowed. 1t was sown just
before the equinoctial storm. By the
time the soil was dry enough to harrow
the wheat was up, and it was then thought
that narrowing would destroy the young
plants. The roller was run over the field
in the spring to smooth the surface, and
this was all the cultivation the crop re-
ceived. The wheat yielded at the rate
of forty bushels per acre, without phOs-
phate or manure of any kind. But the
soil was comparatively new and unex-
hausted.
1t is an old tradition among farmers
that the rougher the surface of a wheat
field at the beginning of winter, the better
the chance for escape from winter killing.
Rolling after drilling or sowing consider
a mistake. The compactness of the soil
needed for wheat is beneath and not on
the surface. The rough places will be
beaten and washed down by rains, snow
and frosts fast enough, and if any of the
wheat plants are lifted up, this washed
earth will cover the exposed root.
For this purpose having the wheat
plants in depressed drills is I'M
doubtedly an advantage, as the slight
ridges of earth on either side are some
protection, both from winds and up
heaval by frost. But wherever possible
the ground should be compacted, so that
the drill will not deposit the seed deeply.
This was one trouble last fall when wheat
was sown after the great drought, before
rain came to compact the soil. The
grain drilled before the heavy rain came
up poorly and grew feebly through the
fall, while that sown after the rain made
very vigorous growth and withstood
the winter well.
Wheat is usually sOwn more thickly
than is advantageous or profitable. This
is especially true if the grain is put in
with drill, the plants crowding each
other in the rows, as they must where
two bushels or more per acre is the
amount sown. Farmers like to have q
good growth, and the ground well COW
cred in the fall. To secure these results
they seed thickly, and mass of sickly,
stunted plants is the result. This thick
seeding is not a preventive of winter
killing but the reverse. A single plant
in rich ssh and with plenty of room to
spread will by its foliage protect itself in
measure; but mass of plants all feeble
and each with sparse foliage, cannot
supply the needed protection. 1t is often
said that wheat cannot be too thick on
the ground at harvest, though even this
rule has its exceptions. Thin seeding
will usually produce a better stand at
harvest than where larger quantity
has been sown per acre. Much depends
on the richness of the soil, the more fer
tile requiring not exceeding one bushel
to five pecks per acre. If the land is so
poor that more than bushel and half
per acre seem to be needed, the better
way is to sow rye, or save it for oats or
barley in the spring.
The experiment has sometimes been
tried of cross drilling wheat, putting in
bushel or less quantity per acre each
way with the drill. One difficulty with
too deeply as the cross drilling piles the
soil in ridges over the seed. Little of
this first seeding survives the winter, I'M
less the season is very favorable, and if
it does the seeding is apt to be too thick.
Where a bushel is sown each way the
last seeding is alone sufficient on good
soil to make crop, but it would I'M
doubleday be better if the growth in the
fall were not hampered by too many
plants. A better way, where it is desired
to apply more than 800 pounds of fertili-
Zers per acre, is to divide and drill one
way with fertilizer, without seeding, and
then cross drill with both seed and fer
tilizer. In this way the manure is diff
fused more evenly through the soil,
while enough is placed in contact with
the seed to give the young plant a Wig
orous start.
1t is a curious fact that when wheat is
drilled in alternate strips, with and with
out fertilizer, the places where no ma
nure is applied are not helped by the
phosphate drilled in only six or seven
inches distant. This would indicate that
the roots do not 90 far in search of food,
or it may be that the start given to the
fortified rows enables them to occupy
their own soil, and perhaps also to reach
over into the rows nearest them. This
may account for the belief of many
farmers that commercial fertilizers
are absolutely injurious to the I'M
fertilized strips beside them. l have
long since given up Intentionally expert
meuting with phosphate on wheat by
leaving strips unfertilized through the
field, for find the loss heavier than 1
can afford. There will at times acct
dentally be strip left unfertilized, but
aim to distribute it as evenly as possible
so that not plant shall fail to have q
feeding of the kind of food it needs with
in reach from the very first.
The time of sowing is much less i'm
portant than the condition of the soil as
to compactness and fertility. Twenty
live years ago we got in the habit of SOW
ing wheat early so as to encourage early
heading the subsequent season and to
escape the wheat nudge. The latter pest
is now rarely injurious, and the Hessian
fly, which is bred in the earliest sown
wheat, is now more destructive than the
nudge. Itmay sometimes be good policy
TO sow land of only moderate fertility
early, in order to secure a good fall
growth; but it is much better to manure
more heavily and SOW later. In the early
history of Western New York wheat on
new lands was often soWn so late that If