254 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



and cattle and horses readily eat it. But you 

 will say, I shall not get so heavy a crop ; the 

 grass is not so large, and early cut hay, when 

 dried, will not weigh as much as ripe hay. 

 "Well, grant it. But the early crop, being 

 more nutritious and much better digested, the 

 stock will not require so much, and the second 

 growth, whether for fall feed or a second cut- 

 ting, will make up the difiVrence. 



But this is not all. When the plants of 

 clover and herdsgrass have once ripened a 

 crop of seed, a large portion of them die in the 

 ground, and the next crop is diminished in 

 proportion. Weeds and coarse grasses have 

 an opportunity to ripen and scatter their 

 seeds. The English lawns are preserved 

 green and thick, by frequent mowing; they 

 are never allowed to ripen seed, and if we 

 would preserve our meadows in grass for a 

 series of years, instead of being obliged to 

 plough up and reseed every three or four years, 

 we must cut the grass early, and never allow 

 the seed to ripen. Then, with top dressing, 

 they may be kept in good condition many years. 



It requires, perhaps, more labor to dry early 

 cut grass than that which is ripe. But this 

 difficulty is met by the hay tedder, which is 

 coming into general use. Now with the 

 mower, the tedder and the horse-rake, hay 

 may be cut at the proper time and rapidly se- 

 cured. Two weeks will do the work that 

 lT>rmerly required six, and the hay will be 

 housed in vastly better condition ; and last, 

 though not least, the land will be left in much 

 better condition for future crops. 



There is one other subject that should be 

 Dientioned in this connection, for all our farm- 

 ing operations have a relation to each other. 

 Does the abortion in cows and ewes, which is 

 becoming so formidable an evil in many parts 

 of the country, arise from ergotted hay seed ? 

 It is a well known fact that the seeds of some 

 grasses, as well as those of rye, will take on 

 the change to ergot. This has been suggested 

 as the cause of abortion. The question is 

 well worth an examination. If it proves to 

 have any foundation, the remedy is obvious, — 

 never let the grass form seed. 



Brother farmers, this is a subject of great 

 importance ; will you look at it, not under the 

 influence of old habits and pi'cjudices, but ex- 

 amine the question anew, carefully observing 

 the facts ? 



"WHEAT CULTURE. 



The February number of the Report of the 

 Department of Agriculture has some inter- 

 esting remarks upon wheat raising. It is be- 

 'icved that our old method of sowing ' wheat 

 broadcast is both a waste of seed and loss of 

 crop, and that drilling at sufficient distance to 

 •vUow culture by the horse hoe, will "increase 

 the crop, improve the quality, destroy weeds, 

 mitigate drought, promote growth, hasten ma- 

 turity, and resist or anticipate, insect attacks." 

 This is surely a sufficiently long list of advan- 

 tages ; all of which, except earlier maturity, 

 we have no doubt may be realized. A half a 

 bushel of seed, saved per acre, when wheat is 

 $2 per bushel, with a proper implement, will 

 go far to pay the cost of cultivating. 



The writer says "scarcely less than twenty 

 millions of acres will suffice for the wheat 

 area of the United States, requiring nearly 

 thirty million bushel bushels of seed, and lit- 

 tle more than ten bushels per acre are pro- 

 duced. Ten millions bushels of this seed, 

 worth perhaps sixteen millions of dollars 

 might be saved to the country, sold for bread, 

 and the proceeds applied to the cultivation of 

 growing wheat, with a fair probability of ob- 

 taining, by such means, more than twenty addi- 

 tional millions of bushels for the bread of the 

 nation. So large a portion of this seed is now 

 wasted by sowing at irregular intervals, and 

 at irregular depths, and so much is choked by 

 weeds that farmers say they cannot use a less 

 quantity. But with universal drilling, at a 

 width to allow the tillering and growth that 

 would result from hoeing or cultivating, two- 

 thirds of the present supply would be more 

 than ample. About one bushel in every seven 

 produced in the United States is saved for 

 seed, while one in twenty ought to be sulli- 

 cient. Thus millions of bushels are wasted, 

 buried in the earth with no prospect of resur- 

 rection, and sacrificed to ignorance and thrift- 

 Icssness. It is taking the children's bread 

 without the poor satisfaction of having fed a 

 dog with it." 



The cultivation by the hoe or cultivator be- 

 tween the drills is now very common in Eng- 

 land, and has begun to be practiced in this 

 country. One pound and nine ounces of Tap- 

 pabannock wheat, sown in drills, eighteen 

 inches apart, and cultivated between the drills, 

 yielded 18G pounds, in North Carolina, last 



