216 Our Farming. 



might be found right. If we had a good rain the 4th, and land 

 was ready, I would put it in soon as it was dry enough after the 

 rain. I would wait till the I5th for proper conditions. But you 

 say, Will not the Hessian fly injure your wheat sown so early ? 

 I will take the chances . I never have had much trouble , and they are 

 here, too. I had much sooner risk a strong, rank growth against 

 the Hessian fly, here where I live, than a feeble growth from too 

 late sowing against the winter. We would be rather safer against 

 attacks of fly by not sowing till about the 2oth, but I would not 

 wait. By the way, Prof. Webster got off a pretty good thing 

 last winter at an institute on this point. He said the Hessian fly 

 should have exercise. Do you see the point ? A farmer in this 

 town once said to me when I asked him how his wheat turned 

 out, " Why, one piece was good, but the other was almost a total 

 failure from the fly working in it." " Why did they work in one 

 and not the other ? " I asked. " Well, to tell the truth," he said, 

 rather shamefacedly, " where they did so much damage, we had 

 put wheat after wheat." Oh, yes ! He did not give the fly any 

 " exercise." He put the crop right in where the fly was waiting 

 to destroy it. Very unwise business. Rotation, so the fly isn't 

 on the ground sown, and strong, well-fed plants would be my 

 remedy against this pest. Prof. Webster says that burning the 

 stubble where wheat is to follow wheat would destroy them. 

 I would dislike to do this. Would try careful plowing with a 

 jointer, and see if I could not turn them well under. But do not 

 make a practice of following wheat with wheat. It is not best, as 

 a rule. 



But now how much seed shall we use ? This depends on the 

 fertility of the soil, and time of sowing, and variety of wheat. 

 On rich soil less seed will do. It will stool out much more than 

 on thin soil. If you sow early, less seed will do, because there is 

 more time for it to stool. You may sow less of a variety that has 

 small grains, because there are more in a bushel. All very 

 simple and sensible, is it not? We want to get a good growth that 

 well covers the ground for winter protection, or at least I do. 

 If I sow early, five pecks of Fultz would be ample for my land. 

 Four or four and a half would do very well ; some years be 

 plenty. Should I be delayed from five to ten days about sowing, 

 I would add a peck, and in the same proportion if longer behind. 

 I would thus strive to make up in number of plants what I fell 

 short in size, so as to get something near the same show above 

 ground. If I should sow six or seven pecks early on my best 

 land, unless we had an extremely dry spring, it would lodge 

 terribly. About this I am certain. Thick sowing on rich land 

 tends to increase lodging. The best known preventive is thinner 

 sowing. You will get just as much grain, if you do not go too 

 far. With thick sowing, the growth of straw is weak .and 

 unhealthy, and goes down easily and stays where it goes usually. 



