S02 



WHE 



WHE 



wheat, one bushel and three quarts 

 to the acre. The produce was 

 two hundred bushels of good, clean, 

 heavy wheat, from the four acres. 



" About half an acre of the hemp 

 was not pulled with the other hemp, 

 but was suffered to stand till the 

 hemp seed was ripe, whereby the 

 sowing of the wheat, on that part, 

 was delayed too late in the season, 

 which diminished the crop of the 

 wheat on that part, six or eight 

 bushels, as supposed. 



" It is the opinion of many peo- 

 ple, that the unprecedented cold 

 and draught of the last summer 

 checked and retarded vegetation so 

 far as to prevent the destruction of 

 the crop by blasts and other causes, 

 and that if the last summer had 

 been as warm and wet as usual, 

 the whole crop would have been 

 blasted and lodged, so as to have 

 been wholly ruined." 



For further experiments relating 

 to the culture of wheat, see Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural Repository^ 

 Vol. IV. p. 195. 267. 278. 345. 

 Vol. V. p. 65. 192. 265. Vol. VI. 

 p. 239. 



Mr. Payson Williams, of Fitch- 

 burgh, Massachusetts, gives the fol- 

 lowing account of his method of 

 raising a crop of spring wheat, be- 

 ing twenty-eight bushels and thirty 

 quarts on one acre and an eighth 

 part of an acre, for which he re- 

 ceived the Massachusetts Agricul- 

 tural Society's premium of forty 

 dollars, October 1819. 



The land on which the wheat 

 was sown, was in 1818 planted with 

 potatoes, (for one acre of which I 

 obtained your premium) which, af- 

 ter harvesting, was ploughed a short 



time before the setting in of winter* 

 In the spring of 1819, as soon as 

 practicable, (after spreading on six 

 load of fermented manure) it was 

 again cross ploughed — 26th April 

 sowed on the furrows two bushels 

 of what is known by the name of 

 the Gilman wheat, (which 1 pro- 

 cured of the Hon. P. C. Brooks of 

 Boston) on one acre and twenty 

 square rods, and cross-harrowed the 

 same, following the harrow at the 

 same time with the clover seed, 

 which in turn was cross-harrowed 

 in. The wheat before sowmgwas 

 washed in water until perfectly 

 clean, then immersed in a liquor, 

 or ley, made in the proportion of 

 four pints of water to evei^y pound 

 of wood ashes, then add one pound 

 of unslacked lime to every bushel 

 of seed, as recommended by M. Du 

 Hamel. When the wheat plant 

 was out of ground two inches, I 

 sowed on a part of the field plas- 

 ter of Paris, at the rate of ten bush- 

 els to the acre, which I never have 

 been able to discover, has had the 

 least effect, (1 had the like ill suc- 

 cess in the use of a ton, on various 

 parts of the farm.) The amount 

 of the wheat by actual measure, 

 was twenty-eight bushels and thirty 

 quarts. It may not be improper 

 here to slate, that on the most close 

 examination, 1 could not discover 

 one kernel of smutty grain in the 

 whole crop ; and had it not been 

 for the ravages of the grasshopper 

 in this tield (in many parts of which 

 they cut off one fourth part of the 

 heads, which were of course lost,) 

 there would probably have been 

 thirty four bushels. I esteem this 

 kind of wheat a valuable acquisi- 



