GRAIN AND ITS CULTIVATION. 131 



five minutes, taking care to skim off all light and foreign 

 seeds. If the grain be smutty, this washing should be re- 

 peated in. another clean brine, when it may be taken 

 out and intimately mixed with one twelfth its bulk of fresh 

 pulverized quick-lime. This kills all smut, cleans out 

 weeds from the grain, and insures early and rapid growth. 

 When the seed is not smutty, it may be prepared by soak- 

 ing or sprinkling with stale urine, and afterwards mixed with 

 the lime ; and if well done, this also will prevent smut, 

 though the first is most certain. (See varieties of seed fol- 

 lowing, for further directions.) 



Quantity of Seed and time of sowing. On well pul- 

 verized, ordinary wheat soils, about five pecks of seed are 

 sown to the acre, while rough land, clay soils and such as are 

 very fertile, require from six to eight. In Maryland, but three 

 pecks are frequently sown, and some of the best crops have 

 been raised from only two pecks of seed to the acre, on a 

 finely-pulverized soil. It takes more seed when full and 

 plump than when shrunken, as there may be nearly two of 

 the latter to one of the former, in the same measure. A dif- 

 ference is to be observed according to the wheat, some need- 

 ing more than others. A large quantity of seed, produces an 

 earlier growth of light straw and head, but does not usually 

 increase the aggregate crop. There is always a tendency 

 in wheat and most of the cereal grasses, to tiller or send out 

 new shoots for future stalks. This is a law of these plants, 

 which compels them to make the greatest effort to cover the 

 whole ground ; and sometimes a single seed will throw 

 out more than 100 stalks. In early so wing, the wheat tillers 

 in the autumn ; in late sowing this is done in part only, till 

 the ensuing spring. Thick sowing, is a substitute for tiller- 

 ing, to the extent that would otherwise be induced, and is equi- 

 valent to an earlier sowing of a smaller quantity. The time 

 for sowing in the northern States, is from the 10th to 20th 

 September. . If sown earlier, it is liable to attack from the 

 Hessian fly, and if later, it does not have time to root as well ; 

 and is in more danger of being thrown out by the frosts or of 

 winter killing. Late sowing is also more subject to rust the 

 following season, from its later ripening. 



Sowing. When the ground has been well mellowed, the 

 seed may be sown broadcast and thoroughly harrowed in. 

 Rolling is a good practice, as it presses the earth closely up- 

 on the seed and facilitates germination ; and as soon as the 

 seed is covered, the water furrows should be cleaned out, 



