202 THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 



good. When wheat is growing on a light and dry soil, 

 where the seed was sowed broadcast and harrowed in, 

 as many of the young plants would be found rooted 

 near the surface, a harrowing would be liable to do 

 greater injury by tearing up large numbers of such 

 stools of wheat, than the scarifying of the land would 

 benefit the crop. Again, when the seed has been put 

 in with a grain drill, say two inches deep, and the sur- 

 face of the land seems to be covered with a hard crust 

 of earth, a light harrowing, when the ground is suffi- 

 ciently dry to be ploughed, would prove of great benefit 

 to the young wheat plants. But the operation should 

 be performed with a light harrow, having numerous 

 small teeth, rather than with a heavy implement pro- 

 vided with only a few large teeth. When winter wheat 

 has been put in with a drill about two inches deep, all 

 the primary roots will be found at that depth below the 

 surface of the ground, until after the growing season of 

 the succeeding spring has so far advanced as to produce 

 a system of secondary roots near the surface of the 

 ground. This fact suggests why winter wheat — if har- 

 rowed at all — should be harrowed very early in the 

 spring, before the growing season has commenced. The 

 object of harrowing so early is twofold : one is to pul- 

 verize the hard incrustation that has been formed on 

 the surface, so that there may be a thin stratum of mel- 

 low ground between the primary roots of the wheat 

 plants and the surface, instead of a crust of calcareous 

 earth, which, is almost impenetrable by the secondary 

 roots of the young plants. This would be eminently 

 essential to the perfect growth and development of the 

 wheat plant, were there no secondary roots to appear 

 after the young plants have attained a growth of a foot 



