84 



Top- Dressing. 



Vol. V. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Oil Top-Dressing. 



Sir, — I notice the first article in the last 

 number of the Cabinet, on " wheat-sowing," 

 and believe there is much truth in the view 

 of the subject there taken. I too am con- 

 vinced, that our fallowed and dunjred oat- 

 earshes are all too light and rich for our 

 wheat seed-beds, and had already formed the 

 resolution to sow no more oats, but put all 

 the manure for the corn, and sow wheat after 

 — and the drawing of Mr. B. Cooper's corn- 

 stalk machine comes just in time to give me 

 the opportunity to clear my corn-field in the 

 way proposed, and to commence operations 

 immediately after. 



But I shall have the means of carrying out 

 only one-half my plan this season, as tlie corn 

 of the present crop will not have been ma- 

 nured for — so I will tell you what I propose, 

 and I do so, to make of it a sporiing ques- 

 tion. The dung which 1 now have ready to 

 carry abroad on the oat-earsh or fallow for 

 wheat, I will take to my corn-field, where I 

 now intend to sow my wheat, and, having 

 ploughed up the lower lieadland to a great 

 depth, I will deposit it in a long narrow row 

 thereon, and after the wheat is sown and lei- 

 sure serves, I will get the dung and the soil 

 of the headland well mixed and turned up 

 together, so to lie until the spring, at which 

 time, and before the frost breaks up, I will 

 carry it out and deposit it in heaps on the 

 wheat, preparatory for spreading — carefully 

 breaking all lumps, &c. — at the time of the 

 first thaw. 



Now what say my brother farmers to this 

 plan? Will it not entirely relieve us from 

 the premature autumnal growth, and the con- 

 eequent spewing out of the crop in tiie spring, 

 sheltering the young plant at that season, 

 and promoting a rapid growth just at its start- 

 ing, pushing it through the vicissitudes of 

 that changeable period, and, by these means, 

 enabling it to escape the blight and the thou- 

 sand other ills that so frequently assail it"? I 

 guess it will ; and if it does, I can do as so 

 many of our friends are doing — take out a 

 patent, to secure to myself the growing of 

 all the wheat, after this plan, in tlie country, 

 as I consider it about as original as many that 

 are now in high repute. 



Seriously, however, I believe the proposal, 

 to retard the growth of the wheat-crop dur- 

 ing the autumn, is worthy of our best regard, 

 and I have no doubt it can be accomplished 

 most effectually in the way abovementioned, 

 as also, by that pointed out by Edmund Cross, 

 in the article alluded to, in the Cabinet; I 

 believe also, that our crops suffer by being 

 lifted by the frost, in the way pointed out by 

 him, and the dung, which we bury at the 



time of sowing the wheat, augments a hun- 

 dred fold the evil, by keeping the land light, 

 which then holds the water like a sponge 

 during the winter, and rises in proportion 

 with the frost, taking with it the young wheat- 

 plants; and, at its breaking up in the spring, 

 the dung being then decomposed and offering 

 no longer any resistance, the earth and that 

 subside together, leaving the wheat lifted on 

 the surface, exposed to all sorts of disorders. 



Now it would appear, on reflection, that to 

 dung the seed-bed for wheat must be a very 

 wasteful process, to say the least ; its fructi- 

 fying powers are not required during the au- 

 tumn and winter, if the land upon which the 

 crop be sown is clean and in tolerable heart 

 — such, for instance, as after the corn-crop — 

 and before the time of its vegetation in the 

 spring, a large portion of its finest particles 

 must have been carried ofl^, by about six 

 months' exposure to the storms and rains of 

 winter; thus, much of it must have been 

 washed away and totally lost, while the good 

 that it has done in promoting premature ve- 

 getation, is the greatest part of the evil. 

 Now, according to the plan proposed, the 

 rains of winter are washing the richness of 

 the dung into the upturned earth of the head- 

 land, which was before the best part of the 

 field, causing it to become equal in value to 

 the manure itself, pulverizing and ameliorat- 

 ing the whole mass, and rendering it pecu- 

 liarly suitable for the purpose of a top-dress- 

 ing, easily washed to the roots of the young 

 plants by tlie genial showers of the spring, 

 and affording nourishment just at the time 

 when it is most required. And it is not ne«- 

 cessary to point out the peculiar advantages 

 which the grass seeds would derive from so 

 clean a soil, spread over with so rich a com- 

 post for their reception ; the danger would 

 be that they would grow too luxuriantly for 

 the welfare of the wheat-crop, but that could 

 in a measure be guarded against, by delaying 

 the sowing of them for a season. 



I am aware, that to those who have never 

 practised top-dressing of wheat in the spring, 

 the thing will appear strange, and an inno- 

 vation upon old and settled prejudices, but 

 " trial makes mention," and one which 1 have 

 made speaks loudly in its favour, for the crop 

 was taller by a third, and much better in 

 quality and larger in quantity : but one thing 

 must be guarded against, it will be easy to 

 cause it to rust, by giving it too much food, 

 according to the theory laid down in the first 

 article of the Cabinet for June, and to which 

 I refer your readers ; for, it must be remarked, 

 the wheat, under this management, derives 

 all the nutriment of the dressing — none be- 

 ing dissipated by the rains of a long winter 

 — and immediately at the time when it is in 

 a condition to receive the benefit, and the 



