122 THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 



and stumpy that it would have been an utter impracti- 

 cability to plough it. And yet, with all the deep 

 ploughing, thorough pulverization, and bountiful ma- 

 nuring, farmers h'ncl it difficult to produce as many 

 bushels of wheat per acre, on the same land, as they 

 were accustomed to grow, without any manure at all, 

 and without any preparation of the land, except a 

 superficial harrowing. 



It is eminently important that farmers should under- 

 stand that the manner of preparing land for winter 

 wheat, as practised by our ancestors, was compatible 

 with the habit of the wheat plant; and it was also the 

 scientific way of cultivation, with a view of avoiding 

 the injurious influences of freezing and thawing of the 

 soil, on the growing wheat plants. If the hard subsoil 

 beneath the thin stratum of mould could have been 

 broken up with a subsoil plough, without having been 

 turned above the rich seed-bed, the yield of grain would 

 have been much larger than the most bountiful crops 

 that grew where no implement of husbandry was ever 

 before used, except the common harrow. All the aged 

 wheat-growers of our country, who have a correct 

 understanding of the difficulties that are now met with 

 by wheat-growers, will appreciate these suggestions, as 

 they understand perfectly well how easy it was, when 

 they cultivated wheat according to the foregoing plan, 

 to produce a heavy crop. 



There are other considerations which it is proper to 

 mention, that exerted a favorable influence towards the 

 production of a bountiful crop of grain, among which 

 may be mentioned the protection of the wheat plants in 

 the winter, by the extensive forests that shielded the 

 wheat-fields from the terrible winds that now remove 



