2i8 Our Farming. 



nearly all the time. Where the straw was put it was more 

 sheltered and grew ranker and more tender towards spring. 

 Along in March we had a severe freeze. This tender, sheltered 

 wheat suffered worse than that which was not mulched, and hence 

 was tougher, not having made so great a growth. But this was 

 on level land, not on a northwest slope. On such a place it 

 would not have had the same effect. I shall not put straw on 

 level land again. The effect of this straw mulch is more marked on 

 the young clover that follows than on the wheat. I had some fears 

 that the clover would not start good under it. It started quicker 

 and grew faster every time. The shelter helped it. The differ- 

 ence has usually been very marked. I do not know just how the 

 benefit came to either wheat or clover. There was not enough of 

 the straw to make any protection, one would think, to the wheat, 

 nor had it any value as a fertilizer, as it did not decay. It did 

 shelter the clover slightly, however, at first.. I suppose we must 

 say the benefit came from its mulching properties, the same way 

 that clover helps by shading the surface. It wakened me up 

 some on the mulching question when I walked over my field and 

 forty rods away on a hill could see the line where straw was 

 spread by the increased growth of clover, and there was so little 

 straw settled down onto the earth among the plants that you 

 would not see it unless particularly looking for it. But you could 

 see the result without any trouble. You remember my saying in 

 another chapter that you could not place a single straw on the 

 soil and not increase the fertility. You see, I was not guessing at 

 this. Decaying vegetable matter on the surface tends to increase 

 fertility. Don't burn it. Don't sell it for a song. I own my 

 own drill. Yes, I do. x I cannot afford not to, although never 

 putting in more than a dozen acres of wheat. Cheaper to hire 

 one, say you? Well,, let me tell you a little experience and 

 observation. One fall a neighbor who raises wheat got his pota- 

 toes off just about as we did, and then we both went to work fit- 

 ting our land as rapidly as possible. It was very late, and minutes 

 were precious until the wheat was in. I think my neighbor got 

 his land fitted at about the same hour that we did. As soon as I 

 thought my man could keep ahead of me in the last harrowing 

 and rolling, with one team, changing from one to the other, I 

 hitched my team to the drill. It was all ready, oiled, filled, and 

 set, standing in tool house waiting. It did not take hardly a 

 minute to change from rolling, and then in went the wheat at a 

 steady, but fast gait. The barometer indicated rain, but not a 

 storm. It was not hot and muggy. It was late. The wheat 

 must go in before that rain, anyway. It did, just barely, with 

 not a minute to spare. I did not stop to look around or think 

 till I got done. Then a drizzling rain set in and lasted about two 

 weeks, on and off, and it proved the very best time in the whole 

 season for sowing wheat ; better, as it turned out, than earlier. 



