120 THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 



CHAPTER II. 



SOIL, AND ITS PREPARATION FOR WHEAT. 



" But if your care to wheat alone extend, 

 Let Maia, with her sisters, first descend ; 

 And the bright Gnossian diadem downward bend, 

 Before you trust in earth the future hope ; 

 Or, else expect a listless, lazy crop." 



DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. 



THE proper preparation and continued management 

 of the soil from year to year, lies at the very foundation 

 of successful wheat culture. A farmer may sow the 

 best and most prolific varieties the world ever knew, and 

 fail to raise a satisfactory crop of wheat, if the soil is not 

 just as it should be. 



In preparing the soil for the production of a crop of 

 winter grain wheat, rye, or winter barley the aim 

 should always be to keep the vegetable matter and 

 the manurial portions as much on, or near the surface as 

 is practicable. The grand object of preparing the soil 

 in this way, is that the roots of the plants may spread out 

 horizontally, instead of striking in a more vertical direc- 

 tion. When they spread out horizontally, they form a 

 kind of mat in the soil, a few inches deep, which rises 

 and settles down bodily, when the soil freezes and thaws. 

 Therefore the soil may freeze and thaw a great number 

 of times, when the roots are matted together horizontally, 

 without throwing the plants out of the soil. Whereas, 

 when the vegetable matter is mingled with a good depth 



