50 



Wheat-Sowing. 



V„ 



and as flat as possible, allowing- it so to lie 

 unsown, until after rain has fallen, and the 

 surface has again become dry enough to work 

 well under the harrows, perhaps for twelve 

 or fourteen days ; then, to sow the seed, two 

 bushels per acre, harrowing it in the way the 

 land was ploughed, and await the result. 



The manure, in this arrangement, should 

 be spread on the young clover very early in 

 the spring as a top-dressing ; and, to fit it for 

 this purpose, it ought to have undergone fer- 

 mentation ; to induce this, the manure should 

 be taken periodically from the cattle-yard 

 during winter, and be deposited in the clover- 

 field ; the act of removing and throwing into 

 jeap, would be the means of bringing for- 

 ward such fermentation and fitting it for use. 

 Two crops of clover-hay might be taken from 

 the land during the summer, and in Septem- 

 ber the lay may be turned down with, in com- 

 mon seasons, a certainty of escaping the 

 blight ; the crop will not then be too big and 

 leafy ; the straw will be strong enough to 

 support the ear, nor will it be in danger rrom 

 the fly, smut, mildew, and about half a-dazen 

 other disorders, which, I am satisfied, all arise 

 from the same source, namely, the diseased 

 state of the crop. 



In a work which I have now before rae, I 

 find the following judicious remarks on sow- 

 ing wheat on lay-land ; they are the experi- 

 ence of a very close reasoner, and an exten- 

 sive cultivator of the soil, the value of which 

 1 have had frequent opportunities of testing, 

 and can therefore recommend with the great- 

 est confidence to the practice of all who are 

 preparing to cultivate a wheat-crop the next 

 year. 



Bordley says, " The language of Erglish 

 farmers is, wheat on clover-lay should be 

 sown on one earth, that is, after one plough- 

 ing ; and to conform to this doctrine 1 con- 

 ducted this business on fifteen acres, in this 

 manner — the clover having been cut onoe for 

 hay and then pastured, but not close, tie lay 

 was turned in deep, and the furrows laid neat 

 and close; the wheat was sown broadcast, 

 and harrowed twice, in the same direction in 

 which the land was ploughed ; the wheat was 

 then rolled. The crop stood well and yielded 

 satisfactorily, but as it grew two miles from 

 my other wheat crops, a just comparison be- 

 tween them was not made. The operations 

 followed each other immediately, without any 

 pause, but Mr. Macro's experience is against 

 this immediate sowing upon ploughing in the 

 clover-lay, and his experiments were repeated, 

 while mine was a single instance, v/hich, al- 

 though it proved highly satisfactory in gene- 

 ral, was without any pointed px^'rticulars re- 

 lating to a much superior produce. Mr. 

 Macro gives the following encouraging detail 

 of his practice and success. ' From upwards 



of 20 years of experience, I am of opinion 

 that the best way of sowing clover-lands with 

 wheat, is to plough the land ten or twelve 

 days before you sow it, that the land may 

 have time to dry; and after rain has fallen, 

 enough to make the land dress well, lay on 

 the seed in September, two bushels an acre. 

 The furrows in ploughing ought not to Be 

 more than eight or nine inches wide, and less 

 than that is better, if the plough will turn 

 them well. I am at a loss to account for the 

 wheat thriving better on lands that have been 

 ploughed for some time before the seed is 

 sown, than on fresh ploughed lands, which 

 work better, and constitute a better bed for 

 the reception of the grain; but I have often 

 tried both ways on the same lands, and have 

 always found the former answer the best.' 



Now, I conjecture that the clover plants 

 being buried, and the wheat sown at the same 

 time, they both ferment and run into heat at 

 the same moment ; the germ then shoots, and 

 the roots are extremely delicate and tender 

 for some days, during which the buried herb- 

 age obtains its highest degree of heat, which, 

 added to the internal heat of the germ, may, 

 although only slightly, check, and a little in- 

 jure the delicate shoot of the wheat; in 

 sprouting barley for making malt, a little ex- 

 cess of heat in the bed checks, and a little 

 more stops the sprouting or growth of the 

 spears.* 



* Tliis may be a very specious mode of arguing, but 

 to my mind it is all wide of the mark. To me it js 

 only necessary to suppose that the newly turned-up 

 land, on subsiding— as it must do to a very considerable 

 extent, when operated upon by the pressure of the at- 

 mosphere, and which would he increased by the internal 

 heat mentioned above— acts very injuriously on these 

 delicate shoots of the wheat, by compressing and drag- 

 ging them down in its folds; and it might easily be 

 supposed that its future growth would be very much 

 injured thereby; "doubling them up" as an old friend 

 describes it, " and crippling them in their youth ;" and 

 I have no doubt that many of them are broken and de- 

 stroyed by these means. 



There is a district in the Isle of Wight (that garden 

 of England, as it is termed, where wheat is grown in 

 one year, sufficient for the support of the inhabitant3 

 .seven— so says the history) surrounding the village of 

 Niton, where, if wheat is sown immediately after 

 ploughing the land, the crop is sure to be destroyed by 

 what is called the root-rot, occasioned by the subsidence 

 of the soil, which, falling away from the plants, leaves 

 them exposed to the winter's frost, bjj which they are 

 lilted out of the earth, and so they perish : the farmers, 

 therefore, after ploughing their land, leave it unsown 

 until, perhaps, it becomes covered with seed-weeds, 

 upon which, however, they harrow in the seed, with 

 the expectation of reaping a full crop. Some of your i 

 readers from that part of the world may have it in their 

 power to endorse the truth of what is here stated; they 

 will smile at the idea that " lands, if left unsown for 

 ten or fourteen days after ploughing, will become too 

 consolidated, and be in an inferior state for receiving 

 the seed !" Wheat requires a consolidated seed-bed ; 

 and it is the custom on the hills of Wiltshire (England) 

 to delay the time of wheat-sowing (which, however, 

 always takes place before harvest) until a fall of rain, 

 in the midst of which the seed is sown, and, instead of 

 being harrowed in, it is trodden by flocks of sheep, and 

 sometimes cattle also, until the land has the appear- 

 ance of a mortar heap ! they then expect a crop. 



