226 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 



protected by a good coat of stems and leaves. And the 

 same is true of winter wheat. Wherever it has been 

 covered during most of the winter with snow it will 

 not be lifted out, nor winter-killed very much, if at all. 

 But, when the seed was sowed late in autumn, and the 

 leaves have made only a short growth, the soil will 

 freeze very deep and the ground will be many degrees 

 colder where the roots of the wheat are than if the sur 

 face were protected. Where there is a thick coating of 

 the leaves of wheat, or straw, over the surface, the 

 plants will be injured but little. 



Intense cold injures the wheat plants in two ways. 

 One is, by lifting them out of their bed, and severing 

 the roots ; and another, by severe chilling, just as the 

 buds of peach trees are injured by intense cold. There 

 fore, the more we can protect the wheat plants from 

 piercing winds and intense cold, the better crops of 

 grain we may expect to raise. When wheat was sowed 

 so late in the fall that the leaves do not cover the sur^ 

 face of the ground, it will be an excellent protection to 

 spread straw over the entire field, as soon as the seed is 

 put in the ground, and let the wheat plants come up 

 through the straw. But great care must be exercised 

 in spreading it, lest it be applied so thick as to smother 

 the plants. A covering half an inch thick, where the 

 ground is not excessively wet, will be found an excel 

 lent protection on those fields that are not shielded from 

 the cold winds by a forest, belt of trees, or an elevation 

 of the ground. But, a coat of straw will not prevent 

 wheat being lifted out by the frost on wet ground. If 

 the straw were worked into manure, by fat sheep or fat 

 cattle, and covered with a cultivator, the effect would 

 be more satisfactory. 



