FARMERS' REGISTER— SEEDING WHEAT. 



673 



uiulerstand the pcasoa has been ilivorable. The 

 retrospect will, I trust, not be entirely useless. I 

 shall state what I did riglit, and what wrong, that 

 the Ibrnier may be imitated, and the latter shun- 

 neil. And here permit nie to remark, that farm- 

 ers cannot always regulale their management by 

 any set forniula, but must vary it according to the 

 varying seasons and circumstances. A Iriend of 

 niiuc, residing on the Pamnnke}^, has this year 

 sown his large crop of eight hunilred bushels of 

 wheat, in the month of October. His corn liaviiig 

 been destroyed by inundation, the land was re- 

 planted and "worked late. It was of course clean 

 and loose; and by passing a heavy liarrow once- 

 on a corn ridge beJbrc sowing, and several times 

 allerwards, and then opening the turrows between 

 the beds, the wheat was expeditiously, and 1 do- 

 not doubt ed'ectually, gotten in. Were this at- 

 tempted in ordinary seasons, when, owing to the 

 early laying by of "the corn, 1.he land might have 

 become consolidated, and a considerable growth 

 of grass have ensued, a foiiure of the wheat crop 

 ■would be the probable consequence. I rcler to 

 this by way of illustration. 



I returned home on the 10th of October, after 

 an absence of nearly two months. The weather 

 had been exceedingly wet from the 1st of Septem- 

 ber. The Ibdder was all more or less injured, and 

 even at that late period, not all gathered — the corn 

 fields were covered in the rich places wilhluxuriant 

 grass, and in the low places soaked with moisture, 

 not likely soon to evaporate under the heavy vege- 

 table coat. At seed time ni}' corn fields are usu- 

 ally very clean; but truth requires it to be stated 

 that, owing to the small (juanlity of lioe work I 

 bestow, they are not particularly so at any other 

 time, except at planting — when I give tliem the 

 best preparation possible, and take care to have 

 them dee[)ly and thorougidy broken, to which, and 

 the improvement of the soil to the utmost, extent 

 of my means, is to be ascribed my modicum of 

 success as a corn grower. But I am sowing wheat 

 and not making corn: that subject I will more ful- 

 ly treat of in a future number. On my arrival, I 

 immediately caused the hands to desist from ga- 

 thering the tattered and sapless corn blades, and 

 commenced my preparation for sowing, already 

 too long delayed. I have generally fxnid my lal- 

 lovvs, when sown very early, niore liable to the 

 depredations of the fly; and lor that reason, as 

 well as to give a better chance to the corn ground, 

 always more or less exhausted by the jjrcvious 

 crop, I commonly begin with it: and having in 

 the mode described in a former nundier of the Re- 

 gister, (Vol. I. p. 577) detached the bottoms, I 

 sow them first, when practicable. This year it 

 ■was not so, and I therelore began on t lie high 

 land. The shock beds were sov/n and harrowed 

 before the corn Vv'as set up on them, to avoid the 

 necessity of harrowing around the shocks. These 

 shock beds are more or less distant from each 

 other, according to the heaviness of the crop, usu- 

 ally 40 corn rows apart; and two or three are al- 

 ways prepared aliead to receive the corn. In all 

 my operations I endeavor to expand the work, so 

 as not to have the hands and teams crowded, but 

 at the same time to keep them sulliciently together 

 for suj)ervision. It may not be amiss here to ob- 

 serve, that after sowing, in hauling off the corn to 

 house it, the carters are directed to run one wheel 



lie wheat as possible. If the corn is luxuriant, and 

 time permits, the stalk is commonly cut off at the 

 (ground with one stroke of the hoe, and the stub- 

 ble divided in two at another. 



On the I7th of October, thinking the bottoms 

 dry enough to venture, we conmienced on them, 

 but had soon afterwards a Sabbath day's rain, not 

 so restricted in quantity as a S;d^bath day's jour- 

 ney in length, -which long put these places, and 

 for a day or tv\^o, all other places, out of condhion. 

 This interval was cmjiloyed in gathering the corn 

 on two twenty acre lots, in which, and some neigh- 

 boring pasture ground, the work oxen were turned 

 with great adnmtage. Reing afraid that 1 should 

 not get all the Avheat sown in good time, I resolved 

 to turn my attention to t^ie tldlowed land, as soon 

 as I supposed the groiuid was in order. A part of 

 it had been broken up with three-horse, bat much 

 the larger part with Ibur-horse ploughs, Avhich lelt 

 wide and deep finishing lurrows. In the softer and 

 cleaner places, I found it practicable to get the 

 wheat in with some stout harrows, the j)lan of 

 which I received from a very judicious farmer in 

 Fauquier. They arc heavy implements, and only 

 of occasional use in this [)art of the countr}-, in 

 preparing the most rugged land, and in putting in 

 small grain on fldlows. Then followed the seeds- 

 men, and were in turn succeedetl by the linked 

 harrows,* each going once in a place, and lapping 

 well. Finding that too many of the grains skip- 

 ped into the wide and deep -water-furrows, I pass- 

 ed a large triangular harrow once before sowing, 

 immediately over the furrows, which loosened the 

 edges of the beds, and intercepted the grain in its 

 downward progress. On the wheat coming up, 

 the borders of the beds not so served, -wei'e found 

 much thinner than the rest, though as the evil was 

 soon discovered, not many beds were m this situ- 

 ation. Farther experience showed that the X 

 ploughs,! under the jjressure of heavy weights, and 

 drawn by two horses,firston one side and then the 

 other of the furrows, would have answered still 

 better. The beds in most of the land under con- 

 sideration, are sixteen feet wide. Three bouts of 

 the Fauquier harrows were necessary to finish 

 them. There being, however, a deficiency of 

 those implements, and finding that by running the 

 double-shovel ploughs once exactly on the crowna 

 of the beds, two bonis v»^ould suffice, we thence- 

 forth pursued that plan. Subsequent observation 

 convinced me that here too the X ploughs would 

 have been a good substitute, the shovels drilling 

 the v/heat too nntch, at a single operation. The 

 wheat on the edges of the beds previously loosen- 

 ed by tlie triangular harrow, was sufficiently co- 

 vered by the finked harrows, and by the earth 

 thrown out by the water-iurrow i)!or,gh. On most 

 of the fallowed land besi(!cs,lhe wheat was plough- 

 ed in with the double-shovels, which w^crc run 

 just so near the water-furrows as not to cast the 

 earth into them. The edges of the beds -^verc 

 prepared and the seed on them covered in the 



* These are light square harrowf, two of wlncli are 

 linked, so as to run the one nearly after the other. 

 Each has twenty straight teeth. — En. 



t This is a kind of cultivator, the wooden frame in 



which the five small hoes are inserted, Ijcing crossed 

 exactly in the -water-furrow, so as to cut up as lit- I [^ tji^ form of the letter X.— En. 

 Vol. 11—50 



