GKAYLING INSTITUTE. 301 



got into the fence around the field and the wind struck it into the clover and 

 it burned about four rods back. I told the boys to plow it right up and we 

 sowed it to wheat, but didn't get as good wheat there as we did in other places, 

 the whole acre giving only ten bushels. After that I sowed it to Welcome 

 oats, an extra kind that I have raised two years, but we didn't get five bush- 

 els from the whole piece and it was perfectly matted with sorrel, which came 

 in after we sowed it to oats. Now I propose to plow up the ground and cul- 

 tivate it to kill the sorrel. I considered it the best piece of land I had 

 because it was covered with dead Norway timber and had some leaf mould in 

 the soil. 



Mr. J. G-. Marsh: The fire is what made the pine plains originally in this 

 country by burning out all the vegetable mould that was in the soil. Nor- 

 way timber has a good mould in the soil, but on our jack pine plains there is 

 no vegetable mould at all, or almost none. I have one hundred and sixty 

 acres of land, of which perhaps fifty have some scattering Norway trees on but 

 it isn't Norway timbered land ; it is Jack pine plains mixed with red oak 

 grubs; there is some white oak timber six to ten inches through, and some 

 soft maple. I have got a good farm out of it. I have raised wheat and fall 

 crops. It has averaged all the way from six bushels to seventeen. A year 

 ago last harvest I harvested eight acres of wheat; I put it in in pretty good 

 shape and threshed it with a machine and my average was six bushels to the 

 acre. The next year I sowed part of the same piece and enough more of 

 the same kind of ground to make twelve acres and got an average of ten bush- 

 els per acre. Some of my land is heavier than jack pine land and some of it 

 is sandy loam, not very sandy. The best average I have had was ten bushels, 

 but I did get seventeen bushels once off a small piece of ground. 



Mr. N. H. Evans : I have lived ten years on the plains. I have raised 

 from ten to eighteen bushels to the acre. I raised it on new breaking 

 and on second, third and fourth plowing. My best crop, eighteen bushels 

 to the acre, I raised on four acres of new breaking. There was some clay in 

 the soil. I find raising wheat on first plowing requires a good deal of labor, 

 but I had as soon risk it for a crop as second, third or fourth plowing if it is 

 thoroughly worked with a spring-tooth harrow. 



Mr. Lounsberry : The general experience of my neighbors is that the first 

 crop is the best. 



Mr. J. G. Marsh : My experience has been if I break up ground in the 

 spring and put it into wheat I am sure of a fair crop, and if I take that 

 same ground and stubble it in, cross-plowing in the fall, I am as sure of a 

 crop then as before, and the yield is apt to be better if the ground has been 

 well prepared. Two years ago when my wheat went six bushels to the acre 

 stubbled in three acres on the same ground and got ten. 



Mr. N. H. Evans: I don't like spring or fall plowing or breaking. Plow in 

 June or July when the brakes are all out green and in full leaf. Turn them 

 under six or seven inches and work well and I will risk the ordinary plains 

 for a crop of wheat. 



Mr. Sewell : You can't plow in the fall of the year and make a success of 

 it, I don't care in what country. It is my rule to plow when the grasses and 

 everything are filled with moisture. I never want to plow over three or four 

 inches deep. Plow in June and go over it again in September and it will be 

 like ashes. If a man would offer to plow my ground in November for noth- 

 ing I would not have it done ; I should rather pay for it and have it done in 

 June. (Applause.) 



