224: THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 



autumn.&quot; . But for more than twenty years past, in 

 which these observations and inquiries have been made 

 on this subject, I have not met with a single instance 

 which afforded any assurance that the practice is at all 

 beneficial. On the contrary, everything argues against 

 it. Vegetable physiology is against it, because the 

 leaves of plants are their lungs. Therefore, if they be 

 cropped oif, the growth will be checked. And if the 

 growth be checked in late autumn, the plants cannot 

 endure the severity of the cold in winter. Scientific 

 agriculture is decidedly against it ; because every good 

 wheat-grower knows how important it is that the young 

 wheat plants should become firmly rooted before winter 

 sets in, so that they may not be lifted out so readily, and 

 that they should acquire a large growth, for the purpose 

 of mulching the soil in cold weather. The practice also 

 of our best wheat-growers has proved it to be a very 

 wrong system of management ; and no good farmer who 

 has tried it once or twice, will be induced to practise it 

 again. 



My own experience has always been, that the larger 

 the leaves of wheat are allowed to grow, the more they 

 will mulch the ground, the firmer the plants will be 

 rooted, and the more effectually they will resist the in 

 fluences of intense cold, and of alternate freezing; and 



/ O 



thawing, not only during the winter, but in the spring. 

 If animals of any kind be allowed to crop off the 

 growing plants, their teeth often sever the tender 

 stems close to the ground. Thus the crowns of the 

 growing plants will be exposed to the influences of the 

 weather, and in many instances effectually killed. Be 

 sides this, heavy animals will injure the roots of large 

 numbers of the stools, by treading on the plants where 



