THE GENESEE FAKMER. 



21 



depth, &c., you may sow all your seeds at impi'oper 

 depth, while if you, under the same circumstances, 

 sow broadcast, some of your seed will be pretty 

 eure to be right. s. b. p. 



Oorham, Oniario Co., N. T., Nov. 22. 1858. 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DRILLING 

 WHEAT AND OTHER GRAINS. 



The Advantages of Drilling. — It is an estab- 

 lished fact that the small grains require to be planted 

 at a depth not less than one inch nor more than 

 two inches to insure germination and growth. If 

 planted deeper, the seeds do not all grow ; and it 

 less than one inch deep, they are liable to be 

 exposed to the depredation of birds, fowls or 

 vermin, or to become desiccated, and the germ 

 thereby killed. Experiments and experience have 

 both shown that the seeds of all the cereals grow 

 the most readily and surely at an average depth of 

 one and a half inches. In order to insure this 

 depth of planting, grain drills or plows have to be 

 resorted to ; but it is very difficult to set a plow or 

 gang of plows for so shallow a furrow, and in 

 consequence, grain drills, if well made and of 

 proper construction, are the only reliable means for 

 planting at a uniform depth. The drill also covers 

 every kernel, giving birds and vermin no chance 

 for depredations, and, ©f course, requiring less seed 

 to be sown. Indeed, most farmers who use drills, 

 say the saving in seed pays the cost of drilling. — 

 Furthermore, the seed is left in the bottom of 

 parallel furrows, and a small ridge is thrown up 

 between ; that is worked by the action of the 

 frosts of winter over the roots of the grain, thus 

 preventing winter-killing. Grain can be sowed 

 with a drill as well during high winds as when it 

 is calm; thus rendering the farmer in a greater 

 degree independent of the weather. Lastly, but 

 not least by any means, in order to drill in grain 

 well, the land must be in good tilth, well plowed, 

 and thoroughly harrowed. No half-way work will 

 do ; for if the land is not thoroughly pulverized, the 

 drill wiU not cover the seed, and the labor is lost. 

 Therefore, drilling, -by covering the seed at a uniform 

 depth, by covering all the seed, by not permitting 

 it to be blown about by the winds, by preventing 

 winter-killing of fall grain, and by requiring good 

 cultivation of the soil, preparatory to sowing any 

 kind of grain, is the best manner of sowing the 

 cereal grains. 



The Disadvantages of Drilling. — After the 

 land has been harrowed and plowed, one way, by 

 sowing the seed on broadcast, and then cross-har- 

 rowing, there is a saving of time, as when the 

 harrowing is finished the work is finished. In the 

 spring of the year it very oftens happens that by 

 waiting to drill after harrowing both ways, a rain 

 comes on, and the grain can not be sown for several 

 days; whereas, had it been sown broadcast, it 

 would have beea up. A week in the spyng makes 

 a great difference at harvest. Often a field sown a 

 week before another yields double the crop per 

 acre, ceteris jyaribus. If winter grain be sown 

 broadcast on well-drained land, it wUl not winter- 

 kill. 



Ih-go., drilling is often a positive disadvantage in 

 Bowing spring grains, and of no material advantage 



in sowing winter grains on well-drained and mel- 

 low soil. 



These are the advantages and disadvantages of 

 drilling, .according to my own experience and that 

 of my neighbors. D. A. A. Nicqols. 



Chatavque Co., N. Y., Nov. 1858. 



WHEAT FARMS FOR DLARY PURPOSES. 



" Wheat failing;, can farmers on the same lands make the diary 

 business profitable ?" 



They certainly can, at the present price of diary 

 produce. There are not many wheat lands, or at 

 least few of what were once considered good wheat 

 land, but will bear at present fair if not large crops 

 of grass for pasturage in summer, or to be cut for 

 feeding in winter. The raising of wheat for a long 

 time upon the same land, has removed the neces- 

 sary constituents from the soil for its full perfec- 

 tion ; consequently, the crop has in a measure 

 failed. The feeble growth of the plants, owing to 

 the unfitness of the soil, invite, as it were, numer- 

 ous insects, which prey upon and destroy what 

 little grain there otherwise would have been. 



Now, a fai-mer with say one hundred acres or 

 more, who has always made wheat raising his 

 business, finds it wiU no longer pay. He must 

 change his productions, or his farm will prove un- 

 profitable, lie lays down his former wheat fields 

 to grass, which no doubt, although they will not 

 produce wheat, will produce fine grass; he pur- 

 chases as many cows as he can keep well ; and, as 

 the saying is, goes into the diary business. The 

 former wheat grower is now on a par with the 

 farmer in some other section of country, who, 

 from the nature of his soil, was compelled to 

 adopt the diary business in the first place, except 

 that perhaps his lands are better ; for wheat lands, 

 wherever I have observed any seeded-to grass, al- 

 ways yield better crops than most of the lands 

 that will not produce wheat. There appears no 

 reason why the wheat grower may not make the 

 diary business profitable. Butter and cheese bring 

 a good price, and cattle are an average, though 

 not as high as some time ago. And there is an- 

 other advantage in the diary business. The 

 manure from a large number of cows, if applied 

 with judgment, would in a few years, perhaps, 

 enable the diaryman to pursue again the business 

 of a wheat-raiser. 



When wheat has failed, an entire change in the 

 rotation and cultivation of the farm is required, 

 and no method can be pursued better calculated to 

 produce as beneficial an effect as keeping cattle { 

 and cows are by far the most profitable, as it 

 enables the farmer to raise pork and young 

 stock cheaper than he otherwise could; for the 

 cost of raising calves the first summer, and keep- 

 ing hogs, except a month or two in the fall, are 

 almost nothing, taking out the cost of tending, and 

 almost a clear profit. But no one doubts the 

 profits of the dairy business ; and why should not 

 the wheat-raiser, with his good soil for all crops ex- 

 cept of the wheat class, make his fine improved 

 farm profitable as well as others, especially 

 until, by a change of management, the, former 

 wheat producing condition of the soil is again pro- 

 duced, when wheat growing can again be resumsd 

 if desired ? e. p. paemeb. 



