VOL. \IX NO. 43. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



341 



From the Farmer's Montlily Visitor. 



ON RAISING OF WHEAT. 

 Preparation of Seed to prevent Smut. 



The preparation of the seed I take from an Eng- 

 lish acconnt published some years since, which 

 practice I have adopted for five or six years past 

 with success, and I do think much of it. 



Make a brine of common salt strong enough to 

 bare up a hen's egg : then put in your wheat, not 

 more than the brine will cover. Slir it and 

 skim as long as any thing will rise. It will float 

 off all the light kernels of wheat, oats, light ker- 

 nels of cockle, smut, or anything that is injurious 

 to the seed. Then take the wheat out, and put 

 into the same brine another lot, and so on till you 

 have cleaned all you wish. After washing put the 

 wheat into a heap — let it lay six hours — then mix 

 a sufficient quantity of dry ashes, plaister of Paris 

 or lime ; then immediately sow your wheat. I am 

 very particular as to time. 



The result is, I have not found but two smut 

 heads since I adopted this method, and I think it 

 beneficial in preventing worms from destroying tlie 

 seed, as well as adding to the growth of the wheat. 

 The English account says, (as well as individuals 

 with whom I conversed from England) that it has 

 been tried on a farm for forty years, and was al- 

 ways successful. More proofs from the same ac- 

 count I might offer ; but I am satisfied from my 

 own experience of the beneficial results. 



fVeeding of IVheal. 

 I weed my wheat always twice. The first time 

 when the wheat is three or four inches high ; tlien 

 again just before it begins to head out. I use an 

 instrument called a grub. It is like a cabinet ma- 

 ker's gouge, about one and one-fourth of an inch 

 in diameter, with a socket into which I insert a 

 handle, say four or five feet long. With this in- 

 strument one man may go over a large piece of 

 ground in a day. The method is to take the grub 

 and cut off a thistle, dock, or any thing that is in- 

 jurious to the wheat at the surface of the ground, 

 and leave it on the spot where it is cut off. A 

 field that has had this dressing will look much bet- 

 ter : weeds always take the start of the wheat and 

 retard the growth. This practice always pays the 

 farmer a great price for his labor. 



Harvesting Wheat. 

 I commence cutting my wheat when it is very 

 green, when I find the kernel is out of the milk 

 and about as hard as flour dough, which you may 

 know by squeezing the kernel between your fin- 

 gers. I then cut it as fast as I can, either in fair 

 weather or not. I do not let it lay in the gravel on 

 the ground exposed either to the sun or rain, but 

 bind it up in single bands near the butt, set it up 

 in atooks of eight bundles on the ground in the 

 form of a pair of rafters, the butts as far apart as 

 possible with two sheafs put on the top for protec. 

 ■ tion. In this way it will dry very quick, and the 

 sap in the straw will afford nourishment to the 

 kernels sufficient to prevent it from shrinking too 

 much. By this method I find the kernel retains all 

 its goodness, and the straw makes excellent fodder 

 ! for neat stock, because it retains all the sap that 

 ; the wheat does not absorb. Wheat cured in this 

 way thrashes very easy, and will not shell out by 

 carting to the barn. 



I think farmer* are not aware how green they 



may cut their wheat, and what a saving they may 

 have in the quality of wheat and straw. They 

 have only to try this method, and I feel assured 

 they will find it to their interest. 



In the summer of 1838, I sowed one and three- 

 fourths of an acre of wheat in one lot. When 

 harvestud and throshed, I had seventy bushels. 

 One full acre was stouter than the three-fourths ; 

 therefore I calculate the one acre produced forty- 

 two bushels, and the three-fourths at the rate of 

 thirtyeight bushels to the acre. The kind of wheat 

 sowed was Siberian and red chaff. 1 generally 

 sow to the acre one bushel and a half of seed. I 

 have had the most wheat to the acre when sown 

 from the I,5th to the '20th of May. My usual crop 

 of wheat is from 25 to 30 bushels to the acre, with 

 common tillage. 



Preparation of Land. 



I plough and harrow my wheat land three or 

 more times, and harrow between ploughings till I 

 think it sufficiently mellow before sowiHg. I like 

 the practice, after sowing the last time, of going 

 over the ground to have it done with a light bush. 

 It leaves thu surface of the ground smoother and 

 covers all the bare kernels. I seldom can make 

 my wheat ground too rich or licli enough. I apply 

 barn yard manure with about an equal quantity of 

 leached ashes from my potash, ashes that I have 

 used for the last twelve or fourteen years on tillage 

 and mowing land in lots in different years from 

 three to eight thousand bushels. After they have 

 been thrown out from the ashery, I find leached 

 ashes are valuable on all tillage land in preventing 

 worms from destroying the seed. 



