514 



2^W ENGLAND FARMER.- 



Nov. 



rain or water it will move when placed upon 

 your hand. It is said that there are fields of 

 it in California that just after a rain seem like 

 a mass of living worms working in the soil. 

 These grains work deep into the soil, and keep 

 coming up from year to year, and the farmer 

 wonders, after summer-fallowing his field, why 

 it is that he sometimes raises more wild oats 

 than the grain sown. The worst fault of this 

 plant is that it is so very hard to kill or get 

 rid of in our grain fields. It is not fitfor culture 

 for the grain, hence it is a nuisance. Mixed 

 with wheat or oats it lessens their value. Some 

 oat crops in Oregon this year are nearly one 

 half wild oats. It is believed that by summer 

 fallowing, in connection with sheep, grain- 

 fields may be kept clean. 



For the New England Farmer, 



SPUING T?\rHEAT. 



Culture of Sod Ground — Manures— Absor- 

 bents. 



With many thanks to Mr. Henry Poor for 

 his timely answer to my questions concerning 

 winter wheat, of which I am now putting in 

 a field (1| acres,) for the first time, on sod 

 ground, and well fertilized, I would like to 

 ask him if sod ground is also good for spring 

 wheat? My soil is a light loam, but good for 

 corn. I have found by repeated experiments 

 that I can raise better corn on my sod ground, 

 to plow it late in spring, just as near planting 

 time as possible, than to plough it the previ- 

 ous season, at any time after haying, — no 

 matter what pains I may take to pulverize the 

 soil before planting. Whether the same is 

 true of spring wheat, is the question. The 

 fermentation of the green sod greatly helps 

 the growth of the corn. 



I have also set strawberries in like manner, 

 on inverted sod, with great success. This, 

 however, I do not recommend, as the plants 

 do not, like corn, shade the ground ; and it 

 is too much work to keep out the grass spring- 

 ing up from the turned roots. But in case of 

 spring wheat or oats, with a very thorough 

 pulverization of soil, I do not see why it 

 should not work as well as with winter wheat 

 or corn. The roots of corn and strawberries 

 penetrate the decaying sod, clinging tightly to 

 the mas^, kept so warm by the lermenting 

 process. I have often seen the experiment 

 tried of plowing different parts of a field of 

 sod, all alike, and fertilized alike, one part 

 turned soon after haying and ploughed, some- 

 times twice, in spring, and harrowed; the 

 other part turned from the fifth to the fif- 

 teenth of May, and both planted at the 

 same time ; and in all these cases the best 

 results were realized from the spfing turned. 

 I think it best to cultivate or barrow the ma- 



nure in, and not turn it under the sod. The 

 tendency is for manures to work downward, 

 so that when buried too deep there is more 

 loss by leaching. Still I know an old farmer 

 and a good one, (over ninety, I think,) who 

 spreads his manure on the sod, turns it under 

 just before planting, and without harrowing 

 or hill fertilizing, goes over the field and 

 treads his five kernels of maize into the ground 

 four feet apart in every third furrow. He 

 has good crops by the means, but I think he 

 would get more value from the same manure, 

 by using it nearer the surface. I believe, as 

 far as possible, manure should be applied in a 

 green state, and just turned under. Let the 

 fermentation go on in the soil, as it surely 

 will, and the gases will be fixed and saved for 

 the growing plant. No doubt a cord or a ton 

 of rotted manure is more valuable than a like 

 quantity of green, as the loss of water while 

 fermenting, lessens both weiu;ht and bulk 

 more than the loss of fertilizing matter. 

 Still, if there is any value in the organic 

 properties in the manure, their escape, while 

 fermenting, is a loss of value, even if that loss 

 be not so great as the diminution in quantity. 



Always keep an abundance of absorbents, 

 housed when dry, to put undi r your cattle to 

 take up the liquid and keep it from wasting ; 

 and also to leave the manure in a better con- 

 dition to work over and refine before apply- 

 ing. Besides, the action of these poweiful 

 solvents on the crude inorganic matter in the 

 absorbents, they are a meaus of supplying 

 considerable quantities of fertilizing material, 

 otherwise not assimilable by plants. Never 

 use sand for bedding ! There is an ample 

 quantity of silica in all soils, while the other 

 manurial properties in muck and loam are of 

 great value ; and while loam is soluble, sand 

 is composed of an infinite number of little hard 

 particles, not fitted to absorb. Where sand 

 is needed to warm land, spread it on the sur- 

 face raw. 



In one of his articles, Mr. A. W. Cheever 

 speaks of using sandy loam for an absorbent. 

 1 would like to see an article on the subject of 

 absorbents, from this careful experimenter. 

 But — always keep them dry ! JonN. 



Franklin, Mass., Sept. i, 18G9. 



For the Xew England Farmer. 

 EQUISETDM ARVBNSE. 



The articles in the Farmer of the -ith inst.. 

 concerning the above plant, commonly known 

 as Field Horse-tail, but in some sections by 

 other synonyms, interested me much. Some 

 thirty years since my father owned a very 

 hearty and healthy brown mare. B^ing short 

 of hay, he purchased a lot of grass, in the 

 meadows running back from the Connecticut 

 river, on some portion of which there was 

 considerable of this weed. As it was some- 

 thing new to him, he did not particularly 

 nOiice it or think of its being injurious in 



