190 THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 



WHEAT AFTER PEAS. 



A crop of peas is one of the most advantageous crops to 

 precede winter wheat. In many sections of the ^country, 

 where winter wheat is cultivated to considerable extent, 

 a crop of early peas is preferred, as a preparatory crop, 

 where winter wheat is to grow. But, a thin dressing 

 of well-rotted barn-yard manure is usually prepared 

 during the summer, and ploughed in, after the peas are 

 harvested. In some instances the manure is hauled 

 to the field as soon as the peas have been re- 

 moved, and is ploughed under, and the wheat put in 

 as soon as it is practicable to do it, after the first of 

 September. 



Another mode, which is preferred by some good 

 farmers, is to remove the peas as early in August as 

 practicable, and plough the ground from six to eight 

 inches deep ; and then, about the first of September, 

 spread the manure, very evenly and thin, over the entire 

 soil ; and then plough it under with a gang-plough, or 

 with such a cultivator as is illustrated on page 142 of this 

 book, adjusted to run about four inches deep, after 

 which the wheat is drilled in. 



The preparation which the barn-yard manure receives, 

 when it is applied for wheat, after a crop of peas, is, 

 to haul the manure from the barn-yard in the former 

 part of the season, and pile it up in the field during 

 the summer, forking it over sometimes, in order to have 

 it well rotted and finely pulverized ; and after the ground 

 has been ploughed once with the common plough, and 

 sometimes crossed with the gang-ploughs, the manure is 

 neatly spread on the surface, and the ground thoroughly 

 harrowed, by which the manure is about all covered 



