'OL. XXIV. Second Series. ROCHESTER, N. Y., JULY, 1863. 



No. 7. 



TffE TIME OF SOWING WHEAT. 



Egbert J. Swan, Esq., whose thorongbly under- 

 ramed and beautiful farm near Geneva, N. Y., we 

 ave frequently alluded to in the Genesee Farmer^ 

 'rites us: 



"Early sown wheat looks bad owing to the 

 ivages of the Hessian fly last fall; late sown 

 heat (not too late) looks excellent. ' 

 There is much in these few lines which merits 

 le attention of "our wheat growers. If we sow 

 xly, we run increased risk of injury from the 

 essian fly; if we sow late, there is increased dan- 

 T of damage from the midge. To hit the exact 

 316— to strike the happy medium — requires great 

 :Deriecce and close observation. Probably no 

 irticular date can be given that would be best at 

 1 seasons. Much must necessarily depend on the 

 gather, the temperature of the soil, &o. On this 

 lint the remarks of Mr. Spearing, given in 

 other column, are worthy of consideration. He 

 inks that in England wheat should not be sown 

 I the temperature of the soil is reduced to 50°. 

 )w far this remark is applicable to this country 

 •: have no means of judging. The winters in 

 gland are far less severe than in this country, 

 d it is not so essential to sow early. Mr. Spear- 

 }'s remarks have already given rise to some dis-' 

 ssion on this point, and the Marh Lane Express 

 s: 



The general opinion is that the early sown 

 eats commonly yield the best, and are the least 

 )cted by the changes of temperature. Before 

 I turnip husbandry was introduced, and the 

 eat was sown on the bare fallow, early sowing 

 s the rule, and one of the most important sources 

 profit was the feeding of sheep upon it in the au- 

 iin, which was estimated at an average value of 

 per acre, or five sheep for four weeks per acre 

 )ne shilling per week each. And if we are to 

 ieve such writers as Miller, and some others in 

 beginning and middle of the last century, the 

 duce of those early sown wheats was at least as 

 d as is obtained by the present sy^em. We, of 

 rse, are not advocating a return to the ancient 

 ;em of husbandry, but it is a question that wiU 



admit of much controversy, whether, where possi- 

 ble, it would not be desirable to get the wheat 

 into the ground at least during the first week in 

 September, by which it would be enabled to become 

 well rooted to.'endure the winter's frosts, apd, above, 

 all, to avoid the root-fall, to which later sown 

 wheats are peculiarly liable, from the roots not 

 having taken a sufficiently firm hold of the ground 

 to prevent the earth from falling away and leaving 

 them bare when the March winds succeed to the 

 frosts of winter. ■ 



John Johnston, who is a neighbor of Mr. Swan, 

 in a communication to the Country Gentleman, 

 confirms the truth of Mr, Swan's observations, 

 and furnishes some interesting facts derived from 

 his long experience. He says : 



I notice there is much poor wheat around here. 

 True, there are some fields that are good, but I fear 

 there are more bad. I wrote you last autumn 

 that I thought mine was ruined by the so-called 

 Hessian fly ; it is a total failure, and all owing to 

 too early sowing. I sowed the 5th and 6th of Sep- 

 tember, and many sowed earlier. I knew better 

 than to sow so early, as I had had failures before 

 from early sowing. For a few years after I came 

 here, I began sowing when my neighbors did, but 

 as I then did the plowing and sowing myself, I was 

 often late in finishing, and I saw the wheat I sowed 

 from the 18th to the 25th of September was al- 

 most always the best crop. In 1831 I had quite a 

 loss by this same fly, and then determined to get 

 all my land ready, and not commence sowing until 

 the 20th of September, or thereabout. I continued 

 that course for about 20 years, and had almost no 

 failures, with the exception of 1844. In Septem- 

 ber of 1848, as 1 intended going to the State Ag- 

 ricultural Show at Rochester, I sowed early, in 

 order to sow my wheat before I went, and in conse- 

 quence lost at least half my crop of 80 acres. Some 

 time after the midge commenced to destroy the 

 wheat crops along here, people got almost crazy to 

 have their wheat early sown ; some, indeed many, 

 sowing in August ; but I never began earlier than 

 the 11th or 12tb of September, and had no fail- 

 ures. 



I have proof positive that if I had sown about 

 the 20th of last September, I would have had fine 

 looking wheat now. By some imperfection in the 

 drill, it missed dropping from one spout the whole 

 length of the field for several times; these rows • 

 I had drilled over about the 20th, or a little later. 



