WHEAT. 275 



any change of gear wheels, and may be adjusted to deposit the grains either twelve, sixteen, 

 or twenty inches apart, to suit the requirements of various soils and varieties of seed. It has 

 a land measurer or surveyor attached, that measures and registers the number of acres gone 

 over in drilling. The second represents a similar implement of great excellence, manufactured 

 by Bickford & Huffman, Macedon, New York, which will plant from fifteen to twenty-five 

 acres per day. In whatever manner the seed is sown, the soil must be rich, mellow, and 

 finely pulverized. When sown broadcast, it is either harrowed into the soil or worked in 

 with a cultivator. After being covered, the earth should always be well pressed down upon 

 the seed with the roller, as this facilitates germination. Wheat that is drilled, comes up as 

 soon as that sown broadcast and harrowed, and grows more vigorously, yielding larger crops, 

 besides being less liable to winter-kill; it also withstands drouth better, and the roots having 

 a firmer hold, the grain is not so liable to be blown down and lodged in the field. It is 

 stated by good authority, that the Hessian fly is less liable to injure w%eat that is in drills 

 than that sown broadcast. Thaer, in his &quot; English Agriculture,&quot; refers to the benefits derived 

 from drill culture, but overlooks in a great measure the influence of the tillage which it 

 introduces. He writes thus : 



&quot; Besides, the advantages from drill-sowing do not, as some imagine, consist solely in 

 the saving of seed which is thus effected, but in the increased amount of produce, which, 

 under this system, the land may be made to bear. The fact of this increase is demonstrated 

 by a thousand experiments, and no doubt can longer be entertained on the subject, even by 

 the most virulent opponents of the system. No general estimate as to the average amount of 

 this increase can be given, as most of the comparative experiments made for the purpose of 

 determining it have been attended with different results. In many of them the wheat thus 

 sown yielded one-third more than that which was sown broadcast. According to another 

 experiment, it only yielded one-fifth more, and another only one tenth. The variation in 

 these results was, in a great measure, created by the nature and condition of the soil. The 

 richer, deeper, and more free from stones and weeds the soil is, the greater will be the 

 advantages arising from drill-sowing; while on poor, shallow land, the benefit will be but 

 trifling.&quot; 



Where soil is not naturally very fertile, it should be made so artificially before appropri 

 ating it to the culture of wheat, as this crop will never be abundant on a poor or shallow soil. 

 Some farmers whose land is exposed to cold, sweeping winds make a practice of sowing from 

 two to three pecks of oats per acre with their winter wheat as a protection, since the oats will 

 grow up much more rapidly than the wheat, and will help to shade and protect it from winds 

 and the cold. When frosts come, the oats die, but in falling they cover and shield the 

 wheat, a protection to the roots and leaves which remains through the winter, while the little 

 that is extracted from the soil by their growth, is returned to it by their decay. By this 

 means the wheat crop is less liable to winter-kill, and, being kept warm through the cold 

 weather, has an earlier start and more vigorous growth in the spring. The different varieties 

 of wheat will be sure to mix if planted near each other, and this mixture will, almost with 

 out exception, be deleterious to the grain; hence, if different varieties are to be sown on the 

 same or contiguous farms, they should be in distant fields, that the different kinds may be 

 kept pure and unmixed. An occasional change of seed should be practiced, as this will 

 increase the vigor and productiveness of the plants, deterioration being sure to follow the 

 use of the same seed for several successive years on the same soil. 



The Depth of Covering Wheat will depend somewhat upon the nature of the 

 soil ; a heavy, moist soil requiring less depth generally than one that is light and dry. From 

 two to two and a half inches is the usual depth, although some very dry soils may require 

 three inches, and some that are very moist and mellow may not require more than one and a 

 half, but this would be the exception; we should say that about two and a half inches would be 



