the wheat culturist. 179 



Manuring Wheat, by John Johnston. 



John Johnston, of Seneca County, New York, whose 

 authority on wheat-growing has ever been considered 

 unquestionable, wrote to Colonel Johnson thus : " What 

 success I have had in raising wheat is mainly from ma- 

 nuring. Before I ever thought of draining, by manur- 

 ing my driest land, I raised excellent wheat crops. Now, 

 by having all my land dry, a great deal less manure will 

 answer. On dry land manured, the wheat, or at least 

 the greater part of it, gets forward in spring, so as to 

 escape the midge ; at least in common seasons. It does 

 so with me ; and I am more and more convinced, that 

 where a farmer has a good crop of straw, it will pay 

 him well to feed all the sheep he can, even if he feed 

 them each one dollar's worth of oil cake meal, and get 

 the pay only in the manure. But it is scarcely possible 

 that the sheep will not pay it. If he shears them, they 

 will at least give him two pounds of wool more per 

 head ; and then, the carcass, for either keeping over, or 

 for wintering another season, is, I firmly believe, worth 

 a dollar. I have often fed merino lambs not over seven- 

 ty cents' worth of oil meal during winter, and good hay ; 

 and sold them in spring, say April and May, at five dol- 

 lars each, when, if they had been fed in the common 

 way of feeding, they would not have been worth more 

 than two dollars, if that. 



" Then, only think of the difference in the value 

 of the manure ! I tell you, sir, if your society (The 

 New York State Agricultural Society) can only in- 

 duce the farmers of the State of New York to feed 

 their stock plentifully of grain, or oil cake, and make 

 their land dry by under-draining when it is wet, 



