WHEAT. 173 



and rolled, and thoroughly mixing it with the surface soil by 

 harrowing. 



Bone-ineal and superphosphate have at times given me ex- 

 cellent results on wheat; at other times I have received no 

 benefit. When I use them alone I apply two hundred pounds 

 of either to the acre, but prefer to apply one hundred pounds 

 to the acre, and four loads of stable manure. The use of 

 stable manure in connection with the commercial fertilizers is 

 more particularly important when bone-meal is used, as the lat- 

 ter is so slow to decompose that it gives the plant but little 

 aid in making a start in the fall. Superphosphate has not this 

 disadvantage. We begin in May or June the work of getting 

 ready the stable manure we intend to use on the wheat, and 

 endeavor to have it in such condition that it can be handled 

 without loss of time, for where we have to put wheat on corn- 

 land every day is precious. 



How and "When to Sow are questions of importance. 

 In answer to the first, I say emphatically with the drill. There 

 seems occasionally a disposition to go back to the old methods, 

 and because during some of the years of bountiful yields when 

 every thing was favorable there have been heavy crops grown by 

 broadcast sowing, some farmers are advocating that we throw 

 aside the drill and go back to the old method. Should any do 

 so, I think a little experience in bad seasons would convince 

 them of their mistake. In the fall of 1882 I drilled in a field 

 and left a strip two rods wide at one side with which to ex- 

 periment with different amounts of seed per acre, and these ex- 

 perimental plots I sowed broadcast. The winter proved a very 

 hard one, the cold being excessive, and March gave cold nights and 

 thawing days, and my broadcast wheat was entirely killed, while 

 the drilled wheat made a half crop. The advantages of drill- 

 ing are, even seeding at uniform depth, and the protection 

 afforded the plant by the ridges between the rows, which not 

 only protect from the wind, but also crumble and protect the 

 roots during the freezing and thawing of winter. I sometimes 

 see a recommendation to roll wheat after drilling. I think that 

 rolling would largely defeat one object of drilling and that the 



