THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 321 



you have as much as you wish to sow that day. Then 

 sift on good slacked lime gradually, while another per- 

 son follows around the heap or stirs it with a shovel, or 

 with a rake. Put on lime until the wheat will not 

 stick together. Then let it be sown and immediately 

 covered. The lime will then continue to stick to the 

 wheat, and furnish fertilizing material to promote the 

 growth of the young wheat plants. 



A wheat-grower in Western New York has com- 

 municated his manner of preparing seed wheat as fol- 

 lows : " Before sowing, prepare a strong brine. Half a 

 barrel will be needed to pickle as little as four or five 

 bushels of grain, but, of course, would answer for much 

 more, and to this quantity add half a pound of blue 

 vitriol {sulphate of copper). A portion is done at a 

 time, stirring it well, and skimming off all that floats, 

 dirt, foul stuff, smutty grains, etc. As fast as each por- 

 tion is soaked, throw it out into a basket to drain. The 

 pickling should be done four to twelve hours before 

 sowing. Just previous to sowing, the grain should be 

 spread out upon a clean floor and rolled in lime slacked 

 to a dry powder, stirring the heap with rakes." 



The Star Drill. 



The implement represented by the illustration shown 

 on the next page, is the combined " Star Drill " and Cul- 

 tivator, a part of which is represented on page 296 of 

 this book. Here the land-roller and the seed-sowing 

 attachment are shown, in connection with the small 

 ploughs. 



When this implement is employed for putting in 

 grain, the seed is taken from the seed-box by means of 



14* 



