WHERE WINTER WHEAT is THE MONEY CROP 131 



only a theoretical idea of the subject. Legume growing is the most im- 

 portant thing in connection with the improvement of the soil, but the term 

 "green manuring" is misleading to the inexperienced, and is one which should 

 never be used. 



WHEAT AFTER A HOED CROP. 



Farmers in many sections have gotten a prejudice against "corn ground 

 wheat," because 1 of the old common practice of plowing in the wheat on the 

 corn land. Where the land has been properly plowed and prepared for the 

 corn or tobacco crop, and has been rapidly and well cultivated in a shallow 

 manner, it has, by the time wheat should be sown, gotten into a fine condi- 

 tion for the best success with wheat; and if the corn is taken off the ground 

 and the wheat drilled directly on the well cultivated soil, the crop is apt to 

 be a good one. Putting in wheat after a hoed crop has the advantage that 

 the legume crop and the home-made manure can be used for the corn crop, 

 and will, by seeding time, have gotten well mixed and assimilated to the soil, 

 and there will not be an excess of the nitrifying organic matter, but plenty 

 for the wheat, and only phosphatic and potassic fertilizers will be needed. 

 A three year rotation, in which the wheat comes after a hoed crop, will, in 

 the long run, be the best for the improvement of the soil and the development 

 of the wheat crop. 



A summer fallow may at once give a better crop of wheat, but it will be 

 made at the expense of the best interests of the soil; far better have for a 

 while a smaller wheat crop and be building up the soil. Pasturing a .crop of 

 clover till the bare ground shows all over the field, and then at midsummer 

 turning the soil up to the sun and preparing it for wheat, may give you a 

 wheat crop, but the land will be losing humus and running together hard, 

 the corn crop will be dwindling, and, finally, the wheat crop will be grown 

 mainly by the application of a complete and costly fertilizer. Far better 

 Mick to the short rotation, have a permanent pasture and never graze the 

 cultivated fields. We saw the evil results the present summer in the fine 

 wheat lands of Talbot Co., Maryland, of the practice of close grazing. They 

 get fine wheat crops, but the land runs together and needs humus badly for 

 the best results with the other crops. In travelling over the northern sec- 

 tion of Indiana late in the fall a few years ago, I was struck with the vivid 

 green of the strip between the railroad fences and the bare and brown fields on 

 either side of the track. The farmers were evidently running too long a 

 rotation and robbing their soil of humus by close 1 grazing. A short rotation 

 would give far more forage for cattle and would save the great waste of 



