202 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



is a subject of much interest to many of our readers, 

 and like most others, hik< at least two sides, and was 

 not a little discussed in the circle of the writer's 

 friends during the several years he was connected 

 with the government at Washington. Looking at 

 American agriculture from an elevated point of view, 

 we believe tliat it will be best promoted by pursuing 

 a liberal pi^licy with all nations and provinces. It 

 is the general improvement and elevation of man- 

 kind which make farming so prosperous in this coun- 

 try; and at the risk of wounding some of the cherished 

 prejudices of a few of our subscribers, we shall soon 

 take the liberty of writing and publishing an elabo- 

 rate article on this subject. 



To be a skillful and successful wheat-gTOwer, one 

 needs considerable professional knowledge. The most 

 difficult points in the operation are to make the soil 

 precisely what it ought to be, and to prevent its 

 gradual deterioration by years of successive cropping. 

 Where nature has made the land just right for the 

 growth of wheat, its cultivation is as simple as any 

 tillage possibly can be. 



Where land is rich and adapted to wheat, the luxu- 

 rient growth of weeds is often trouljlesome and quite 

 injurious to the crop. To eradicate these, and clear 

 the ground of their seeds, it should be plowed early 

 in the season, which will give the weeds a fine start. 

 After all the seeds have germinated that will before 

 stirring the earth again, it should be cultivated with a 

 cultivator (one with wheels is best) as deeply as pos- 

 sible. Again the ground will be covered with weeds 

 and young grass; new seeds having been brought up 

 to the genial warmth of the sun. This crop of plants 

 must be destroyed by cultivation ; and the operation 

 indicated ought to be repeated until every pestiferous 

 seed has sprouted, and the soil is left clean and finely 

 pulverized, as well as rich, for the reception of seed 

 wheat. The latter should be sown in drills, if it con- 

 veniently can be, the ground rolled, and water fur- 

 rows well made, so as to prevent standing water, and 

 the furrows washing when heavy showers fall on the 

 field. Skillful tillage will produce an extra crop 

 where a careles.s, slovenly farmer will hardly harvest 

 grain enough to pay him for the labor he really per- 

 forms, and for the seed sown. 



Wheat-growers differ in their notions and practice 

 as to the quantity of seed that ought to be put on 

 an acre ; a bushel and a peck may be about the 

 average sown in Western New York — a few sowing 

 as much as two bushels, and some only one or less. 

 Wheat is often more or less broken and damaged for 

 seed in threshing ; in which case a larger amount is 

 used per acre. AVhere it is sown broadcast, either by 

 hand or a machine for the purpose, many cover it 

 with gang-plows made for the purpose, as well as 

 general cultivation. Some sow on ground as it is 

 left by a common plow, that the harrow may cast the 

 seed into quasi-drills between the ridges made by 

 plowing as the seed is covered. This is regarded as 

 better than to haiTow the ground level before the 

 seed is sown. It is important to cover the seed as 

 evenly as possible, and to sow it soon after a rain, so 

 that the moist earth will adhere to the seed. Seed 

 sown in a dry, open soil, often dies soon after it has 

 sprouted, becf ase its young root can not. so to speak, 

 take hold of ',e earth. Too much air dries and kills 



it. Hence the wisdom of using a roller to compress 

 the earth against the seed, and the advantage of 

 striking the back of a hoe on a hill of corn as it is 

 planted. 



Summer fallows for wheat require considerable at- 

 tention. Where one has a good flock of sheep they 

 nuxy aid in keeping down grass and weeds, and in 

 manuring the land by letting them gather feed all day 

 on some rich, perhaps low ground pasture, and then 

 be turned upon the fallow to spend the night. Be- 

 fore they are turned out in the morning they will pick 

 up a good deal of green herbage, and altogether the 

 ground will be considerably improved by their assist- 

 ance. Many farmers are not aware how much stock 

 may do to convey the elements of fertility in low pas- 

 tures and meadows upon arable uplands, at a trifling 

 expense. A farm may possess valuable resources in 

 low spots whence issue springs or flow rivulets, which 

 are entirely overlooked or neglected by the owner. 

 When rain falls upon the earth, passes through the 

 surface soil and subsoil and the water appears in 

 springs, it brings v/ith it not a little of the soluble, 

 vegetable and mineral constituents of all agricultural 

 plants. To allow these elements to run to waste, is 

 bad, very bad, economy. The great truth must ever 

 be borne in mind, that the poverty of the soil limits 

 the growth of wheat. Hence, how to enrich the soil 

 in an economical way is a question of universal inter- 

 est. With our almost unlimited area of virgin lands, 

 the necessity of saving the raw nuiterial of wheat and 

 other crops is not so generally appreciated as it ought 

 to be. This is a misfortune which we have done our 

 best to avert. Neither the d^_mizens of cities and 

 villages, nor the people in the country, are willing to 

 give this subject that earnest attention which its im- 

 portance demands. Every where our countrymen 

 seek amusement more than instruction. So long as 

 this disposition is indulged, agricultural science must 

 languish, while '* Rural" Humbugs that cater for 

 every popular passion and prejudice will wax fat, on 

 tlie same principle that houses of ill-fame and dens 

 for gamblers and tiplers make the fortunes of their 

 proprietors. Broad is the road that leads to ruin ; 

 and to be popular with the multitude is no evidence 

 of either knowledge or virtue. 



Ijinie in the form of a hydrate, as slaked after burn- 

 ing, as a sulphate in gypsum, and as a phosphate in 

 bones, has long been used for the improvement of 

 wheat lands. They are generally distinguished for 

 the calcareous nature of some of the rocks, or de- 

 posits, from which they have been partly formed, 

 where nature has furnished man with good wheat 

 soils. Remove all the lime from the soil of Western 

 New York, and Monroe county would cease to pro- 

 duce a million and a half bushels of wheat a year. 

 Gypsum grows in several places, and is sold at two 

 dollars a ton, ground, because sulphur exists in com- 

 bination with iron; and from this compound is formed 

 the oil of vitriol, by the union of oxygen with sul- 

 phur; and this oil of vitriol combines with the oxide 

 of iron to form copperas, and with lime to form 

 gypsum. 



Many a soil abounds in both iron and alum salts 

 (sulphates and phosphates of iron and alumina), that 

 lack only lime to decompose these often injurious salts, 

 and form in their stead both plaster of Paris and the 



