185Y.] Wheat Culture. 409 



appearance in England. A club of farmers went into experiments 

 to find a cure, and they settled down upon the following : SoaJdng 

 the seed in brute, Kming with quick Hme and immediate sowing. Salt 

 IS an expensive article in England ; but so essential is this salting 

 operation considered, that men will go nine miles to get the brine 

 of the ocean in which to soak their seed wheat previous to its being 

 limed and soM^ed. I have sowed near two acres with the salt and 

 lime, as much in English style as possible. 



Several years ago I was traveling in Morgan county, Ohio. My 

 attention was arrested by some very red spots in fields recently 

 plowed. I had not time to examine these spots geologically, but 

 from their appearance at a distance I supposed this redness to be 

 caused by the presence of iron in the soil. I made inquiry of the 

 inhabitants : they knew nothing of the cause of this peculiar color, 

 but they told me that on these spots wheat was always a sure crop ; 

 whatever diseases might afi"ect wheat in other localities, in the red 

 soil wheat was always right. The German method of sowing wheat 

 then is to soak wheat in copperas water preparatory to liming and 

 sowing. Copperas is a sulphate of iron. It is a soluble preparation 

 of iron ; and as such is easily made available to the growth of the 

 young wheat plant. 



It is no new discovery that the mineral element of all vegetable 

 bodies is exceedingly small in comparison with the bulk of their 

 solids. Hence it is possible that all the iron that wheat may need 

 for its perfect development may easily adhere to the external surface 

 of the parent seed; and hence again the propriety of finding what 

 mineral element is needed in cultivation of any particular crop, and 

 the comparative ease with which it can be supplied over and above 

 any mere manurial agent ; I have therefore sowed about one acre 

 with the German method. My other two experiments are the old 

 method of unprepared seed, and the simple washing and liming 

 already described. 



The above was written some months before harvest, but because I 

 wished to report the actual harvest returns I have postponed for- 

 warding it to your popular Magazine. All of my four experimentSv 

 succeeded beyond my best anticipations. I could find no smut 

 among that which was sowed without preparation — a very small 

 patch by the way (about half a rod); the one acre sowed in the 

 German manner I think exceeds any thing I ever saw. I had sixty- 



