42 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



generally recommended, and has been attended with 

 success; but* early sown wheat is more liable 

 to injury from the Hessian fly than late sown. — 

 Early sowing, therefore, cannot be adopted in all ca- 

 sea The object of the wheat grower, it would seem, 

 should be to increase the early maturity of the berry, 

 or to accelerate the elaborating processes after the 

 grain is formed. Anything which increases the 



we could bring our wheat to maturity a week earlier 

 than usual, we should hare little to fear from the 

 ravages of the midge. We are not, however, about 

 to recommend the farmers of Wesiern New York to 

 use guano,— at the^ present price of guano it would 

 hardly be profitable, unless wheat commands a high 

 price. "We must supply t!ie soil with the elements of 

 guano from natural and more economical soarces.- 



henlthy growth of the irheat is favorable to this | The plan we have recommended, — ^.growing more 



roots, clover, peas, &c., and feeding more stock on 

 nitrogenous foods — will bean approximation to this 

 object. Peruvian guano is nothing more nor less 

 than the excremenis of birds living on highly nitro- 

 genous food; namely, fish. The excrements, as we ex- 

 plained in an article on " Barn Yard Manure," in last 

 number, may be considered as fi.^h v, ilh nearly all 

 the carbon extracted from them by the processes of 

 nutrition. Wheat needs but little carbon in its food, 

 and a large quantity of ammonia, and hence guano is 

 one of the very best manures that can be used for 

 wheat. Now fish, in their natural state, may be, and 

 unquestionably are, very beneficial as a manure, but 

 any organized matter is not as natural a manure as 

 the excrements obtained from the consumption of 



result. Uuderdraiuing is one of the great pre- 

 requisites OQ all land that is not naturally 

 drained. The next thing is to supply the plants with 

 appropriate food. In saying this we would guard 

 against a popular error. The food of wheat is com- 

 posed of the same elements as that of other plants, 

 and, in one sense, therefore, the food of wheat is the 

 same aa the food of other plants. So of the food of 

 animals, however diverse iu form and characteristics 

 it may be, it is all composed of the same elements. — 

 The food of the gentle lamb and the food of the 

 fierce tiger are composed of the same elements, but 

 still there is a vast difference between grass and flesh. 

 So the food of plants is composed of the same ele- 

 ments, though there is unquestionably a great differ- 



ence between the appropriate food of wheat and' ofj such matter. Animal life cannot exist on inorganic 



many other agricultural plants. A carniverous ani- 

 mal TTOuld not remain long in health if fed on vegeta- 

 bles, neithercan we expectwheat to attain its maximum 

 healthy growth unless fed on its most appropriate 

 food. What that food is, thanks to the experiments 

 of Lawes and Boussingault, is now pretty definitely 

 understood. 



The appropriate food of wheat abotinds in ammo- 

 nia, and is comparatively deficient in carbcnaceoiis 

 matter. It also contains less available potash and 

 phosphates than is required in the appropriate food 

 of clover and turnips. It should be the aim of the 

 wheat grower, therefore, t© increase the amount of 

 ammonia in the soil without increasing the quantity 

 of carbonaceous matter. We have frequently stated 

 how this can be most economically attained. Grow 

 clovtr, peas, beans, turnips, ruta bagas, mangel' wur- 

 zel, beets, carrots, parsneps, artichokes, lupins, and 

 Buch other crops as obtain a large amouct of ammo- 

 nia from the atmosphere; feed these crops out on the 

 farm to animals, and if grain is fed to them in addition, 

 let it be such as, other things being equal, contain the 

 largest quantity of nitrogen; (see table in last num- 

 ber, page 10) husband the manure so as to retain all 

 the ammonia, and this will furnish the wheat with ap- 

 vropriat$ food. 



The object of the wheat grower, we have said, should 

 be to increase the early maturity of the berry. For- 

 tunately, an increase of the appropriate food of the 

 ■wheat plant seems to have this effect. Jamhs Caird, 

 of Beldoon, Scotland, dressed a fifty acre field of wheat 

 ■with 224 S)S. of Peruvian guano per acre, at the time 

 the seed was sown iu the fall, leaving an acre in the 

 centre of the field without guano. The product at 

 harvest was, without guano, 25 ^, bushels per acre, 

 ■weighing 60 lbs. per bushel; with guano, 32 'bushel* 

 per acre, weighing 63 tbs. per bushel. 



What we wish to call attention to, however, is not 

 the increase of wheat from guano, or the superior 

 quality of the grain on the guanoed portion of the 

 field, but to this remarkable fact; the acre without 

 gaano in the centre of the field, was a week later in 

 ripening thaa where the guano •was used. 



We think most farmers will agree with as that if 



matter, and plants cannot live on organized matter. 

 The lifelerjs substances of earth and air, are organized 

 by plants, and are thus made capable of sustaining 

 animal life, with all its pleasures. It is true that there 

 are plants which appear designed to furnish by their 

 decay matter for the support of plants of a higher or- 

 ganization, but there are few if any agricultural 

 plants which properly belong to this class. It la 

 contrary to the economy of nature to use plants which 

 are capable of sustaining animal life for the purpose 

 merely of furnishing food for other plants. It is rea- 

 sonable to suppose, therefore, that decayed vegetable 

 plants do not furnish as healthy food for the high or* 

 der of plants as the excrements of animals living 

 on these plants. For this reason, while we are 

 earnest advocates for the extensive cultivation 

 of clover on all wheat farms, •we think it is con- 

 trary to the laws of nature to plow under such a 

 large amount of matter capable of sustaining animal 

 life for the simple purpose of furnishing food for the 

 following wheat crop. Manure furnished by decayed 

 clover is not as appropriate food for wheat as the ex- 

 crement of animals hving on clover. It contains too 

 mucii carbonaceous matter, and while the nitrogen of 

 of the clover furnishes, by decay, the required ammo- 

 nia — and this ammonia not only increases the crop, 

 but accelerates early maturity — the carbonaceous 

 matter (forming over four-fifths of the clover) is of 

 little manurial value, and at the same time has a 

 tendency to retard the ripening processes. 



In order to enrich the land, therefore, and at the 

 same time increase rather than retard the early ma- 

 turity of the crop, we would recommend to grow as 

 much or more clover than at present, and instead of 

 plowing it under to convert the organized carbona- 

 ceous matter into beef, mutton, cheese, butter, wool, 

 itc, and to return the ammonia to the soil in the form 

 of manure. 



We cannot- o-ring ournelves to believe for a mo- 

 ment that we shall have to give up wheat culture in 

 Western New York. It is true that in the Eastern 

 States, and in the eastern counties of this State, ■wheat 

 culture has been to a great extent abandoned. The 

 soil there is not and never -was a good, natural wheat 



