The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-11-19
HOW TO PLANT WHEAT.
etr. Bean Government Expert Gives
Some Good Advice.

Mr.. J. J. Bean, who had charge Of
the Government grass exhibit at the
Exposition grounds, having received
his appointment from the agricultural
department at Washington, is prob
ably the best informed man on meth
DDS Of cultiyating grasses and forage
plants in South Carolina. Mr.. Bean
is not an agricultural theorist, he is a
practical farmer, who does not deem
it folly to reject some of the ideas
bearing on sowing and reaping which
were fostered twenty-five years ago.
Mr.. Bean is. in a sense. an expert
mentalist. He does not concede that
the farmer of today knows all there is
to know about his business. He is
ever willing to learn and very apt
pupil in the school of experience he
has proved himself to be. So when
the agricultural department desired to
employ man to take charge of its
grass exhibit at the Exposition, a man
who could be relied on to make the
most of the resources at hand and
secure the most satisfactory results,
Mr.. Bean was selected and given the
appointment. His work was COM
mended most highly by the depart
ment. He planted and cultivated
127 different kinds Of grasses and for
age plants, and agriculturists from
from every section Of the country
came to Charleston to see this splendid
exhibit.
Mr.. Bean doesn't think the farmers
in South Carolina know now to cultl-
vate wheat. Why" he said Satur-
day to a Reporter for The Sunday
News, who had climbed three barbed-
wire fences to get to his house on the
Ashley River, THE South Carolina
farmer plants wheat the same way
his grandfather did. He ploughs his
land, harrows it little and then
sprinkles his wheat over it. A tiny
palegreen plant soon peeps from the
earth, with nothing to nourish it but
slenner air root. 1t is just growing
on the surface of the land. And,
naturally, the harvest is meagre. l
may say at the outset that it is a
waste of time and labor to SOW wheat
on sandy land. You must have land
with a good clay bottom. If South
Carolina farmers will take good clay
land, cultivate it thoroughly and
cover their wheat to depth Of from
three to three and a half inches will
assure them. if the soil is properly
manured, it will yield from thirty-fve
to forty bushels of wheat per acre. In
planting wheat it is necessary to
plough deep and harrow the land un'
til it is perfectly level. Then SOW
from one and half to two bushels OF
wheat per acre-never less than that.
This is what fifty years of experience
has taught me. l have cultivated
wheat in England, Ireland and Scot
land, where it is the chief product Of
the soil, and l have watched its
growth in various sections OF this
country.
Wheat in this State is frequently
attacked by a peculiarly destructive
agent which is called fungus. 1t de-
stroys the plant. Now if farmers
would render their wheat immune
from the attacks of fungus l would
advise them to scatter air-slack lime
over their land-from six to eight
hundred pounds of this lime to the
acre. They should also mix about
two quarts of this lime with every two
bushels of seed wheat. That will
keep off this fungus growth.
Experimentation has convinced
me that the kind Of seed wheat best
suited to the vagaries Of this climate
are the Dallas rust-proof,' the 'Falay
wheat the Little Club wheat and
the Purple top stem wheat But it
is we'll for farmers to keep in mind
that scattering wheat over the surface
Of the earth is absolute folly. The
harvest will be scanty indeed unless
they SOW the seed to depth of from
three to three and a half inches. .
News and Courier.