13 

 EXTRACTS FEOM COEEESPONDEXCE. 



THE TOrZELLE WHEAT. 



Roclcbridge County, Virginia. — The small packet of wMte winter Touzelie 

 \vlieat you sent me last year I divided among our formers here. They 

 report their experiments unsatisfectory, in consequence of the unfavor- 

 able weather last summer, the excessive rains preventing the crop from 

 maturing. I retained live ounces of the grain, which I sowed myself Octo- 

 ber 10, 1SG9, in drills, sixteen inches apart, dropping seed by hand four 

 inches apart in the drill, one to three grains at a place, covering about 

 one inch deep. The soil was a rich vegetable mold. It grew well, and 

 in early spring I gave it a hand culturing. It looked too thin on the 

 ground until it began to tiller ; it then covered the whole surtace, ren- 

 dering it impossible to trace the rows. I counted as product of a single 

 grain seventj'-flve heads, varying from one inch to five inches in length, 

 with a number of short stalks ^^ithout a head upon them. In fact, it 

 seemed as if it would continue to send out new stalks perpetually. The 

 j)romise was for a fair yield (I had sowed less than the tenth of an acre) 

 of from two to three bushels of wheat. But the crop was entirely 

 ruined by winds, rains, and hail, that beat the heads down to the earth 

 and prevented their filling entirely. 



THE EXCELSIOR OATS. 



PoiceshieJi County, loica. — Last spring I sowed one and a half bushels 

 of Excelsior oats (produced from Department seed of the preceding year) 

 on rather less than half an acre of land ; they grew quite tall, and yielded 

 twenty-five bushels, forty pounds to the bushel. I value them very 

 highly. 



WHEAT IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. 



Contra Costa County, Cal. — A correspondent reports that the staple of 

 that ynmediate section is wheat. The soil is new, and until about three 

 years ago was used solely for grazing purposes. Some one, more enter- 

 prising than his neighbors, sowed a few acres to wheat, and reaped a 

 ton and a half to the acre. Before the summer was ended, every acre 

 of Government and railroad laud, as well as that claimed under Spanish 

 titles, was located, and wheat raising became general. In some instances 

 a yield of forty and fifty sacks was obtained. The following year was 

 one of equal success, although the rain-fall was lighter, deeper plowing 

 supplying the deficiency. The succeeding year was one of total failiu-es. 

 The custom is to dry -plow the land, harrow it, and sow the seed imme- 

 diately after the first rains. It is proposed to summer fallow the land, 

 and plow deep, when, it is hoped, an average crop will be produced, not- 

 withstanding the drought, which seems to be periodical in that part of 

 San Joaquin Valley. 



PREVENTION OF S:\nJT IN WHEAT. 



Stoeldon, California. — W. G. Phelps recommends the following method 

 of preventing smut in wheat : 



Fill a water trough, about twenty inches in height, with cold water 

 sufficient to cover a sack of wheat when lying on the side. If the 

 trough is wide enough to admit the sacks crosswise, with one man to 

 assist in lifting out the sacks, the work may be done more expeditiously. 

 Then dissolve sulphate of copper, commonly called " blue-stone," in hot 



