Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-09-23
DaiIp kenrlehfr JcurnaI.
Wheat in New England.

With wheat selling at less than dollar
a bushel in many of our city markets, and
with such facilities as western farmeas
now have for raising and handling the
wheat crop. it may seem almost foolish
to urge New England farmers to grow it
either for sale or for home use. Alter
seeing wheat harvested with twine bind
ers, which cut the crop at the rate of an
acre an hour, leaving It nicely bound ready
to shock, and then threshed and cleaned
at an even greater rapidity, it does look
like pretty slow work to cut with cradles,
bind by hand. and then thresh the grain
out with hand fails. yet we still believe
that wheat may be grown under favorable
conditions at profit, in many parts OF
New England.
In our experience with winter wheat
and winter rye, we have found that on
suitable land more wheat can be produced
per acre than of rye. Rye Is the harder
of the two, but if wheat be sown in season
so it can make sufficient growth in the
fall, and the land is not subject to overflow
in winter it will very rarely winter kill in
our New England climate, while bushel
VI IL Is always WOElu hioiC W uoO Ihoh %
busheI of rye Wheat is better crop
than rye to seed with, as the straw is a
little shorter, and OF crops yielding the
same number of bushels the wheat will
stand a little thinner on the ground, CIV
ing more air and sunlight to the grass.
We can hardly recommend seeding
grass with any kind of grain except the
letter be sown little too thin tor full
crop. Forty bushels of wheat per acre
will require the straw to stand pretty
thick on the ground, and if the weather is
hot and dry at harvest time, the grass will
be greatly checked, if not killed outright,
when the wheat is removed.
Were wheat the chief aim we would sow
it without grass, but if seeding be of more
importance, then the wheat should be
sown rather thin. perhaps with not more
than four or five pecks per acre. Wheat
at the present time is quite as sure crop
here as anywhere at the West, for we have
no weevils or other insects to destroy it,
and our lands are generally more tavora-
BILE to darrying it safely through the win
ter than are the lands of many of the
Western States.
Wheat should be sown early in Septem-
Der. so it will have time to make plenty of
good strong roots and leaf growth that
will keep the soil from alternate freezing
and thawing of the surface, but it ought
not to grow so heavy in the fall as to
smother under the winter SHOWS. From
the tenth to the twentieth of the month is
about the right time. The Clawson is one
of the most popular varieties and seems
about good enough, though there are other
kinds that do well in many localities.
Wheat may be sown on sod land. if the
land is well plowed and made fine and
mellow by thorough cultivation, but we
prefer to grow it after early potatoes, or
some other hoed crop that can be remov-
ed in season, as it is much less work to
prepare the land and the crop will endure
dry weather better, if such should prevail
at the time of filling out of the kernals.
Wheat, to make full crop, must have a
fairly rich soil. If the hoed crop was well
MANFRED, a moderate dressing only. of
manure or fertilizer will be required
Where machinery is used for drilling,
cutting and threshng, as it still is in many
parts of New England, we can RECON-
mend wheat growing on liberal scale,
and in other sections it will pay to
grow little for supplying the table with
choice article of food. Dat meal is be-
coming very popular food in many fam
lilies, but good, plump wheat. according
to our taste, is far preferable when pre-
pared in a similer way. Wheat is the
choicest bread grain for every day use.
Much of the oat and wheat meal sold in
our village markets is very inferior to
what farmer could raise if he would on
ly give wheat fair chance. Wheat re-
tans its vitality so long that one can, if he
chooses, grow enough in one season to
last two or three years. There is some
bother in keeping sexeral kinds of grain
from being mixed in the harvesting and
threshing. Wheat should be kept per-
fectly cleaned from rye or chess, if a
choice article of food is desired.
Mr. J. III. Hunt, grocer, N f. corner