204 
the quarters not being permitted to touch one another. The writer 
states: “It is anticipated that an immense trade of this kind will be 
done before many years; and this, not only in the winter, but through 
the sammer months. Arrangements are being made for increasing this 
traffic at an early date. The margin of prices is so great that efforts 
will be made to get the White Star and Cunard lines of steamers to 
take in a meat-safe and ice-tanks, by which means consignments may be 
made almost every day of the week. What has arrived has been 
brought by the Guion steamers. Viewing this matter commercially, 
there is ample room for expanding this trade. The average weight of 
meat sent to the metropolitan market during the last seven years has. 
been 500 tons per day.” 
A later paragraph announces the arrival, in good condition, by the 
White Star line, of 650 quarters, weighing about 60 tons. 
IMPROVED METHOD IN WHEAT CULTURE.—The following commuani- 
eation is addressed to the Commissioner of this Department by Mr, John 
M. Heiges, of York, York County, Pennsylvania, under date of May 20, 
1876. 
In reply to yours of the 17th instant, requesting me to give you an article on the 
“principle” I have adopted in wheat culture, and its results, I would say: I com- 
menced farming about eight years ago. My success in raising wheat was not very 
satisfactory, and as I did not believe in seeding with the drill, [scored my ground with 
shovel-plow, sowed broadcast, and harrowed in. I thought my wheat looked much 
better than adjoining fields sown with the drill; still, net being satisfied, and believ- 
ing that I could not raise a crop of corn or potatoes without cultivating, lasked myself 
this question, Would it not pay to cultivate wheat the same as corn? In the summer 
of 1872 I manured about three acres of ground, plowed it down about the 10th of 
August, and let it lie until about the 20th of September, when I plowed it the second 
time and harrowed well. I then measured off a sixth of an acre, and used a common 
hoe to make scores about five inches wide, and as nearly level on the bottom as they 
could be made. I left a space of about six inches wide between the scores... Lsowed on 
said plot 8 quarts of Fultz wheat on the 25th of September, and raked it in. In the 
spring of 1873, I hoed the spaces between, the wheat once in April and onee the first 
week of May. Sowed to clover after the last hgeing, and had a fine crop.of clover: 
When the wheat came into heads, I found them much larger than those of the same 
variety sowed the same day on adjoining ground of the same kind of soil, and the 
whole treated alike as to manuring and plowing. I harvested and thrashed from the 
plot a little over 8 bushels, or nearly double the amount per acre produced on the 
remainder of the field. LI always plow twice for wheat and very deep. 
Ia the fall of 1873 I sowed all my wheat on the same principle, but making my scores 
(with a double mold-board cultivator) about 8 inches wide, and the ridges about 10 
inches wide, sowed broadcast and harrowed lengthwise once, then dragged to level 
the ground. In the spring of 1874 I cultivated a plot of one acre. I hoed part of the 
plot onee, part twice, and the remainder three times.. On the part hoed once the 
heads were about one-eighth larger than where I did not hoe; on the part’ hoed twice 
they were still larger; and on the plot hoed three times they were larger yet, some of 
them measuring nearly 6 inches in length, and satisfying me'that it pays to hoe three 
times. The yield from the plot cultivated was 55 bushels per acre ; from the remain- 
der of the field about 23 bushels per acre. _ Of course I did not sow the plot I hoed to 
grass, The remainder of the field was sowed with timothy and clover. : 
In the fall of 1874 I again put my crop in on the same principle. Some of it I left 
without spring cultivation. I found that the heads of that which I did not cultivate 
were larger than the heads of the same variety put in with the drill, but not anything 
in comparison with the heads on the ground which FT cultivated. { have a lot of 
ground containing 29 square yards—less than the third of an acre—on which I sowed 15 
quarts of a new variety of wheat, which I had made by cross-fertilization, using as 
the parents Arnold’s hybrid No. 9 and Fultz; the former being a white wheat, stiff 
straw, and the latter a red wheat. The yield from that lot was 16} bushels, or about 
493 bushels per acre. Gave it only one hoeing in the spring of 1875. In the fall of 
1874 I procured 1 pound of seed of a wheat imported from one of the German States, 
some person having brought it with him from Germany. I paid for the pound $1, and 
sowed it on the fifty-sixth part of an acre. I hoed it once in April, again on the 3d of 
June, and cut and thrashed from the product 1 bushel and 94 quarts, or at the rate of 
71 bushels per acre. I had the plot measured by two of the managers and in the pres- 
ence of the president and secretary of the York County Agricultural Society. I have 
