Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1884-02-15
Give fools their gold 4 naves their power
Let fortunes bahbles rise and fail,
Who sovvs a field trains a flower,
Or plants a tree. 10 more than oil.
Top Dressing for Wheat.

Who sOws a field or trains a flower,
Or plants tree. is more than all.
Top Dressing for Wheat.
Francis Sanderson, of Plains Farm,
Baltimore county, in a letter to the
american Farmer, published in Balti-
more, Md, says:
Having used phosphate. nitrate of
soda and kainit for the past two years,
applied as spring application for
winter wheat, and in both instances
with marked success. l thought it
would be of some use to my brother
farmers to give my experience, and so
send it to you.
Iwould here state that my soil is a
clay loan and in pretty fair condition
for growing most farm crops, and l
keep it so by making and using all the
manures it is possible for me to make;
Inning my sod for corn, and then drill
ling my wheat in on this corn ground
in the early fall, using 800 lbs. of good
fertilizer per acre, and top dressing
the W heat in the spring with slight
application Of phosphate and kainit.
Now some will think this extravagance
and a needless waste of money, but l
don't think so. / farm aud work for
money, and if at ths end of year
cannot see some few hundreds Of a.
valuable money beside my stock in
hand, then that is not profitable farm
ing, and man had better sell out, or
work for some one else, as he surely
don't know how to manage, aud man
agement is the great need of most of
us.
In 1882, on the first of April, I top
dressed 10 acres Of corn ground wheat,
using 100 lbs. Of phosphate and 100
lbs. kainit; one month from that time
l found a marked difference in that
wheat, it being Of a darker hue and of
stronger growth.
At harvest my hands found that the
wheat was heavier, and the heads lar
ger and longer than where no spring
application was applied. When this
wheat was threshed we found it bright
er and heavier, and the yield was SO
bushels of measured wheat per acre,
weighing 62A lbs. per bushel, whilst
the wheat grown on the same soil and
right alongside Of it, but without this
top dressing, did not do so we'll by 5
bushels. The first wheat was sold for
seed. and brought 5 cents a bushel
more, and | could have sold as much
more if l had had it. The extra yield
by this slight application and the ex-
ira price for the wheat paid for the en-
tire fertilizer used on this ten acres.
But again in 1888, had %. acres
wheat, 90 acres of which was corn
ground wheat; this last being in fine
filth and rich, did not apply any
spring application, and found that
l did wrong as kainit would have been
the means of making the wheat straw
sitter in the joints and it, would have
stood up. As it was, it all fell down
and did not yield more than 20 BUSH
els per acre. saved few dollars
and lost many.
But the 30 acres Of corn ground
wheat, which did not look near so
promising, was divided into txosquare
parts as near as it was possible for me
to do and staked ct each end On the
one part 200 lbs. of nitrate Of soda per
acre was used, and on the other 200
lbs of kainat and 100 lbs. of phosphate
per acre was used. The part where
the soda was used grew faster and rip
ened a few days earlier and the yield
was good, viz: % bushels per acre of
fine bright wheat, bat the part-where
the kainit and phosphate was applied
yielded 32a bushels per acre of equal
ly aslgood and bright wheat, aHJo
which was sold for seed. would also
state that the clover and timothy crop
was all that could be desired on this
field; indeed. l could have cut quite
crop of hay if I had wished in the ear
~ fall from'it. 4 - s'SA-iSs =
1woald state here as these articles
are very valuable they should not be
sown too early IN the spring, when
the heavy rains occur, as they would
be washed off, and not too late, as
they require great deal of moisture
1 find that April is avery good month
to SOW it.
would here make suggestion to
all readers of this, to try this plan
even if it is but on a small scale, and
report the results the following fall to
the american Farmer, and much valu-
able information would be gained. !
will the ensuing spring divide my
wheat fields into 8 equal parts, using
phosphate and kainit on one, nitrate
of soda on the other, and phosphate
alone on the third, and whichever is
the cheapest and produces the most
wheat that is the one l shall use the
most Of hereafter, althougha 8 years
test is not quite a sufficient test in
every case. Why cannot the different
country Oranges take up this matter
and give US something that will be of