270 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



from the bottom of the ditch, and this I have 

 found to bo tlie case at from 2i to 3 feet deep, on 

 my farm. After going deep enough to protect the 

 tile— and 2J feet is ample for that— I can see no 

 reason for liettim; down eighteen inches nUo- the 

 hard-pan or stiff clay, wherein there is no water, 

 neither do I think any man can show a good rea- 

 son for so doing." 



TOP-DRESSING WHEAT, &c. 

 In 1858 we visited the farm of John Johnston, 

 near Geneva, N. Y., in company with Mr. H. E. 

 Hooker, of this city. Mr. Johnston pcrtnted out 

 to us the effect of a dressing of salt on his wheat. 

 He had a field of twenty-five acree. On fourteen 

 acres of it he sowed on the fallow, just before seeding, 

 one barrel of salt, (280 lbs.) to the acre. The salt, 

 ed wheat was much the best; the straw heavier, 

 brighter and stiffer, and the heads larger. It was 

 aho at least Jive days earlier, and the midge had, 

 consequenriy, done little or no damage; while on 

 the adjoining eleven acres the midge had injured 



it materially. 



Mr. Johnston also pointed out strips of wheat 

 where the land had been manured, and the same 

 effect was also distinctly visible. 



A few days since, Mr. Hooker was in our office 

 and remarked : " I learned a good deal from that 

 visit to John Johnston, that has been of use to 

 me. I have top-dressed my wheat several times 

 since then, and always with great benefit. I have 

 observed the same thing among my neighbors.' 



» I have a piece," he continued, " part of which 

 I top-dressed last fall, with well-rotted dung. The 

 wheat on this part is at least o icceh earlier and 

 will yield as much again as the other portions of 

 the field. It will yield thirty bushels per acre, 

 while I think the other wUl not go over fifteen 

 bushels." 



♦'How did you apply the manure ?'' we asked. 



"I spread it on the fallow and harrowed it in. 



I then sowed the seed and harrowed it again and 



rolled it." 



» I know another case where the manure and 

 seed were all plowed in together, and the wheat is 

 excellent." 



" "With a gang plow, I suppose ? " 

 «' No, the farmer had no gang plow, or that would 

 have done the work more expeditiously. The 

 piece was a summer fallow, broken up the last of 

 June, and cross plowed very shallow, so as not to 

 turn up the sod, in August. The manure was then 

 spread on the surface and seed and all turned under 

 with the plow as shallow as poseible-not more 

 than two inches deep, or at the most, three inches." 



" The manure seems to act as a kind of mulch. 

 The wheat gets a good start and winters well. 

 The roots seem to spread out more near the surface 

 and it does not send out a ta[) root. The freezing 

 and thawing does not injure it. The whole mass 

 of roots heaves up and down with the soil and re- 

 ceives no injury. If it had tap roots they would 

 be broken off, and the plant weakened or killed." 



" I have always believed," we remarked, " that' 

 wheat would be very grateful for a little manure. 

 But John Johnston does not manure his wheat in 

 that way. He applies it on the grass land the fall . 

 before he breaks it up for wheat. At least, this» 

 I believe, is his usual plan. The farmers in TTheat- 

 land are adopting the sanje system wiih good re- 

 sults." 



" There is one thing," continued Mr. Hookeb, 

 " I want to tell y«u. I had a fine piece of land 

 that I planted to potatoes and the next spring 

 sowed it with oats, seeding it down with clover 

 and timothy. The next year I mowed the clover. 

 It was a fair cVop — principally clover. It so hap- 

 pened that I could not pasture it, and so let the 

 second crop of clover rot on the land. The next 

 year I had an excellent crop of hay — more timo-' ; 

 thy than the year before. The second crop I let 

 grow and rot on the land as before, and the next 

 year I had still heavier grass. I let the second 

 crop rot on the land as before, and this season it is 

 the heaviest crop of grass I ever had." 

 " Is it nearly all timothy ? " 

 " No, there is a good deal of clover in it. The 

 fact is, the second crop produces a good deal of seed, 

 and I suppose reseeded the land. I have no doubt 

 that had I pastured the land in the fall in the usual 

 way I should not by this time have had more than 

 half a tun of hay per acre, as the land is very 

 poor." 



The London Agricultural Gazette, in a notice of 



some small prizes awarded to fine animals, contrasts 

 these awards with the vastly greater prizes of com- 

 mercial success ; and to show the latter, gives the 

 results of the sale of Mr. Jonas Webb's cattle and 

 sheep, which make a total of $125,000 worth of! 

 stock on a farm of 800 acres. 



Yai.ue of the Hat Crop.— "We see it stated 

 that two gentlemen of Bucks Co., Pa., have takec 

 pains to estimate the value of the hay crop in that 

 county, and find that it is worth tkA less that 

 six millions of dollars ! Few farmers sufBcientlj 

 appreciate the hay crop as a source of wealth. 



