180 THE WHEAT CULTUBI8T. 



we shall make better crops of wheat than the aver- 

 age yield was, at any time, since I was a resident 

 of the State. There is no guess-work about this, 

 for with me, it has proved true ; and it cannot fail 

 to be so with others. It is true that we must ex- 

 pect some failures. But if farmers will do their duty 

 to the land, their failures will be fewer and farther be- 

 tween than ever heretofore. I have seldom seen a fail- 

 ing crop of wheat when it got a good root in autumn. 

 I had a small piece of land, say not quite two acres, that 

 never was manured. In 1856, the wheat on that part 

 of the field was quite light, and the other part of the 

 field (twenty-six acres) excellent; and on the first of 

 October, 1856. I gave one-half of the piece a light ma- 

 nuring of rotten manure from the cattle-yards, say at 

 the rate of about ten common two -horse wagon loads to 

 the acre — the manure showed immediately on young 

 clover. I summer-fallowed the field ; and sowed with 

 wheat early in September. The wheat was no sooner 

 up, than that part manured showed plainly, from the 

 part that was never manured. Some may say, why did 

 he not manure the whole of the piece when he was 

 about it { I answer, that I left a part of it to convince 

 my tenant (as I don't work much of my farm myself, 

 now), and others who may see it, the necessity of mak- 

 ing and saving all the manure possible. (Nothing will 

 make people believe like seeing.)" 



Manuring with Guano. 



K. T. Hubbard, of Buckingham County, Virginia, 

 writes, in relation to the practice of applying guano to 

 the soil for wheat, as follows : " Within the last five 

 years, several farmers in this and the adjacent counties 



