518 [Senate 



R. T. UNDERBILL, OF CROTON POINT^ ON SOWING 



WHEAT, 



September, 1845. 



The wheat crop is so valuable, so intimately connected with the 

 prosperity of not only the agricultural, the manufacturing, mechani- 

 cal and commercial interests of the whole country, that we cannot be 

 too well informed on the subject. 



Land that has been well manured in a previous crop, such as corn 

 or potatoes, is, with proper plowing and harrowing, very suitable for 

 winter wheat. It is always best that the manure should be applied 

 to the previous crop, particularly if the manure is rank or recently 

 formed, or your wheat will produce too much straw, and be weak and 

 fall down. There are some exceptions to this rule. Bone dust, oily 

 fish, street manure, &c., have often been applied, at the time of sow- 

 ing, to procure a good crop. A sandy loam, with a good supply of 

 calcareous earth or lime, forms the best soil for wheat. A certain 

 amount of sand or silex, clay or lime, being essential to secure a 

 good crop. When I say that the land should be thoroughly plowed 

 three or four times, and harrowed as often, I am fully aware what is 

 the usual practice, and also of the loss sustained by only one plowing 

 and two harrowings. I do not speak of lands just cleared of the 

 forest, although then the more and the better the plowing, the better 

 is the crop, or of the prairie sod just turned over, but of the lands 

 of old States, long under cultivation. The object in this frequent 

 plowing is to mix more completely the atmospheric air with the soil ; 

 the air contains nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid ; these, well 

 mixed with the soil, will ensure a great increase of crop ; and the 

 thorough pulverizing of the soil renders it easy for the fine roots to 

 get well rooted before winter sets in, and thus secure it from being 

 winter killed. And this also enables you to ^sture sheep and young 

 cattle upon it, in the forepart of November, without any fear of their 

 pulling it up. They will also secure it from the Hessian fly, by eat- 

 ing up the larvae of that insect. 



It is also very important to prepare the seed properly. The most 

 plump and clean seed must be obtained. Six shillings or a dollar 

 more per bushel for the best seed, is of no consideration. Take a 

 barrel or a half-hogshead, fill it with brine that will bear an egg — ^use 

 the old salt from your meat or fish casks, if you have it. The old 

 salt is most readily dissolved. Put in one, two or three bushels of 

 your seed wheat, mix well with the brine, skim off all the chess, foul 

 seeds, &c., which rise to the top. The brine should cover the seed 

 wheat three inches deep. Stir up the wheat occasionally with a stick ; 

 let the wheat be in the brine three or four hours ; then draw off the 

 brine and lay the wheat on an inclined surface, that the brine may all 

 run off ; then to each bushel of wheat add three or four quarts of air 

 slacked lime, and then rake and shovel the wheat, so that every grain 

 becomes coated with lime, and the grains separated from each other 



