S34 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



WHEAT AFTER OATS. 



"We have frequently alluded to the fact that in 

 England wheat is more frequently sown after oats 

 than after barley, while in Western New York 

 oats are considered one of the worst crops to pre- 

 cede wheat. In some of the best agricultural sec- 

 tions of Pennsylvania wheat is almost invariably 

 aowu after oats. But the land is in high condi- 

 tion, from the use of lime and the great quantity 

 of grass which is grown ou the farms. If land is 

 rich enough, we can see no reason why wheat 

 Bhould not do as well after oats as after barley. 

 Of course a heavy crop of oats will impoverish the 

 soil more than a light crop of barley, but, other 

 things being equal, is there any reason why wheat 

 should not do as well after oats as after barley ? 

 Will some of the intelligent readers of the Genesee 

 Farmer answer ? 



At a recent meeting of the New York Farmers' 

 Club, Solon Robinson read a letter from A. B. 

 Brown, of Somerset, N. Y., on this subject. Mr. 

 Brown's first experiment in raising wheat after 

 oats, which was made in opposition to the strong 

 prejudice of old farmers, enabled them to say, 

 "There, I told you so!" He says: 



" I turned in the stubble in the usual way and 

 got a very small crop of wheat, wliile the rest of 

 the field, on which other crops had been raised, 

 yielded an abundant harvest. The argument 

 agJiinst raising oats was that they exhausted the 

 fertility of tlie soil and rendered it unfit for future 

 crops Not being sati-<fied with my first experi- 

 ment. I next ye.ir planted a field to corn, peas and 

 oats in about equal quantities, and after taking ofi" 

 the crops, I let the land lie until the next season, 

 wlien I summer-fallowed it and sowed it to wheat. 

 Wlien I harvested my wlieat I found it quite as 

 good, and I thought a little better, on the oat 

 ground than on tiiat where the corn and peas had 

 grown. This satisfied me that the fertility of the 

 soil was not exhausted, and that the failure pro- 

 ceeded from another cau-^e. Since that time I 

 have been in the habit, after harvesting my oats, 

 of turning the stubble under witli a gmg-plow to 

 th« de|)th of two or three inches', letting the ground 

 remain until the oat« are up, then turning them 

 un<!er with an ordinary plow and sowing my 

 wheat, and I have uniformly raised as good wheat. 

 nft'T oats as after any (rther spring crops. I am 

 satisfied that the failure to r.aise wheat after oats 

 nriwe* from the early and rapid growth of the oats, 

 thereby choakiug out the wheat." 



Will our readers give as their yiews on this sub- 

 ject? It is one not only of practical importance, 

 but of mtidi scientific interest. 



A leaf of the tob-ncco plant has beeaileftat the 

 oflBce of the Burlington Timet, of the astonishing 

 growth of forty inches in length and Xw.^pty in 

 width. 



CAN COTTON BE PROFITABLY GROWN IN THB 



LOYAL STATES] \ 



As our readers know, a considerable breadth of 

 land in Soutiiern Illinois was planted last spring to 

 cotton, and high hopes were entertained of its suc- 

 cess. A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune 

 says the experiment has proved a failure, and adds: 



" The failure of the cotton planting experiment 

 in Illinois, though resulting from a frost, which i» 

 extraordinary lor its extent and severity at so 

 early a day, will at any rate save the people from 

 the temptation to make similar experiments in 

 future. A very favorable season would have lured 

 them into most expensive enterprises in future 

 years, which could not be otherwise than disas- 

 trous. It is surprising that intelligent men should 

 have encouraged the farmers of Illinois, Missouri 

 and Kansas to attempt cotton planting, when the 

 fiict is notorious that the plant is never cultivated, 

 except on a very small scale, in North Carolina and 

 Tennessee, north of the 36th parallel of latitude 

 Not one of the northern counties of these State» 

 raises cotton to any extent. 



"Between the 35th and 36th degrees, cotton is 

 cultivated, often successfully, but is subject to be 

 bligiited by frost. The most northern county in 

 North Carolina where cotton is cultivated exten- 

 sively and successfully is Edgecomb, which is sit- 

 uated in the lowland, and has its climate tempered 

 by the sea breezes. The upland counties in the 

 same latitude cultivate cotton on a small scale, but 

 often have their crops cut off by frost. But in the 

 western part of the State, that is to say, west of 

 Raleigh— the State capital — cotton is not success- 

 fully planted, except in the counties bordering or 

 near to the line of South Carolina. 



"In Tennessee, in the same latitudes, the results 

 are the same. Maury, of which Columbia is the 

 county seat, is one of the finest counties in the 

 Mississippi Valley. It is southwest of Nashville, 

 with a large country between, and yet the cotton 

 culture is most uncertain. When successful it is 

 very fine, but the planters count npon not more 

 than two crops in three. The census of 1850 fully 

 sustains these statements, and it is surprising that 

 there was a determined purpose to overlook them. 



" One or two of the northern counties of North 

 Carolina produce about as much cotton as a first- 

 class plantation on the Red river, but those are sit- 

 uated in the lowlands of the East. The cotton 

 statistics of Tennessee show that even in the low- 

 lands between the Tennessee and the Mississippi 

 river, no cotton is produced in counties on the 

 Kentucky border— in Obion, Weakly, «fec., while 

 the southern counties between the same rivers ri- 

 val the best cotton districts of Mississippi in pro- 

 ductiveness. In Arkansas the same law of climate 

 prevails. The southern counties constitute the 

 very heart and center of the cotton region of the 

 United States, while the northern counties product 

 very little, and some of them none at all, although 

 tlie soil is higldy fertile. If people will attempt to 

 produce tropical or semi-tr.opical plants in the 

 coMer regions of the North, they have no alterna- 

 tive but to put them in hot-houses." 



On the other hand, a gentleman residing ia 

 Southern Illinois contends, in the New York Tri- 