A few years since a neighbor of mine planted 

 a piece of corn on his land adjoining mine: soil 

 naturally about the same. The worms destroyed 

 his corn before weeding, so that he did not hoe it 

 and had no crop, while I had from fifty to sixty 

 bushels to the acre. I-eached ashes are good on 

 mowing land if spread on the surface. They will 

 prevent a large white worm which often cuts 

 off the roots of the grass under the surface of the 

 ground. The reason is obvious. They do but 

 little injury on ground where leached ashes are 

 used. The quantity I apply generally to the acre, 

 is about twelve ox cart loads, with as much more 

 barn yard manure. The farm which I occupy is 

 an upland farm, strong and retentive soil. Lnach- 

 i^d ashes are good on dry mowing lands, and I find 

 from experience, have a good effect on quite a moist 

 soil. 



General Remarks. 



I sometimes hear farmers say they do not be- 

 lieve in the idei of book farming. In answer, I 

 would say, if my neighbor raises 40 bushels of 

 wheat to the acre, and another 7.5 bushels of corn 

 to the acre, another raises from 400 to 600 bushels 

 of potatoes to the acre, and another cuts from three 

 to four tons of hay to the acre, which I have done 

 for years past, and the land is not impoverished, is 

 this book farming or an experiment worth publish- 

 ing ? Will it be known unless it is communicated 

 to the public in the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, or 

 some other publication .' I am persuaded it is of 

 itnportance to Farmers to know how this is done, 

 the kind of soil on which it is done, and the meth- 

 od of cultivation. 



I think much of the improvements that are now 

 making in our country in farming, and I do thiok 

 every farmer ought to take or read an agricultural 



publication for his own benefit and that of his 

 sons — " to teach the young idea how to shoot." — 

 I am persuaded that the farmer who can raise as 

 much bread on five acres of land as he used to do 

 on ten, or make two bushels of wheat grow where 

 he formerly did but one, ought to communicate his 

 experience to the public. We complain of hard 

 times, and that the banks do not discount. The 

 best remedy for a farmer is to know that he has a 

 bank on his farm, and that he is the only director. 

 If he so manages to raise more than he wants for 

 his own consnmption and many kinds of produce to 

 sell, we shall not hear so much about hard times. 



'I'H. FULLER. 

 Enosburgh, Vt., March 12, 1841. 



From tbe Western Farmer and Gardener. 



SOIL FOR APPLE TREES. 



The successful cultivation of the apple depends 

 very much on the suitableness of the ground they 

 are planted in. The size and flavor of the fruit, 

 the general health and duration of trees, are most 

 commonly the result of good or bad soil. Climate 

 and situation also affect both trees and fruit, but 

 not in the degree in which the same are affected 

 by the qualities predominant in the land. Of all 

 the different descriptions of soil to be met with, 

 that of a soft hazel loam, containing a small por- 

 tion of sand, seems to be most congenial to the ap- 

 ple generally. In such soil the tree is seen to 

 flourish longest, is moat productive, and remains 

 freest from disease or attack of insects. A great 

 depth is not requisite ; eighteen or twenty inches 

 deep being quite enough, provided it be on a dry 

 subsoil of gravel or loose rock. If the bottom be 

 wet, the trees should be planted high, and every 

 means taken to drain the ground. A wet bottom 

 of gravelly clay should be avoided if possible. 



Deep, rich ioils in sheltered situations are not 

 the most proper for the apple, for it is often seen 

 that apple trees succeed well in any kmd of loam, 

 though it be not more than one foot in depth, so as 

 the bottom is sound and dry, the roots take an ex- 

 tensive horizontal range, the young wood is always 

 of more moderate growth, and better ripened, than 

 when roots strike deep into the ground. 



Although local circumstances oflen control the 

 works of the planter, compelling him to fix on a. 

 site where the soil may not be exactly what is re- 

 commended above, he must, in this case, endeavor 

 to make the soil by trenching, draining, and by ad- 

 dition of the qualities wanting, bring it as near to 

 the standard as possible. 



Situation and Aspect for Planting Trees. — The 

 situation of an orchard should neither be in the bot- 

 tom of a narrow valley, nor on the top of a hill : 

 in the first, the young wood is never so well ripen- 

 ed, the buds are often too early excited in the 

 spring, and there frosts are always more intensely 

 felt: in the second, fruit-bearing trees are always 

 too much exposed to winds. The most desirable 

 site is the side of a hill which slopes gently to the 

 southeast, that being the most sheltered situation 

 in this western country. But when the violence 

 of a west wind is broken by an intervening rise 

 of ground, a southwest aspect has been found equal 

 to any. 



True contentment depends not upon what we 

 have ; — a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but 

 a world was too little for Alexander. — Lacon. 



