the wheat culturist. 213 



Growing Winter Wheat on Clover Sod. 



Different management is required to raise winter 

 wheat on red clover sod, than is necessary for spring 

 wheat. There is one great error to be avoided in pre- 

 paring the ground, which is, turning all the mould, 

 clover-stalks, and vegetable matter, eight or ten inches 

 below the surface. This is the usual practice; but it is 

 decidedly wrong for winter grain. The dense growth 

 of the clover has exerted a very ameliorating influence 

 on the surface of the soil, simply by shading it, to say 

 nothing of the direct fertilization by means of its large 

 roots and decayed straw. This nicely pulverized soil 

 at the very surface, and all the vegetable matter af- 

 forded by the decay of the clover, needs to be kept near 

 the surface of the ground, where it will promote the 

 growth of the young wheat plants before winter. The 

 leading idea is to perform the ploughing in such a man- 

 ner, that whatever fertilizers may aid the growth of the 

 wheat before winter, whether it be in the form of de- 

 cayed clover, or barn-yard manure, the whole may be 

 within three or four inches of the surface, so that all the 

 roots of the wheat will be spread out, making a com- 

 plete mat in a shallow stratum of soil. 



The best soil must be kept on the surface. A thin 

 coat of well-rotted barn-yard manure should be ploughed 

 under, in connection with the clover-stalks, not deeper 

 than just specified ; and the subsoil plough should fol- 

 low the common plough, in every furrow. Twice in 

 each furrow is much better than once. See how to sub- 

 soil, with illustration of a subsoil plough on a previous 

 page, and also in second volume of my Young Farm- 

 er's Manual. 



