WHEAT. 1G9 



land in exceptionally favorable seasons. If the surface soil is 

 filled with water during the winter and spring, the freezing and 

 thawing will heave out the young plants, and if water remains 

 upon the surface, the result will be even more disastrous. 



Where the surroundings or the circumstances of the farmer 

 are such as to make thorough underdrainage impracticable, very 

 good crops may often be secured by plowing in narrow lands 

 and opening out the dead furrows, making provisions for a clear 

 outlet, so that the water will never stand in these furrows. It 

 will be sufficient for this purpose that the furrows be opened 

 without rounding the lands. The latter practice, by giving a 

 greater depth of soil in the center of the land, is liable to cause 

 the crop to mature unevenly. An outlet should be opened with 

 the plow to every low place in the field, so as to prevent the 

 water from standing on any portion of it. Of course, these 

 open furrows across a wheat field are objectionable, and greatly 

 interfere with the convenient use of machinery; but they are 

 less objectionable than the loss of a crop from excess of water. 

 As soon as thorough underdraining can be accomplished, these 

 open furrows may be dispensed with. 



Preparation of the Seed Bed. I believe that the in- 

 creased yield of wheat during the last few years is due more to 

 the care and intelligence in this matter than to any other one 

 cause. One important point is early plowing. This is espe- 

 cially true on the clay lands of which I have spoken as particu- 

 larly adapted to wheat. Our farmers have found that wheat 

 does best on a seed bed that is compacted with a few inches of 

 mellow soil at the surface, and that this can be secured best 

 after the land has been plowed for some time and has been 

 settled by rains. 



I have often had an opportunity to notice the difference be- 

 tween early and late plowing, where a farmer began plowing 

 a field in July, and stopped when the ground became hard and 

 was unable to finish until September. In such instances I have 

 seen in the same field a difference of ten bushels to the acre in 

 favor of the part which was plowed early. I do not think the 

 farmer ever likely to make a mistake by putting too much work 



