424 Disease in Wheat, 



2. It is a common practice of our farmers in Penn- 

 sylvania to haul lime in the autumn, on the field on 

 which it is to be spread the following spring, and to co- 

 ver the heaps with earth until it is wanted, (by which 

 time it will be fully slaked) and then to spread it 

 on the field. Oats are very commonly sown after 

 it, in which case wheat is invariably put in, the same 

 year. If oats are not sown, Indian corn is plant- 

 ed, and the crop being gathered, the field remains idle 

 until the next year, when oats are sown ; or if the land 

 be strong enough, barley is put in. In some cases, the 

 stalks of Indian corn are cut oft' early, that is before 

 the ears are quite hard or dry, and set up in bundles 

 against the fence in the field, where tiiey remain until 

 they are fully ripened and hardened from the sap re- 

 maining in the stalks, and from exposure to the wea- 

 ther. But the practice of sowing wheat on land limed 

 the same year has been so uniformly found to injure 

 the crop, that it should no longer be followed. This 

 subject having been already discussed by the president 

 of the society, no remarks are now requisite on it. See 

 Memoirs, vol. 2d, p. 279.* 



3. The practice oi paring and burning land, is scarce- 

 ly known in the United States, although a favourite 

 practice in England ; where it frequently is adopted 

 for the purpose of quickly destroying the matted roots 



* For rye, the practice of liming the land the same season an- 

 swers admirably, but the lime should be hauled in the sprint; or 

 early in the summer, and mixed with the rich earth from a head 

 land or hedge row, grubbed and ploughed up. Clover sown early 

 in the following spring, on rye thus manured, thrives luxuriantly. 



