172 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



I never plow the land where corn has been cut off, but work 

 it mellow with cultivators and harrows. The first thing to be 

 attended to is to keep the corn clean, plow as late as you can, 

 and then if necessary go through with hoes. I prefer putting 

 twenty rows of corn in a shock row, setting the shocks close, and 

 do not try to seed between them. Then with the best imple- 

 ments at command, go to work and mellow three inches of 

 the surface of the field. Sometimes this can be done with a 

 common harrow, followed by the roller or plank drag, but if the 

 ground has been compacted by heavy rains the cultivators or 

 one of the improved cutting harrows will do the best work, and 

 should be used if practicable. 



Whatever implements are used the land should be in fine 

 order before starting the drill. It is better to be a week or two 

 later with the ground in good condition than to secure earliness 

 by imperfect preparation. 



Fertilizers. The cheapest wheat I have ever grown was 

 on a clover sod, turned under early and given time to thoroughly 

 decompose; and when I do not put wheat on corn land, my 

 preference is to so arrange a rotation as to have a crop of 

 clover followed by two crops of wheat, applying fertilizers to 

 the second wheat crop. 



I regard stable manure as the best and most reliable fertil- 

 izer for wheat, and have never been disappointed in its effects. 

 I think universal experience shows it to furnish all the elements 

 needed by the plant. From the records of work at the experi- 

 ment stations, and from my own observation when I have 

 visited them, I see stable manure is always the standard, and 

 nearly always gives the largest yield. In my own experience I 

 have rarely failed to get an extra bushel of wheat for every 

 two-horse load of manure applied, and think I have sometimes 

 obtained twice this amount. If I had an unlimited supply of 

 stable manure, I would apply twelve loads to each acre ; but as 

 I never have enough for all my wheat land, I prefer to spend 

 more time and labor in fining it, and make eight loads cover 

 an acre. I would always apply manure to wheat as a top 

 dressing, spreading it after the ground has been plowed 



