1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARiVIER. 



525 



of labor, as well as enjoy equal rights in poli- 

 tics and religion. N. s. T. 

 Lawrence, Mass., Aug. 20, 1869. 



Remarks. — So far as we are acquainted 

 ■with the rules in force at factories and shops, 

 the "preparing for work" at the commence- 

 ment of a day's work, and the "cleaning up. 

 washing, &c.," at its close, spoken of by our 

 correspondent as occupying from fifteen to 

 thirty minutes, are not done in "working 

 hours," but before or after the striking of the 

 bell, or the blowing of the whistle, which 

 marks the beginning and ending of working 

 time. 



yor the New Englavd Farmer, 

 WHEAT RAISING. 

 Keply to " Jchn"— Sod Ground— Ploaghing in Manure— 

 Leacbing and Evaporation— High Culture. 



Your excellent correspondent "John," — 

 who doubtless has a surname which many o' 

 us would like to know, asks the question 

 "sod land is good for spring wheat?" 



My answer is briefly this. No time must be 

 lost for the spring crop. Hence your "early 

 corn land" will have but an insignificant green 

 sward to plough in seasonable for the wheat, 

 and I would recommend that it be pioughed in 

 deep late this fall, when in full vegetation. 

 Few of the gases from decomposition will be 

 lost before the ground' freezes. The freeze 

 and thaw of winter mellows the farrows for 

 shallow re-ploughing in the spring. Then use 

 Stetson's harrow (the best grain coverer yet 

 discovered) for putting in your fertilizer with 

 the grain, two or more inches deep. Then 

 roll, and I think your chances are good. 



Harrowing in grain and half ploughing land, 

 are prominent defects in the cultivation of 

 wheat and other spring crops. The culinary 

 garden is finely pulverized and highly manured 

 — for what? To make the vegetable growth 

 healthy and large. If you desire long parsnips, 

 carrots, beets, &c., you spade orplough deep. 

 I believe this is the true principle, in fitld cul- 

 ture. I would rather bury my green manure 

 six to eight inches deep than have it two inches 

 under the surface to be drawn upon by the 

 hot sun and the drying winds. I doubt the 

 correctness of the theory of "leaching" and 

 believe in the evaporation and exhalation of 

 the gases from the surface. As they permeate 

 the soil, or rise to its surface they nourish the 

 roots of the vegetable. I endorse John's old 

 farmer of ninety, who "ploughs in his ma- 

 nure." 



I will briefly give a few facts, though I be- 

 lieve that each one must study and experiment 

 for himself, and if we blunder on better re- 

 sults than those obtained from the teachings o 

 the books or of "science," let us hold fast 

 to that which we find best. 



The past summer, I planted a small piece of 

 corn on old land which was very mellow, spad- 

 ing in manure. Another piece adjoining was 

 a stiff soil and the grass si.x to eight inches 

 high. This was spaded down deep, with no 

 other fertilizer than the sod. The old patch 

 promised best early in the season, but when 

 severe drought came, the grass plot stood it 

 best and produced the best corn; the result, 

 in my opinion, of I he decomposition of the 

 deeply buried vegetable matter, the heat and 

 fertilizing properties of which tended to the 

 surface. 1 also planted Hubbard squashes, 

 using a weak compost of hen manure in the 

 hill. Then by way of experiment I dug a 

 deep hole and put in clear hen manure and 

 covered it t'lx inches with soil, in which I put 

 a single plant. This single vine produced 

 more growth of stalk and more squashes than 

 six other vines, and withstood ihe drought 

 much better. The ascending gases did the 

 work, whereas if the roots bad come in con- 

 tact with the manure, it would have been al- 

 most instant death to the plant 



The largest crop of winter wheat — forty- six 

 bushels to the acre — ever raised in Massachu- 

 setts was on old pasture land, six miles from 

 Boston. Pig manure was ploughed in. A 

 portion of it lorlged in a thunder storm, or the 

 yield would have been over fifty bushels per 

 acre. 



How often, when manured in the hill, does 

 corn stand stunted and yellow till the roots get 

 away from the heating manure, and then it 

 begins to grow green and rank. How much 

 larger the crop, if this manure had been 

 spread where all the roots, which are almost 

 innumerable, could have caught up its enrich- 

 ing gases which make the "blade and the ear." 

 Try an acre ploughed in with green manure 

 and an acre dunged out in the hill, with equal 

 quantities Then another experiment may be 

 worth trying. Put, say, thirty cartloads on 

 three acres, in the hill. Then spread and 

 plough in thirty cartloads on one acre, and see 

 which will produce the most corn ; counting 

 the cost of the hours' and days' labor from the 

 plough to the corn crib, and note the result. 

 The same principle will apply to the grasses 

 and all other farm crops. H. Poor. 



Yonkers, N. Y., Sept. 20, 18G9. 



"WHEAT AFTER CLOVER , 

 In some strictures on the remark made by 

 Dr. Voelker, the great agricultural chemist of 

 England, that "the very be.-t manure for wheat 

 is a good crop of clover," Mr. W. R. Carter, 

 in a communication to the Canada Farmer 

 says : — 



Clover is an excellent preparer of the ground 

 for wheat. From remote ages the farmers in 

 the south of England have sown their wheat in 

 the autumn on their clover leys. But it ia 



