80 



Lois- IVeedon Wheat-Growinfi 



supplement the deficiencies of the almost dried-out young 

 " seeds." 



I will now describe the modus operandi and verify my " totals 

 of expenses." The wheat is drilled in triple rows, the " spaces " 

 (A A A A Fig. 1) being 10 inches each, and the " intervals" 

 (B B) 40 inches each ; so that from the middle of one wheat- 

 stripe to the middle of the next is 5 feet. While the crop is 

 growing, the intervals are subjected to a fallow culture ; and the 

 second year's wheat-rows are sown on what Avere the fallowed 

 intervals of the first, as represented by the waved lines in the 

 figure. 



First 

 Crop. 



yecoud 

 Crop. 



A A 



A A 



A A 



It has been said by objectors to this "stripe system " of wheat- 

 growing, that, as the rows do not follow upon the identical places 

 occupied by last year's stubble, the course of cropping is not 

 really one of " wheat after wheat," but alternate " dead-fallow and 

 wheat." Then why not sow one continuous half of your field 

 wheat, and bare fallow the other half alternately ? Because 

 5 acres in that case would have to yield as much produce as 

 10 acres on my method. My 10-acre field did yield in 1858 

 30 bushels per acre, measuring wheat-rows and fallow spaces 

 together. If you choose to maintain that the wheat really 

 occupied only half the area, then my yield was 60 bushels per 

 acre. The fair inference from my experience is, that with the 

 land in anything like reasonable condition at starting, several 

 successive crops much heavier than that would have been raised, 

 still without any manure. I should have reaped 45 to 50 qviarters 

 of corn off that 10 acres, for a number of years together : is there 

 the slightest probability that anything like this produce could have 

 been reaped from that field, year after year, if it had lain as 5 acres 

 of wheat and 5 acres of fallow, — that is, that the 5 acres would 

 have yielded at the rate of 9 to 10 quarters per acre ? Whatever 

 may be the scientific explanation, my practice affords substantial 

 proof that tillage processes in close proximity to the growing 



