THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 139 



nlum for producing " wheaten milk," without which a 

 bountiful crop of grain cannot be realized. 



Alumina, being the base of all clay soils, furnishes 

 just what is required to produce large heads and plump 

 kernels of wheat. Although phosphorus, or phosphatic 

 material is the great manure for a turnip crop, it is em- 

 inently essential for wheat, if it can be applied to the 

 soil, say one year or more before the seed wheat is put 

 in. Silica must be furnished in liberal abundance, or 

 the straw of wheat will not possess sufficient stiffness 

 to maintain an erect position until the grain is har- 

 vested. 



Fattening the Soil for Wheat. 



After a wet soil has been thoroughly underdrained, 

 so that there are no apprehensions that the young 

 plants will be lifted out of the ground by freezing and 

 thawing ; after the surface soil has been renovated with 

 clover and kept in an excellent state of fertility by a 

 judicious system of rotation of crops for several suc- 

 cessive seasons; after the ground has been ploughed, 

 reploughed, and ploughed again, and again, and again, 

 and then harrowed, scarified, teased with the cultivator, 

 and fretted with the roller, and vexed with the clod- 

 crusher ; and after every noxious w r eed has been ex- 

 terminated, root and branch, and their leaves, stems, and 

 radicles have been changed into a fertile mould, the 

 hopes of the ambitious husbandman will not be realized 

 in beholding a bountiful crop of the full wheat in the 

 ear, unless he has fattened the soil. In this lies the 

 grand secret of raising wheat. Yet very few even of 

 our best farmers understand that this is the chief re- 



