THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 225 



the ground is soft. The great injury done to the plants 

 by the feet of animals will often cause more damage to 

 the wheat than the injury arising from cropping off the 

 steins with their teeth. 



Pasturing wheat is not to be commended under 

 any circumstances. If there is too large a growth of 

 leaves and stems, let the seed be put in later in the 

 season, rather than to pasture the wheat with any kind 

 of stock. 



Mulching Winter Grain. 



Every observing farmer knows that in autumn, or 

 winter, soil that is entirely bare will freeze up solid, 

 while that in meadows, or pasture fields, will not be 

 frozen at all. Now, why is it so ? Why will the beaten 

 track of the highway be frozen up solid enough to bear 

 a loaded wagon, while the grassy sides may be ploughed 

 or spaded ? 



Again : when a portion of a Held is covered with a 

 thick coat of grass or clover that has not been fed. off 

 nor mowed, why will such soil remain unfrozen, except 

 in very cold weather ? Because the coat of grass pre- 

 vents the rapid radiation of heat from the surface of the 

 earth. A soil that is bare, or nearly so, radiates heat 

 very rapidly during the cold nights of winter ; and it 

 will freeze much deeper than if protected by somei 

 mulching material that will check the rapid radiation 

 of heat from the surface. . 



Those farmers who have turned their attention to 

 this subject, cannot have failed to notice how much 

 more red clover is lifted out in pastures that have been 

 fed off close in late autumn than where the surface is 



10* 



