48 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



CULTURE OF WHEAT IN MONROE COUNTY. 



S. Edwards Todd, a well-known agricultural 

 ' writer, spent a few days last Autumn in this vicinity 

 and furnishes the Country Gentleman some inter- 

 esting letters in regard to agricultural matters in 

 Monroe County. We copy a portion of his re- 

 marks in regard to the culture of wheat : 



When a piece of woods is cleared off and the 

 ground simply harrowed thoroughly, without 

 plowing, and it is sowed with winter wheat, the 

 soil must be uncommonly wet, and the winter 

 must be very unfavorable indeed if that wheat is 

 much injured by freezing and thawing. And there 

 is a very cogent and philosophical reason why 

 winter wheat is injured less by freezing and thaw- 

 ing on such soil than it is on old ground. 



We all know that when we set a stake or post 

 perpendicularly in the ground about one foot deep, 

 the frost will soon heave it to the surface ; but 

 when it is set at an angle of forty, or forty-live de- 

 grees, it will remain about as deep as it was origin- 

 ally set until it is rotten; because as the soil freezes 

 and thaws it is lifted with and settles back with 

 the soil. 



The sod of grass ground is raised by the frost 

 bodily, and settles back bodily when it thaws, and 

 for this reason the roots are not all lifted out by 

 the freezing and thawing in winter. 



Now when wheat is sowed on new laud that 

 has never beeu plowed, the roots spread out almost 

 horizontally on the surface of the ground, and thus 

 form almost a complete mat, so that when the soil 

 is expanded from freezing, it is raised bodily, roots 

 and all, and thus it settles back, when it thaws, to 

 its original position, without severing any of the 

 roots of the plants. In new land that has not 

 been plowed, a large proportion of the vegetable 

 matter and the elements of fertility are near the 

 surface of the soil, and consequently the roots 

 spread out horizontally much more than they do 

 vertically. But when the soil is deep, and the 

 vegetable matter is thoroughly incorporated with 

 it, and when the elements of fertility are more 

 abundant six or eight inches below the surface than 

 near the surface, the roots will strike almost per- 

 pendicularly downward. Therefore when two or 

 three inches of the surface of the soil comes to 

 freeze, the plants are lifted, and the roots must 

 either give way at the lower ends, or be severed 

 just below the frozen earth. It is easy to perceive, 

 when such is the case, why and how readily the 

 wheat plant is injured and thrown out by freezing 

 and thawing in the winter or spring. 



Reasoning from analogy on the subject, most 

 good farmers in Monroe county, who have a repu- 

 tation for raising the best crops of winter wheat, 

 adopt the practice of 



MANURING THE SURFACE FOR WINTER WHEAT, 



in preference to mingling the manure thoroughly 

 with the soil, as deep as it is plowed. By plowing 

 the soil to a good depth once, and by working only 

 a few inches in depth of the surface — rendering it 

 fine and mellow — and by spreading finely pulver- 

 ized compost on the surface, and simply harrowing 

 it in about the time the grain is sowed or drilled 

 in, the roots for the most part, will strike out hori- 



zontally, or nearly so, and will become so thorough- 

 ly interwoven with each other near the surface, 

 that they are not drawn out at the surface as they 

 are when thej r strike down nearly vertically ; but 

 the entire soil rises and settles back in the same 

 manner as sod ground does, without heaving out 

 the plants. 



I have made particular inquiry of those farmers 

 who have adopted the practice of manuring on 

 the surface, in every locality where I have traveled 

 during the past season, and I have found that in 

 most instances they are satisfied that winter grain 

 will not suffer so much injury from freezing and 

 thawing, when the manure is well rotted and spread 

 thin on the surface, and harrowed in about the 

 time when the grain is put in, as it will if the ma- 

 nure is plowed under. 



A TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER. 



"Good morning, neighbor Smith." 



" Good mornin'. Aint this awful cold ?" 



•'Yes, pretty cold, neighbor; but the high wind 

 makes it appear colder than it really is. The cold- 

 est we have yet had was four degrees below zero." 



"It seems to me as it it was the coldest I ever 

 knew it." 



" Oh, no ; don't you remember the cold Friday 

 of last winter? The mercury then sank to thirty- 

 two degrees below zero, which was the lowest tem- 

 perature I ever recorded. These first five days of 

 January have not been unusually cold, but very 

 uncomfortable, from the fact that the wind has 

 blown a gale from the north. New Year's day, 

 you know, was warm and rainy, the thermometer 

 marking thirty-five degrees at six P. M. During 

 the afternoon, I noticed the barometer fell unusu- 

 ally fast until, at six P. M., it was down to 2 .50 

 inches. Well, the wind hauled to north, and be- 

 gan blowing a gale at nine P. M., and continued so 

 until noon of the fifth. The mercury in the ther- 

 mometer sunk during the night of the first to four 

 degrees — a very sudden change of thirty degrees." 



" I thought my stock would freeze, and seemed 

 to me they ate a quarter more than usual." 



"They tell about having barns too tight and 

 warm for stock, but I don't believe in it, neighbor. 

 Of course there may be such an one, but there aint 

 one in this county. When the manure behind the 

 cattle freezes, I know the ' tie-up ' aint too warm 

 to be comfortable ; and, as you say, it does take a 

 good deal more fodder for stock during the cold 

 weather. The colder the barn, the more it will 

 cost to keep the 'critter,' and the reason is just 

 this, neighbor : A certain amount of heat is re- 

 quired for the body of the animal. The food con- 

 sumed is what makes or supplies that heat, and if 

 the air that surrounds the body be very cold, a 

 greater amount of heat is withdrawn by contact, 

 and to supply this amount a greater quantity of food 

 than usual is required." 



"Well, I don't know how that is; hut I know 

 that my stock take right hold of almost anything, 

 poor hay, stalks and straw. Does your barometer 

 always tell when the wind is going to blow hard, 

 and about storms too ?" 



"Yes; every change in the atmosphere is fol- 

 lowed by a corresponding fluctuation of the mer- 

 cury in the tube of the barometer. It falla the 



