The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-31
Wheat Seeding.

|
 Wheat Seeding.
 | Southern Planter.
 1 Men who will carefully blow and ! work land for the corn crop and who l will then cultivate that crop four or l nve times during its period of growth will seed wheat on land that has been only once plowed and once narrowed
 and will then complain if the crop is
 not a good one. They entirely over
 look the fact that the whole cultiva- tion of the wheat crop must be done be- fore the seed is sown, except possibly light narrowing in the spring and this is too often neglected. The per- feet preparation of the land before seeding is much more important in the final results than any fertilizer which may be applied to the crop, for unless the land is finely prepared very much of the fertilizer will never help the crop at all. but be washed out of the soil by the winter and spring rains. To be of help to the crop the fertilizer must be closely assimilated with the soil, so that 1t shall permeate every part of it, and this can only be possi- ble if the soil be finely broken and thor oughly mixed. The value of cultiva- tion in securing a heavy yield of wheat is illustrated by the success which fol- lowed the old-fashioned method of seeding on a summer fallow. We have seen crops of 70 bushels to the acre produced after summer fallow with out the help of any fertilizer, on land which. if not plowed until the fall would not produce 25 bushels to the acre, even with fertilizer. In the for, mer case the land was first plowed in the spring, then narrowed. rolled and reharrowed and allowed to stand for ten days or a fortnight. It was then reharrowed, rolled and narrowed again. After standing another ten days or a fortnight the narrowing and rolling was again repeated, and later it would be cross ploughed and narrowed and rolled repeatedly at intervals until Oc- tober. When seeded the subsurface would be compact, but open enough to be permeated by the roots and full of moisture, and the surface soil as fine as garden bed and without weed seed left to germinate. Wheat sowed on such a preparation as this grew off at once and rarely suffered from winter killing. In the spring 1t would tiller out and cover the land, and unless the season was a most un- propitious one. would make a full crop. Whilst modern methods of rotation have largely supplanted the old sum- mer fallow as preparation for wheat, there is much to be learned as to the requirements of the crop from the old system. Early blowing of the land and frequent narrowing and rolling are essential to success. The subsoil must be compact, yet permeable by the roots, whilst the surface soil, say three or four inches deep. must be fine and loose. Experiments made in different sections of the country all unite in demonstrating that frequent cultiva- ton of the land before seeding is con- ducive to increased yield, and that har- rowing the crop in spring after it has commenced to grow Is highly benehc- ial. Wheat calls for a liberal supply of all the three leading clements of plant food. nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. A crop of thirty bushels to the acre, with the straw takes from the soil forty-five pounds of nitrogen, twenty-two and one-half pounds of phosphoric acid, twenty eight pounds of potash, and ten and one-half pounds of lime. This quantity of food at least must be available during the growth of the crop. hence the land must be natu- rally fertile or be artificially supplied with the food in the shape of fertilizer of one kind or another. The lime and potash can best be supplied by dress ing of twenty-five to fifty bushels of lime to the acre applied as soon as the land Is plowed, and gradually worked into the soil during preparation for seeding. The lime win make the pot ash of the soil available. Experiments have proved that whilst wheat calls for this quantity of plant food. it does not call for 1t to any considerable extent in the early stages of It's growth Wheat assimilates its food mainly at the time of shooting the ears and fiIl- ing out the grain. For this reason a slowly available phosphate like boae meal and slowly available nitrogen like that derived from the decay of a clover or cow pea crop usually gives better results than more quickly avail able forms of these fertilizers. Prob- ably the best way to supply the phos- phoric acid is to use half bone meal and half acid phosphate, thus contin- uing the supply practically over the whole period of growth. The bone meal will give also sufficient supply of nitrogen to start the growth of the plants in the fall. The nitrogen need ed by the crop is most cheaply supplied by planting on a clover or COW pea fallow. Nitrogen from this source be- comes available in the summer at the time when the crop calls for 1t most strongly Experiments made in the various States have demonstrated that a COW pea or clover fallow can in- crease the yield of a wheat crop fifty per cent. over that BEOWh lduu which has not grown these crops. These crops, however, require to be used with discretion in their manage ment or they may actually cause a de- crease in the yield. Especially is this the case with the COW pea crop. Its immense production of vines ma sour the land if turned down in the early fall unless lime is also applied, and un- less the crop is turned down very early say at least six weeks or two months before the wheat is sown the land will be rendered too light and puffy for the best results. This may also happen with clover if the growth is heavy Where wheat Is to follow these crops they should be grazed down or cut for hay before being plowed down and lime applied. We have had very frequent complaint of failure to make a good wheat crop on a COW pea fallow, and we believe that the main cause of this was the puf1iness of the land This, however, does not always follow, as in this issue will be found a report of for ty bushels to the acre grown on a COW pea fallow, but we do not advise talk ing the risk. As a general principle no better preparation for a wheat crop can be adopted than the growing of cow peas or clover or any of the le- gumes By the adoption of this sys- tenn alone MT. Bellwood, of Drewry's Bluff, has brought up land that would not grow wheat at all ten years ago so that 1t now produces from thirty to forty bushels to the acre without the application of fertilizer. Where wheat is grown on land lacking in humus.