Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1909-09-22
Growing Good Crops of Wheat.


= tinuance, is exciting interest in wheat
raising in the South, and am getting
letters from many farmers, who have
not been growing wheat, asking for
Z the best methods for its cultivation.
{ While wheat can be grown in the
coastal plain of. the South Atlantic
region, it is hardly probable that uni
{: formly good crops will be made there,
because as rule the soils are rather
!. too light and the climate too humid
& for the best results in wheat, though
Z in certain unusually favorable seasons
good crops may sometimes be made.
The, best wheat soils are the
$ medium heavy clay loans, and lime
stone soil is highly esteemed for
wheat. Good drainage is, Of course,
essential to a crop that must pass
through the winter, and only well
4 drained soils can be expected to make
good wheat crops.
Formerly, it was thought that the
ideal preparation for wheat was
clover sod broken early in the sum-
mer and narrowed and tramped till
well settled And there is no doubt
that well prepared fallow is still eX-
.cellent for the wheat crop. But cul-
tivators have long since learned that
this sort Of preparation for the wheat
crop IS too expensive, as it takes the
labor. of the farm through most Of
the summer without any crop on the
land, and the exposure to the sun is
also a bad thing for the soil. In my
boyhood 1 can we'll remember that a
farmer would apologize for the ap-
pcarance of a certain field by saying
that it was corn land" wheat, and
could not be expected to be equal to
fallow wheat.
But these same farmers who for
merly thought that they were doing
well to get fifteen bushels of wheat
per acre, have long since found out
that fifteen bushels is very small
crop, and that there is no better
preparation for wheat than a corn
+ field deeply broken in the spring and
cultivated shallowly all summer, so
as to bring about the same ideal con-
ditions that an early-broken fallow
gives. They have found, too, that
after the hoed crop, whether, wheat
or tobacco, there is no need for re-
plowing the land. In fact, there is
good reason for not doing so, for the
shallow and level culture of the corn
Z has brought about the very best con-
: ditions for wheat, a we'll compacted
soil and fine surface.
Therefore, after a crop OF corn or
tobacco is off the land, light disk
ing kept up both ways till the surface
soil is made very fine, will be all that
is needed If peas have been sown
among the corn or tobacco, they
should be mown off, for the turning
under of such a growth would prevent
the compacting Of the soil that wheat
demands, and more wheat will be
made with the peas cut off than if
they were turned under. But one
thing is certain, and that is, that the
surface soil can not be made too fine.
The best wheat soils in Virginia and
North Carolina are the red uplands
of the Piedmont section Lands like
the farm of Mr.. Lambeth, in Ran
dolph County, near Thomasville, in
Davidson, where crop of over thirty
bushels is reported this season, should
be made to average that much, or
more, every season. The farm of the
late Governor Holt, in Davidson, has
made over fort.-fve bushels per acre,
-and these crops show that these red
lands are ideal wheat soils, and will
make more wheat to-day under good
farming than the famous spring
wheat lands of the Dakotas. But good
farming demands that crops shall be
grown economically, and it has been
found, as have said, that the failow-
ing system is not an economical way
4 to raise wheat. Our clover sod, while
3 1t will make fine wheat, can be more
economically used for the corn crop.
The farm manure spread on this
clover sod as made during the winter,
and plowed under in the spring,
makes the best Of all preparation for
the wheat crop if the corn IL culti-
waited shallow and level during the
summer, thus producing the same
conditions that would be made on
summer fallcw, while making valua-
BILE crop.
The same may be said of the to-
bacco crop as preparation for wheat.
The leading idea is to make the
breaking early, and then devote the
whole season to the preparation of
the surface soil to get 1t fine, and the
lower soil compacted to the state the
wheat prefers.
Then as to sowing. Too early SOW
ing must be avoided on account of
the Eessian fly. There is less danger
Of the fly after we have had one good
white frost, and would always de-
fer the sowing to this time. This will
usually make the sowing in all the
warmer parts of the State of North
Carolina about the last of October or
first Of November, and somewhat ear.