FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 119 



of planting, I place a handful of a mixture of fine 

 bone and ashes, and under this treatment I have 

 learned to anticipate heavy crops with full confi- 

 dence. For corn, or indeed for any crop, I prefer 

 to plough in the autumn. One of the most impor- 

 tant items to be taken into account in the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil is the fineness of the mould in 

 which the seed is placed. A hard, lumpy, imper- 

 fectly pulverized field, holding equal amounts of the 

 elements of plant nutrition with one that is fine, 

 will fall short usually twenty per cent, in product 

 under the same meteorological conditions. In fall 

 ploughing we secure the disintegrating influence 

 of frost upon our furrows, and this is costless aid 

 in soil cultivation. 



For five consecutive years I have not failed, un- 

 der what I regard as proper soil treatment, to secure 

 good crops of wheat. In one season, that of 1867, 

 it fell to twenty-one bushels to the acre, but the 

 others have not gone below thirty. It was, indeed, 

 singular to find what a strong prejudice existed 

 among farmers against attempts to raise this noble 

 grain. It was urged that it could not be grown on 

 our soils, they were worn out, did not hold lime or 

 something else necessary to its development ; and 

 further, if it did grow, rust, mildew, or insects would 

 destroy the crop before maturity. The first year, 

 I grew a crop of plump wheat, thirty-one bushels 



