The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-23
CnItnre of Wheat.


At the wheat growers convention recent
" held in Macon, Mr.. c. II. Morrill,, Bib
county, Georgia, presented a very sugges-
tive paper on wheat culture, from which
we take the following: The land should
be well plowed, but not too deeply, at
time Of sowing. and the grain worked in
with harrow and then rolled TO firm the
soil over the seed. When it gets well
started wheat grows rapidly, but it Is not
very vigorous plant and cannot fight its
way as well as many of our cultivated
grains. In order TO make success reasona-
bly, sure il is necessary that the land
should be very carefully suited to receive
the seed. If the soil is very rich it is all
the better. If the land has been partially
exhausted an abundance of plant food
must be supplied. This food must be in
a condition for immediate use.
Coarse manqres will do little good. sta
Bile manure or green cotton seed is not
plant food ready for use. The wheat plant
is a delicate feeder and its food must be
carefully prepared. Wheat may follow
pea crop if the land is rich enough other
wise, as the pea crop furnishes nitrogen
stored in its roots which the wheat crop
must have. In this case, however, some
chemical fertilizers should be used. In
any aud every case the land should be
made rich and the plant food which 1t
contains must be near the surface. In
this section | should prefer chemical ma
nures to any other form Of fertilizers and
should apply it heavy. AS the wheat crop,
including the grain, straw and chafr, takes
from the soil twenty four pounds Of phos-
phorlc acid, ffty-nine pounds nitrogen,
thirty-one pounds potash, we must apply
these elements of plant food to the soil in
the shape of nitrate of soda at the rate
of $50 pounds to the acre, half at time of
sowing, the other half as a top dressing
in the spring, and 500 pounds of fertilizer
containing per cent. Of phosphoric acid
and IL per cent?. Of potash.
Too much stress can hardly be laid upon
a thorough preparation Of the soil. I'm
der the common system Of management al
that can be done toward making the crop
is finished when the sowing is performed.
Wheat is a peculiar plant and requires four
peculiar conditions of soil and care. AS In
its fruit it is superior TO all other grains,
so in its habits it is more particular and
exacting than others. 1t cannot endure
conditions in which corn or oats would
flourish, 1t requires a rich, clean soil
and should follow crop that has been
c.eanly cultivated and ell weed seeds
eradicated from the land That wheat
y
same land killing process that the cotton
farmers of che South have followed, every
successive crop dimishes the supply of or
ganic matter, and from the careless cul-
ture every successive year increases the
stock of weeds. If wheat could receive
the very best system of culture so that
the ground should be mechanically in
proper condition and weeds be kept out,
good crops of wheat could be grown much
er cultivation simply. The experiments of
Mr.. Loves of England seem to indicate
this. He raised twenty-seven successive
crops of wheat from one plat of land with
out any manure. The crop of 1874 was tif-
teen bushels per acre, and that of 1870
exactly fifteen bushels, this amount also
being the average yield during the entire
time. 1t should be understood that the
ground was kept free from weeds, the
wheat being in drills and the soil cu.ti-
waited between them. The experiments
made by this gentleman are probably the
longest and most valuable on record ana
l shall have occasion to refer to them
again.
That the generally diminished yields of
wheat in the older settled portions of our
country are due to careless preparation of
the soil and foulness of the land with
weeds there is no doubt from the best
source of information available. 1 shall
now proceed to give some proofs of the
entire possibility of producing large crops
of wheat in localities where the general
failure has been marked, by simply re-
storing and following those conditions
which rendered wheat culture so easy and
so profitable in the beginning. These con
duons, be it remembered, are mainly a
properly enriched soil and a cultivation
that shall forbid the growth of weeds.
one fact alone, to which | have already
referred might be considered as proving
conclusvely that the yield of wheat in a
given locality can be Kept IN to a high
standard Indefinitely the fact that in Eng
land under a system of superior culture
there has been a considerable Increase in
the annual acreage during the last CEN
fury, nearly 20 per cent, it is estimated
rms is not at al due to superior climate.
Improving the Persimmon.
This fruit is best propagated by grating