The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-16
WORK FOR NOVEMBER
Progressive Farmer1

LIZ 49, W11Sdl o L IAfG
has interested some in the crop who
have not grown it before. and farm
ers are writing to me about fertilizers
wheat and saying that they are
~ ng to SOW it broadcast and harrow
: in. This is about the poorest way
you can SOW heat The seed is mn
in at various depths, or none at ALI
and the same land. we'll prepared
and the wheat put in with a. drill and
at a uniform depth, will make many
more bushels per acre than it would
broadcasted and narrowed in. There
will be enough loss in the crop on a
field of any size to pay for the drill.
Then in many parts of the South
farmers are sowing wheat on land
too sandy, and in a climate too humid
for success with this crop, and in all
the coast region, l am sure that with
q good rotation of crops there is far
more money for the farmers in winter
oats than in wheat. In fact. in most
of the warmer sections Of the South
winter oats could be made a very
profitable crop where wheat will fail
more often than succeed. for in the
humid climate of the coast region. the
rust fungus thrives to such an extent
that wheat growing is very uncertain.
L was rather sorry to see in travelling
from Raleigh 20 the western part Of
the State that farmers in the last
week of October were blowing Ian
for wheat. It seems to me that it
will be almost impossible to get the
land ploWed SO late into the proper
settled state for the wheat crop.
In fact, through all that Piedmont
country it was time then to be SOW
ing wheat, for there had been frost
in plenty to check the fly. Wheat
sown on such hastily plowed land
cannot make h crop it should and
would had the land been prepared
earlier. Probably the dry weather
previously had prevented blowing the
fallow, but I saw many blowing corn
land, and this should LAY cen merely
dislike e thoroughly about three OF
-four inches deep, n the capillary
moisture left undisturbed below. In
the best wheat growing sections fall
lowing for wheat has been largely
abandoned as too expensive, and
wheat is generally sown after a hoed
crop, either corn or obacco. AL
through the finest tobacco and wheat
county in the United States, Lancaster
county, Pennsylvania, one can see now
large fields of wheat sown on tobacco
land that has not been plowed at all
but worked so lightly that the rows
of tobacco stalks can be seen still
standing. And they make great
crops of wheat, too.
Every effort should now be made
to get this late-plowed soil compacteo
and the surface soil made as fine as
possible with harrow, roller an6
plank drag. I saw one field where
the farmer was running a plank dras
over the land, and the n surface
left by the drag showed that at least
one man was getJlng a field In ordel
for wheat.
It is far better to be a little late il
sowing wheat tina to hurry 1t into
i'll prepared ground. Every time yol
go over the land with harrow, roller
and plank drag you will be adding
to the crop, and the more the felo /:
tramped by teams, the better.
About five pecks per acre is a fail
seeding. Thin land will need more
seed than strong land. as it will tile
less, and late sowing needs more seeo
for the same reason.
Some write to me still about SOW
ing oats. If oats were not sOwn II
September or early October, I would
now defer them till late February, bu'
would still SOW winter oats and no
spring oats, for they will make a bet
ter crop in the South than any sprine
oats, though not the crop they wnoulc
have made if sown in the early fall.
Still Time for Rye.
It is too late to SOW crimson clover
except in the far South. but 90 no
leave any land bare all winter. Sow
rye now as a winter cover to be turned
under in spring. It will save fertility
that would be washed out and VII
add organic matter to h soil.
One farmer writes that he has {
pea stubbIe and want to SOW rye OF
it, but his neighbors tell him that re
blowing will destroy he benefit from
the pea roots and stubble. This !:
an old notion, for the blowing unde1
of the rye will simply bring the de-
cayed peas where the corn or cottoI
can use them.