THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART II. 59 



germinating unless covered, we determined to run over the field with 

 a Hallock weeder. The wheat at this time was several inches high and 

 looking very nice. The ground was so dry and hard, however, that the 

 weeder was ineffective, and at what seemed to be a risk of injuring the 

 wheat, we put on the heaviest steel harrow on the farm and went over 

 the field thoroughly. As a result, the clover seed sprouted with the first 

 shower and the wheat seemed to have been helped, rather than injured, 

 by the harrowing. The clover made a splendid growth; so much, in fact, 

 that, contrary to our original plans, we expect to turn most of it under 

 for corn this coming spring. This is mammoth clover. The season was, 

 of course, favorable for clover. Such a yield cannot be expected every 

 year, but with proper attention to preparing the seed and putting in the 

 crop, I am confident that a good farmer on a good piece of land can 

 make an average wheat yield of 25 bushels per acre for a period of ten 

 years, and that he will find it as profitable a crop, one year with another, 

 as any staple crop he grows. 



Where the wheat is sown on fall plowing instead of in the cornfield, 

 the ground should be plowed early and carefully and well harrowed re- 

 peatedly, until the furrow slice is thoroughly settled down and com- 

 pacted. This is absolutely necessary for two reasons: First, to estab- 

 lish capillary connection with the subsoil, and second, to eliminate the 

 air spaces and thus lessen the danger of the wheat winter killing. The 

 object should be to get the field in as nearly as possible the same me- 

 chanical condition as the September cornfield. This will take work and 

 time, but the wheat grower will be well repaid for both. If he is not 

 willing to go to the pains necessary to secure a good seed bed, he should 

 not attempt to grow winter wheat on summer or fall plowing. When 

 the season for sowing arrives, and the seed bed has been well prepared, 

 the wheat should be drilled in as in the cornfield. The disk drill leaves 

 the ground in what might be called small ridges. Let the field alone, as 

 the drill leaves it, as these irregularities in the ground help hold the 

 snow. 



The cost of growing a crop of wheat on plowed ground will be con- 

 siderably more than in the cornfield. The logical place of wheat in the 

 rotation, is following corn and in the cornfield is the place to sow it. 



I have spoken of the importance of drilling wheat. Too much em- 

 phasis cannot be laid upon this. The drill puts in the seed at an even- 

 depth, covers it all so that it is ready to grow as soon as there is suffi- 

 cient moisture and enables it to make a well developed root system be- 

 fore cold weather sets in. One or two successful wheat growers, with 

 whom I am acquainted, this year tried drilling the field both ways, using 

 half the necessary amount of seed each way. They report such a plan 

 to be very satisfactory, the advantage being that it makes more thor- 

 ough use of the land. Whether there would be sufficient advantage in 

 this, to justify the extra expense, I do not know. It would have one 

 disadvantage, that of shading the clover more than when drilled but 

 one way. 



