ROCHESTER, NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER, 1845. 



VOL. VI. 



NO. 9. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



BY B. F. SMITH 8l CO, PROPRIETORS 



At the Seed Store, Front Street, nearly opposite the Market. 



i)ANlEL LEE, EDITOR. 



FIFTY CENTS A YEAR: 



Five copies for Two Dollars ; Eight copios for Three Dollars. 

 All payments to be made in advance. Money and subscriptions, 

 by a regulatiou of the postmaster genernl, may be remitted by 

 post masters free of expense. iJ'Addrtss B. F. Smith & Co. 



WHEAT CULTURE. 



John Evane, Esq, of Mill Creek township. Western 

 Pennsylvania, has harvested, according to the Erie 

 Gazette, on three acres of land, '■^ so poor a few years 

 ago that it icould not bear white beans,'" 123 bushels 

 of wheat, which weighed 65 lbs per bushel. At 60 

 lbs. per bushel, the yield is a fraction over 44 bushels 

 per acre. 



This land has been brought up by deep plowing, 

 leached ashes and clover sod, with a plenty of clover 

 on it, turned in and mixed with the soil. Within 

 the last three weeks we have been called to notice 

 several instances, where the use of wil cached ashes, 

 scattered as a top dressing at the rate of 20 bushels 

 per acre, at the time of seeding, has evidently in- 

 creased the crop some ten or twelve bushels per acre. 

 Any quantity from 2000 to 4000 lbs. of dry, hard 

 wood ashes, spread evenly on an acre just sown in 

 wheat, can do no harm, and will hardly fail of being 

 of great service to the crop. The alkalies potash 

 and soda ; and the alkaline earths lime and magnesia 

 are extremely prone to be washed, or leached out of 

 the surface soil of cultivated fields. Hence un- 

 leached ashes are usually worth twice as much to 

 make into grain and potatoes, as they bring to be us- 

 ed in the manufacture of pot and pearlash. One 

 thing must be borne in mind, and that is, never to 

 sow wheat on wet land without thorough drainins'. 

 Unaccountable negligence in this regard has occa- 

 sioned the loss of many thousands of bushels this 

 season in Western New-York by rust and shrink- 

 age. It is down right folly bordering on insanity, 

 to be to all the labor and expense of plowing repeat- 

 edly, harrowing thoroughly, and sowing a plenty of 

 good seed, in good seasons, and after all, permit wa- 

 ter to stand on a compact subsoil, just long enough 

 to ruin the crop. There is nota town in the state, 

 perhaps, where cannot be found more or less fields 

 whose crops suffer from the lack of good drams to 

 carry oF water that falls upon or collects below their 

 surface. We hai'«? never seen the first man that re- 



gretted having drained a single rod of land. On the 

 contrary, all commend the advantages which thor- 

 ough draining has given them. 



Be careful to sow nothing but clean plump wheat 

 for seed. Wash that thoroughly in strong brine, or 

 blue vitriol water and dry in lime, to destroy the 

 seeds of smut and rust, that may, perchance, adhere 

 to the kernels of grain. 



By all means remember that it is far better to sow 

 but five acres, and so feed the plants that they will 

 give you 40 bushels per acre, than to sow fifteen 

 acres, and starve the young wheat plants down to 

 twelve bushels per acre, and have even that badly 

 shrunken, with lust. Dont foi^et that it takes less 

 seed, and fewer hard days work to raise 200 bushels 

 on six, than on Jif teen acres of land. 



Nothing is more common in Western New- York, 

 Pennsylvania and Ohio, than for land to be too rich 

 in vegetable mould, to bring good wheat. The 

 straw grows too rank, and tliick, and is very liable 

 to be affected by rust. To prevent this latter mala- 

 dy, Mr. HAVwooDofthecity of Buffalo, (as we inti- 

 mated in a former number,) has used charcoal with 

 signal success. Mr. H. is the owner of a tract of 

 splendid wheat land near Sandusky, Ohio, where he 

 has two flouring mills. He has kindly furnished us 

 with a plot of seven wheat fields, taken for experi- 

 ments this season, with the results, which follow : 

 No 1. 20 acres. Applied 50 bushels of coal, 

 ground fine, per acre. Yield 25 bushels of 

 wheat per acre. 

 No. 2. 4 acres. No coal applied. Wheat badly 



rusted ; yield 5 bushels per acre. 

 No 3. 15 acres. Coal as in No 1. Yield 26 



bushels. 

 No 4. 25 acres. Coal as in No 1. Yield 35 



bushels per acre. 

 J\'ote, No 4 was seeded with old tnheat. 

 No 5. 15 acres. Coal. Yield 25 bushels 



per acre. 

 No 6. 8 acres. 



per acre. 

 No 7. 6 acres. 



No Coal. Yield 5 bushels 



No coal. Yield 3 bushels 

 per acre. 



The soil, &c culture precisely alike except the use 

 of 50 bushels of coal per acre as designated — sown 

 in April and May. The soil abounds in lime and 

 organic matter. 



Mr. Haywood will apply 10,00Q bushels of coal to 

 the fields to be sown in wheat this autumn. It cost 

 him $30 per 1 000 bushels. He grinds it in a common 

 bark mill used bv tanners. 



