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Buckwheat or Rag-weed ? — Culture of Wheat. Vol. VII. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Buckwheat, or Rag-weed? 



In a section of country where I reside, it 

 is believed by many, that to take a crop of 

 buckwheat after a crop of grain, is a very 

 exhausting process, and a bad mode of man- 

 agement. I have this day walked over the 

 wheat-field of one of those considerate cul- 

 tivators, and find the stubble of the former 

 wheat-crop thickly planted with rag-weed, 

 two feet in height, now just coming into 

 bloom. On pulling up one of these weeds, 

 and examining its strong, woody and far- 

 extended roots, I am tempted to ask, which 

 of these crops — the rag-weed, or the buck- 

 wheat, with its proverbially delicate and ten- 

 der roots and stocks, is most likely to draw 

 the greatest quantity of nourishment from 

 the soil] and to answer, the rag-weed, an 

 hundred fold. It is really amusing to notice 

 persons, who are so careful of their soil as to 

 deprecate the sowing of buckwheat after a 

 winter crop of grain, lest the land might, by 

 such treatment become exhausted ; and to ^ee 

 them grow the rag-weed, lamb's-quarter, 

 mullein and other tremendously-exhausting 

 crops, about the height of their fences, under 

 the idea that their land is at rest! and would 

 be injured by raising another crop of artificial 

 growth of any kind. Now the question is 

 not, whether a second crop be exhausting, 

 merely as such — for it is certain that the 

 land will be fully planted with something, 

 and will not rest — but, which crop is the 

 most exhausting, a natural, or an artificial 

 or cultivated one '? and in the present inqui- 

 ry, I answer, confidently, the natural crop, 

 which will, assuredly, take full possession of 

 the land and keep it, if no other is sown. 

 But, besides this, I argue, that ploughing 

 down the wheat stubble immediately after 

 harvest, and sowing buckwheat, is compara- 

 tively, a renovating process; for it not only 

 rids the land of an exhausting crop of weeds, 

 but makes manure of them and the stubble, 

 to the amount of far more than the nourish- 

 ment which the crop will draw from the soil; 

 leaving the land clean and fit to be thrown 

 up as a winter fallow, in first-rate order for 

 an early spring crop. And after this, sup- 

 pose our careful friends were to sell their 

 buckwheat, than which no crop is more easi- 

 ly and cheaply grown and harvested, and 

 faithfully expend the whole money in ma- 

 nure, to be given to this clean fallow in the 

 spring — would they then account the prac- 

 tice exhausting? I guess not; but if to save 

 labour and an outlay for seed be their object, 

 they have it, and their reward ; but let them 

 cease to talk about their anxiety to save their 

 land, by such short-sighted miserable policy. 



I repeat, — the question is, not which is the 

 most exhausting process, — a crop of buck- 

 wheat, or a rest for the land 1 but, which is 

 the most exhausting of the crops, buckwheat 

 or rag-weed ? for weeds will fill the soil, un- 

 less it be planted with useful crops; but then 

 they will give place, provided the earth is 

 well cultivated and prepared by proper pul- 

 verization, and the crop be well tended — 

 on the immutable axiom ; 



" If good we plant not, vice will fill the place." 



L.W. 



Montgomery co., 29th Aug. 1842. 



Culture of "Wheat. 



Plough deep, if for no other reason than 

 to bring the lime to the surface. Lime must 

 be had to produce a good crop of wheat; and 

 if it exist in the sub-soil, as is generally the 

 case in the West, deep ploughing will bring 

 it up. 



Time of Sowing. — For at least two good 

 and sufficient reasons, early sowing is best on 

 the prairies. The greater growth will afford 

 protection to the roots, so that the soil will 

 not be blown from around them, as is fre- 

 quently the case, and then left to freeze un- 

 covered. The snow will also be kept from 

 blowing away, thereby preventing early 

 thawing in the spring. The early starting 

 of vegetation in the spring and subsequent 

 freezing, as appears to us, is what is usual- 

 ly called winter-killing — spring-killing we 

 think more proper. 



Again, our wheat being so peculiarly lia- 

 ble to rust, it is desirable to have it mature 

 as early in the summer as possible, so as to 

 be out of danger from the hot, damp, murky 

 days so common in mid-summer, and which 

 unquestionably are the cause of rust. For 

 this reason it should be sown as early as pos- 

 sible, and not have the heads so far advanced 

 as to be injured by the frosts of winter. The 

 proper season of sowing will of course vary 

 with the latitude. 



Cover with the Plough. — We have never 

 seen a firmer who ploughed in his wheat, 

 who did not say it was much better than har- 

 rowing. The chief advantage seems to be, 

 it roots so much deeper, that it is not thrown 

 out by the early spring thaws, and then fro- 

 zen. 



Roll it with a heavy roller immediately 

 after sowing; again late in the fall; and 

 again as soon in the spring as the ground is 

 dry enough so as not to adhere to the roller 

 and pull up the wheat. — Union AgricuVt. 



A tidy man will not suffer the weeds to 

 grow round his house ; nor feed his hogs in 

 the high-way. 



