WHERE WINTER WHEAT is THE MONEY CROP 127 



FERTILIZERS FOR WHEAT. 



It will not do to assume that because in certain sections the farmers 

 have succeeded in greatly increasing their wheat crops through the use of 

 phosphatic fertilizers only, that the same practice will insure success on all 

 wheat soils. As a rule, most of our best wheat soils of the winter wheat sec- 

 tion of the Atlantic slope, are not deficient in potash to the extent that they 

 are in phosphoric acid. It is these two which most concern us, for, no 

 matter what the soil, a proper rotation with legumes will give us all the 

 nitrogen needed by the crop. But every farmer, no matter what his crop, 

 should find out for himself what his land especially needs. He must be an 

 experimenter if he hopes to farm successfully and economically. How these 

 experiments should be made will form the subject of a special chapter. Lime, 

 of course, is useful in wheat farming, but we do not class lime and plaster as 

 fertilizers, but as reagents, for bringing about chemical changes in the soil. 

 The place for lime in the three year rotation for wheat is on the clover that is 

 to go in corn the next season, and the time to put it there is in the early 

 spring of the season in which the clover is to be cut. Once in six years is 

 often enough to use lime unless the application is very light. But we would 

 use phosphoric acid, or phosphoric acid and potash, on the wheat, not 

 only for the benefit of the wheat but for insuring a better stand and growth 

 of the clover. The practice of using the farm manure as a top dressing for 

 the wheat in winter, may be a good practice in some cold sections as a pre- 

 ventive of winter killing; but, on strong land, it tends too much towards the 

 getting of a rank growth of straw at the expense of grain, and increases the 

 danger of lodging. The place for all the farm manure is on the sod' that is to 

 be plowed for corn in the spring. During the summer's cultivation of the corn 

 crop it gets mingled with the soil, and much remains untouched below, to 

 feed the wheat that follows the corn. In the more northern section of the 

 winter wheat belt it is doubtless necessary to put the wheat in earlier than 

 corn land will allow, and there a longer rotation is needed. 



WHAT A CROP OF WHEAT REMOVES FROM THE SOIL. 



An average good crop of wheat of 20 bushels per acre, will remove from 

 the soil in the grain alone and this is all we need be concerned about since 

 the straw will go back to the land 28.32 pounds of nitrogen, 10.68 pounds 

 of phosphoric acid and 7.32 pounds of potash. It will be seen, then, that 

 the relative importance of these food constituents is pretty much as they 

 stand. But, so far as the nitrogen is concerned, we will have left over in the 



