No. 3. 



Soimng IVJieat. 



99 



and many a farmer has paid the penalty of 

 tliis imcertainty. It is frequently only allcr 

 tiie lapse of a long time, and atler a series 

 of successful and unsuccessful trials, that it 

 is at last found out which soil will suit this 

 particular plant and which will not. All 

 this may be obviated, and the question de- 

 termined at once, by burning the plant, ex- 

 amining its ashes, and carefully analyzing 

 tlie soil; this will enable us to determine 

 whether a given field will repay the culti- 

 vation of the plant or not. 



Thus you perceive that the terms, "ex- 

 hausting" or "non-exhausting plants," are 

 merely relative; a chemical analysis of the 

 ashes of plants, as well as of the soil, can 

 alone enable us to decide upon this point. 

 Strictly speaking, only those plants can be 

 called exhausting which find an insufficient 

 amount of ingredients necessary to their 

 growth present in the soil. So that plants 

 requiring a considerable amount of mineral 

 constituents, such as wheat, for instance, 

 when grown in a soil rich in those constitu- 

 ents, cannot be designated an exhausting 

 crop relatively to the soil ; whilst on the 

 other hand, plants requiring but an incon- 

 siderable amount of mineral ingredients, 

 when sown in a soil not adequate to supply 

 even a small amount of these ingredients, 

 must relatively be considered exhausting 

 plants. From the preceding remarks it will 

 be evident how ill-founded the assertion is, 

 that certain plants improve the soil by en- 

 riching it. It is a fact, proved beyond the 

 power of controversy, that all plants what- 

 ever, withdraw certain mineral constituents 

 from the soil, and thus so far impoverish it. 

 All such notions of improvement, founded 

 upon practical experience, are mere illu- 

 sions. 



It is frequently asserted that fallow crops, 

 such as clover, peas, vetches, lucerne, buck- 

 wheat, &c., and even tobacco, potatoes, beet 

 root, carrots, &.c., do not exhaust the soil, 

 but on the contrary are, in a certain mea- 

 sure, capable of improving it. This is es- 

 pecially said to be the case with buckwheat, 

 which is frequently sown during fallow, and 

 subsequently, when nearly in flower, plough- 

 ed into the soil in order to improve and en- 

 rich it. The power of the soil to produce 

 cereals, after having grown crops of these 

 plants, is thought to prove their non-ex- 

 haiisting nature. The term fallow crops, 

 indeed, indicates that fields left fallow in 

 order to restore their fertility for the cereals, 

 have been found by experience to be capable 

 of yielding crops of these plants v\ithout 

 their subsequent ability to grow the cereals, 

 being afl'ected. 



From the New York Farmer and Mechanic. 



Sowing Wheat. 



New York, Sept. 2nd, 1845. 

 H. Meigs, Esq., Sec. N. Y. Farmers' Club .- 



My dear friend — Being engaged to attend 

 the meeting called for this day, in the town 

 of Greenburg, to form a "Farmers' Club" 

 in that town, in accordance with the consti- 

 tution and by-laws of the Society of Agri- 

 culture and Horticulture, of Westchester 

 county, I shall not be able to attend the dis- 

 cui^sions at the New York Farmers' Club, on 

 the subjects proposed at the last meeting — 

 "The preparation of the ground and the 

 seed for the wheat crop," &c. The wheat 

 crop is so valuable, so intimately connected 

 with the prosperity of not only the agricul- 

 tural but also the manufacturing, mechani- 

 cal, and commercial interests of tiie whole 

 country, that we cannot be too well informed 

 on the subject. Land that has been well 

 manured in a previously cultivated crop, 

 such as corn and potatoes, is, with proper 

 ploughing and harrowing, very suitable for 

 winter wheat. It is always best that the 

 manure should have been applied in the 

 previous crop, particularly if it is rank or 

 recently formed, or your wheat will produce 

 too much straw, be weak, and fall down. 

 There are a few exceptions to this rule. 

 Bone dust, oily fish, street manure, &c., have 

 often been applied at the time of sowing, to 

 secure a good crop. A sandy loam, with a 

 good supply of calcareous earth or lime, forms 

 the best soil for wheat — a certain amount of 

 sand or silex, clay, and lime, being essential 

 to secure a good crop. When I say that the 

 land should be thoroughly plouglied three or 

 four times, and harrowed as often, I am fully 

 aware what is the usual practice, and also of 

 the loss sustained by only one ploughing and 

 two harrowings. I do not apply these obser- 

 vations to land just cleared from the forest 

 (though then, the more and belter the plough- 

 ing, the larger the crop) or the prairie sod 

 just turned over; but to the land in all the old 

 States, and all lands long under cultivation. 

 The object in ploughing the ground so much, 

 is to turn under more completely atmospheric 

 air, which consists of nitrogen, o.xygen, and 

 carbonic acid, a thorough mechanical mix- 

 ture of which with the soil will insure a great 

 increase of crop ; it also acts as a manure. 

 The thorough pulverizing of the soil, so as 

 to make it fine, is secured in this way, which 

 renders it so much better for the fine roots, 

 in the early growth of the plants, to get well 

 rooted before winter sets in, thus securing is 

 from being winter killed. This also enablee 

 you to pasture your sheep and young cattlt 



