No. 112. 1 217 



Spring Woieat. — Charles W. Eells, Westmoreland, Oneida. 



Cultivator's Statement. 



The land upon which my crop of wheat was raised^had been a 

 meadow for several years previous to 1851 . In the spring of 1851 , 

 I plowed the field with a Michigan double plow, ten incliesdeep by 

 twelve wideband planted it with corn without manure, the field of 

 four acres averaged about 75 bushels per acre. I think the great se- 

 cret in raising good crops is in plowing well and deep, we may look 

 in vain for large crops by plowing after the old fashion, just skim- 

 ming off the surface of the soil three or four inches. Some of my 

 neighbors thought when I was plowing ten inches deep, that I 

 should spoil my land and not get half a crop, and that the sward 

 or surface of the soil was buried so deep that it would never see 

 day light again ; but in spite of all their prophecies, I plowed the 

 same field last spring ten inches deep, and brought the old sward 

 up to broad day light again, well rotted and mixed with the 

 other soil, (and if some of the subsoil is brought to the surface I 

 have no objections) which left it in good condition for a crop of 

 wheat; thesoil is a fine gravelly loam and in some places a lit- 

 tle sandy. 



The farm is situated in the town of Westmoreland, in the 

 southern part, about three miles north of Clinton, and one 

 mile south of Lardsville, P. 0. There has been no manure used 

 on the field for several years, and the crop was raised in my 

 usual course of cultivation. On the 15th of May I sowed four 

 bushels of spring wheat broadcast on the piece ; two bushels of 

 Siberian wlieat and two bushels of Tea wlieat prepared by soak- 

 ing in strong brine, and mixing as much slacktd lime as would 

 adhere to it, the day previous to sowing; I do not hyrrow my 

 land bt fore sowing, after sowing I use a large two horse steel tooth 

 cultivator tlie first time over, and then a fine tootlu-d harrow ; in 

 this way the seed is covert d de('per and I always get a better 

 crop. The wheat was harvested Aug. 20th; about one fourth was 

 reai»ed with a sickle, the rest cradled, was bound in bundles and 

 set up in stooks to dry a few days, and then carted to the barn, 



