No. 2. 



Wheat Solving. 



59 



6ive cultivator of the soil in this country, 

 says, " The language of English farmers is, 

 wheat on clover-lay should be sown after one 

 ploughing ;" and to conform to this doctrine, 

 I conducted this business on fifteen acres in 

 this manner. The clover having been once 

 cut for hay, and then pastured lightly, the 

 lay was turned in deep, and the furrows laid 

 close and compact. The wheat was sown 

 broad-cast, and twice harrowed in the direc- 

 tion the land was ploughed, and then the 

 land was rolled. The crop stood well and 

 yielded satisfactorily. The operations of 

 ploughing, harrowing, sowing and rolling, 

 followed each other immediately without any 

 pause ; but Mr. Macro's experience is against 

 this immediate sowing upon ploughing in the 

 clover-lay, and his experiments were often 

 repeated ; while mine was a single instance, 

 which, although it proved highly satisfactory 

 in general, was without any pointed particu- 

 lars relating to a much greater produce. — 

 Mr. Macro gives the following encouraging 

 detail of his practice and success. " From 

 upwards of twenty years of experience, I am 

 of opinion, that the best way of sowing clover 

 lands With wheat, is, to plough the iand ten 

 or twelve days before you sow it, that it may 

 have time to dry ; and after that rain has fal- 

 len sufficient to cause the land to dress well, 

 lay on the seed in September, two bushels 

 per acre. I am at a loss to account for the 

 wheat thriving better on lands that have been 

 ploughed for some time before the seed is 

 sown, than on fresh ploughed lands, which 

 work better, and constitute a better bed for 

 the reception of the grain, but I have often 

 tried both ways on the same lands, and have 

 always found the former answer the best." 

 And Kliyogg, the Swiss farmer, says, that 

 wheat shoots strongest when there is an in- 

 terval between the time of ploughing - and 

 sowing. 



Mr. Singleton of Talbot, a person entirely 

 to be depended upon, says, while walking in 

 his wheat-field, he was surprised to find that 

 the crop was much superior on the worst part 

 of the field, where the soil was the poorest 

 and the thinnest, it being taller, with stronger 

 straw and larger ears. This part of the field 

 had been in clover, which was twice mown, 

 and in August it was broken up and sown 

 with wheat on the first day of September ; 

 while the other part of the field, the best 

 land, had the clover broken up in March for 

 the purpose of sowing tobacco: but this crop 

 being laid aside, the land was repeatedly 

 ploughed during the summer as a fallow, and 

 sown also on the first day of September with 

 wheat ; the yield from which was only four- 

 teen bushels and a half per acre ; when the 

 part which had been twice mown, and but 



once ploughed, gave twenty-four bushels and 

 a half per acre ! This difference is great 

 indeed, if we add the value of the two crops 

 of clover, and deduct the expense of the 

 summer ploughings, and abundantly prove 

 the superiority of wheat sown on one earth. 

 He adds, " I have found it quite safe to sow 

 wheat during a drought on clover-lay once 

 ploughed, and when the soil is very dry; 

 but not when a light rain has fallen on very 

 dry land: in the former case, the seed is 

 safe until rain falls, which is usually plenty 

 after a drought, for then the seed comes 

 quickly up ; but in the other case, it is only 

 slightly damped, and swells; but the mois- 

 ture is so soon evaporated, as to leave the 

 seed to malt and perish." 



My own individual experience, is all in 

 favour of wheat on clover-lay after once 

 ploughing; if the land has been manured the 

 preceding spring as a top-dres.ing to the 

 young clover, so much the better ; indeed, I 

 consider this mode of management, the beau 

 ideal of good farming — but I by no means 

 make this a sine qua non in my creed, for 

 the best wheat is often grown on land by no 

 means the richest ; perfect cultivation being 

 of far more importance. I have always found, 

 too, that the season of wheat-sowing can be 

 very much extended with perfect impunity 

 on lay-land once ploughed ; having myself 

 sown so early as the first days of September, 

 and so late as November, the same year, with 

 the same success ; but such liberty could not 

 be taken with fallow-land, as I know to my 

 cost. The practice is, to begin sowing early 

 on lay-land ; and when a portion of this is 

 sown, to commence on the tallow ; and after 

 they are all sown, to turn about and finish 

 with the lay-land, by which the seed season 

 on a large farm, can be prolonged to an al- 

 most indefinite extent. I have often known 

 excellent lay-crops of wheat, from even a 

 December sowing — a circumstance of great 

 importance on farms of large extent. 



But I perceive that many of my neighbours 

 are turning down their second crop of clover, 

 with the view to run the land back, and sow 

 wheat on the half-decomposed clover ; while 

 others contemplate a third ploughing, by 

 turning back again the clover-sod. Now, all 

 this appears just in opposition to the desire 

 to obtain " a close and compact seed-bed for 

 the wheat," and is a partial tallowing process, 

 which in this climate cannot, one would sup- 

 pose, be the best adapted to secure a strength 

 and vigour in the plant, which every one has 

 seen to arise from a sowing on clover-lay ; 

 besides incurring unnecessary labour and ex- 

 pense, without the slightest ground for the 

 expectation of a correspondent advantage — 

 this I do not understand, and am therefore 



