THE WHEAT CULTTJRIST. 149 



but once for a crop of winter wheat ; to which T. L. 

 Meiiiikheim, Surry County, Va., replied, in the " Cul- 

 tivator," thus : 



" In the summer cf 1856, I had a ten-acre lot, which 

 was completely overrun with sorrel and wire grass. 

 The soil, a loose sand. I wished to seed to wheat in 

 autumn, but was told that the land was so full of acids, 

 that unless I limed it, I would get no wheat. Being un- 

 able to procure lime for less than ten cents per bushel, 

 and then be obliged to ^fifteen miles for it, I concluded 

 to try to expel, instead of correcting the acids. When a 

 boy, I had heard an old Long Island farmer, when speak- 

 ing of a drought, remark, that ' when the land becomes 

 thoroughly dried out, it becomes sweetened.' On the 

 strength of that, I started my plough, ploughing, harrow- 

 ing, and reploughing from June until October. I was 

 told I was ' killing ' my land ; but as land is cheap here, I 

 thought it ' wouldn't matter ; ' at all events, it would kill 

 the grass too. One acre of the field I ploughed but twice ; 

 the other nine acres were ploughed jive times, and har- 

 rowed ten times. In October I manured the whole field 

 with barn-yard manure, thirty cartloads per acre, ploughed 

 it down, and seeded to wheat and timothy, and har 

 rowed until the field had the appearance of a garden 

 seed-bed ; the one acre included. 



" Now for the result. The nine acres yielded ten 

 bushels per acre of fine plump wheat, sold at $1.70 per 

 bushel, and netting me $4.25 per acre, besides the in- 

 creased facility of cultivation. I can now have it ploughed 

 at $1 per acre, when before it was hard work at $2 per 

 acre. The one acre ploughed but twice, yielded three 

 bushels of poor wheat, worth but $1 per bushel, costing 

 me $2.73 per bushel. Over the nine acres there was 



