The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1902-11-12
HOW TO PLANT WHEAT.
Mr.. j. ]. Bean Gives Some Good
Advice---He is a Government
Expert Who Has Spent
Years Making Expert
ments.

Mr.. j. j. Bean, who had charge OF
the Government grass exhibit at the
Exposition grounds, having received
h;s appointment from the agricultural
department at Washington, is pro-
badly the best informed man on
methods Of cultivating grasses and
forage plants in South Carolina. Mr.
Bean is not an agricultural theorlss;
he is a practical farmer, who does not
deem it folly to reject some OF the
ideas bearing on sowing and reaping
which we're fossered twenty-five years
ago. Mra Bean is, in sense, an ex-
perimentglist. He does not concede
that the farmer Of today knows all
there is to- knew about his business.
He is ever willing to learn and a 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 Exposi ton, a
man who could be replied on to make
the most of the resources at hand and
secure the most satisfactory reusits,
Mr.. Bean was selected and given the
appointment. His work was COM
mended most highly by the depart
ment. He planted and cultivated II
different kinds of grasses and forage
plants, and agriculturists from every
section Of the country came to Charles
ton to see this splendid exhibit.
Mr.. Bean doesn't think the farmers
in South Carolina know how TO cul-
tivate wheat. Why he said yetser-
day to a Reporter for Phe 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 a little and then
sprinkles mis- wheat over it. A tiny
pale-green plant soon peeps from the
earth, with nothing to nourish 1T but
a slender air root. It is Just growing
on the surface of the land. And.
naturally, the harvest is meagre. !
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
good clay bottom. If South Carolina
farmers will take good clay land, cul-
tiYate it thoroughly and cover their
wheat to depth of from three to three
and half inches ] will assure them,
if the soil is properly manured, 1t
will yield from thirty-Gve to forty
bushels of wheat per acre. In plant
ing wheat it is necessary to plough
deep and harrow the land until it is
perfectly level. Then sow from one and
a half TO two bushels of wheat per
acre-never less than that. This is
what fifty years OF experience has
taught me. I have cultivated wheat
in England, Ireland and Scotland,
where it is the chief product of the
soil, and have watched it's 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 would
advise them to scatter air-slack lime
over their land-from six to eight hun
dred 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 yagaries of this climate are the
Dallas rust proof, the Valay wheat
the Little Club wheat and the Pur-
pie top stem wheat But it is well
for farmers to keep in mind that
scattering wheat over the surface of
the earth is absolute folly. The har
vest will be scanty indeed unless they
SOW the seed to a depth Of from three
to three and a half inches. News