THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 289 



the mud ; it is not safe to wait until the ground settles. 

 Should a cold snap come so as to freeze the ground a 

 foot deep, all the better ;. the wheat will come forward 

 with more vigor, and produce a better crop in fact, 

 the crop can be sown just as it freezes up in December, 

 or at any time when the ground is thawed to the depth 

 of two inches, in January or February. The oat, which 

 is strictly an annual, cannot be treated in this manner, 

 neither can any other annual farm crop. It is true that 

 some of the seeds of annual grains will remain sound 

 through the winter, but should they be started by warm 

 weather, the plants die. Not so of spring wheat when 

 sown ; cold and warm weather follows so as to sprout 

 the seed ; the plants live through the winter, and thus 

 return to the normal condition. This lets us into the 

 secret of the success of the early sown spring wheat, 

 giving it, to a great extent, the condition of a biennial 

 plant. The occasional freezing spells that occur after 

 germinating arrest growth for a time, giving it a sort of 

 hybernation answering all the purposes of a long winter 

 without subjecting the plant to sudden changes after 

 the roots have run deep into the soil, as in the case with 

 winter wheat sown in August or September, the break 

 ing of which destroys the plant.&quot; (See page 126.) 



THE DIFFEKENCE EXPLAINED. 



The foregoing suggestions are orthodox; yet, they 

 need a little explanation. The young plants of certain 

 varieties of spring wheat, are as tender as growing oats, 

 and frost will injure them as soon and as severely, as 

 freezing will damage young oat plants. This applies to 

 such spring wheat as has been so thoroughly changed 



13 



