114 THE SOILS AND CEOPS OF THE FARM. 



Wheat of hot, sunny climates, with dry weather 

 during the latter part of the growth, is brighter and 

 makes a better quality of flour the world over. The 

 United States is particularly favored in this respect. 



In a country of cold winters it is better to have 

 the ground covered continually with snow. Alternate 

 freezing and thawing with the plant exposed to the 

 wind is very destructive to wheat. Winter wheat 

 kills in two ways, by being frozen to death and by 

 being heaved out by alternate freezing and thawing. 

 When the soil is bare, that about the roots will reach 

 nearly the temperature of the air above, but if the 

 soil is covered with a couple of inches of snow, the 

 temperature of the soil will be little if any below the 

 freezing point. 



Soil and Manures. — The character of the soil 

 affects the yield more than the quality of the wheat. 

 Light clay soils are eminently adapted to wheat. A 

 large proportion of the wheat is grown in this country 

 on what is known geologically as drift soil, the con- 

 trolling reasons being ease of cultivation and adapta- 

 tion to the use of light machinery. 



In the United States very little manure, compara- 

 tively, has been applied directly to wheat land. In 

 many places wheat is grow:n continuously without 

 manure. Undoubtedly a change from this practice^ 

 must take place eventually. Exporting over one 

 hundred millions bushels annually, besides one-half 

 the home consumption going to the 6ities to be lost, 

 must be decreasing the fertility of the soil. 



In many places wheat forms a part of a rotation o2 

 crops, stable manure being applied to the other crops, 

 such as corn. In some places, although less frequent- 



