1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEIVIER. 



649 



WHBAT CULTURE. 



MONG farmers in this coun- 

 try as well as in Europe, the 

 question as to the proper 

 amount of seed to be used 

 in the cultivaticn of grain 

 has of late received cousid- 

 erable attention. We have 

 long been convinced that in 

 rai.-iiig wheat too much seed 

 to the acre is used, and have 

 said that wheat should be 

 plantbd not sowed. If this 

 is done at the proper time, 

 winter wheat may be raised 

 with as much certainty as spring wheat ; in- 

 deed, we think with more certainty, and every 

 one knows that winter wheat, when it suc- 

 ceeds, yields a larger crop and cf better qual- 

 ity. Let it be plaiited as early as it can be with- 

 out dargtT of the seed stalk starting before 

 the frost, and the plant will become well 

 rooted, and unless the water stands upon the 

 suiface it will not suffer from the winter. 



We are inclined to believe that wheat put 

 into the ground from two to four inches deep, 

 in rows sixteen or eighteen in'.hes apart, with 

 the grains not less than six inches apart in the 

 row, would yield, with proper cultivation 

 afterward, double the number of bushels 

 usually obtained per acre. 



Why should wheat unlike other crops de- 

 teriorate both in quantity and weight, as it is 

 well known that it does ? Corn is not only 

 kept up to its full standard, but constantly im- 

 proved, by selecting the best grains for seed, 

 and giving it clean culture and allowing each 

 plant sufficient space in which to spread its 

 roots and find nourishment. New corn sown 

 broadcast and so thick that it would shade the 

 ground and thus keep down the growth of 

 ■weeds, and the corn for seed taken from the 

 average product of the field, how long before 

 it would depreciate as much as the wheat crop 

 has done? 



The idea that wheat must grow so thick as 

 to shade the ground in the spring, and thus 

 favor the catch of grass seed which we usually 

 sow with it, or so thick as to smother the weeds 

 in the rich but poorly cultivated soils of the 

 West, is we believe all wrong. We ask why 

 grass seed should be sown at all with wheat ? 

 It can be sown to better advantage afier the 



wheat is harvested, if the wheat has been 

 properly cultivated. The wheat needs the 

 whole strength of the soil while it is growing, 

 as much as does the corn, and the weeds should 

 be kept down by cultivation in the wheat field, 

 as well as in the corn field. 



The editor of the Prairie Farmer in dis- 

 coursing upon this subject makes some very 

 sensible remarks, which we would commend 

 to the consideration of Eastern as well as 

 Western wheat growers. He says : "If wheat 

 is sown thick enough to keep weeds down it is 

 sown thick enough to keep down a large num- 

 ber of spires that would grow and produce 

 seeds, 'some an hundred fold, some sixty fold 

 and some thirty fold', if there was room 

 enough for them to develop. 



"How many of our farmers arft aware how 

 near togrfther the grains of wheat lie when 

 they sow two bushels of wheat to the acre ? 

 and yet some sow heavier than that. One 

 peck to the acre will put four grains on every 

 square foot of the land, and it is highly prob- 

 able that these are more than would grow to 

 the best advantage. The truth is that very 

 few cf us have ever seen the product of a sin- 

 gle grain of wheat that was growing to the 

 best advantage in regard to space and cultiva- 

 tion. One grain of wheat in soil free from 

 weeds and kept mellow as we do the soil around 

 some vegetables would show a product as 

 different from what we see in an ordinary 

 broadcast wheat field as the solitary mountain 

 oak differs from the puny sapling in the thady 

 forest. 



"One of the best yields of wheat that we 

 have heard of this season, is that of Dr. James 

 S. Hamilton, of Athens, Georgia. This crop 

 has forty- six bushels to the acre. We have 

 not seen it stated how much seed was sown, 

 but from the fact that it was diilled eighteen 

 inches apart, we conclude that but little seed 

 was used. 



"The experiment of Alderman Mechi, of 

 liOndon, showed the astonishing yield of forty- 

 eight bushels, and two bushels of screenings, 

 to the acre, on land on which less than a peck 

 of seed was sown, or rather planted. This 

 wheat weighed sixty- six pounds to the bushel. 



"When the time comes that we plant, hoe 

 and cultivate wheat, a part of the extra ex- 

 pense of tending it will be defrayed by the 

 saving of seed, from the difference of the 



