34 CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



A general rule, applicable to all cases in which wheat is 

 sown, is, that the land shall be in the best condition that cir- 

 cumstances allow, with respect to tillage, cleanness and fertility. 

 As wheat is the most valuable of the cereal grasses, so it requires 

 greater care than the others to produce it. It is an error in 

 practice, to sow with a grain crop, any land which is out of 

 order; but this error is greater and more hurtful in the case of 

 wheat than of almost any other grain crop. 



As the wheat crop generally receives no further culture after 

 it is committed to the eaith, the soil intended for its reception 

 should be brought into as fine condition as possible. To ac- 

 complish this, manuring and thorough culture are indispensa- 

 ble: if this is attended to, the soil will be in a loose, mellow 

 and fertile state, and possessing such a depth of tilth as will 

 have a tendency to preserve it in good condition. 



Most crops require high manuring and a rich soil, and it is 

 scarcely possible to carry this to excess, especially in the case 

 of corn: but with wheat the case is otherwise. Land, naturally 

 very rich or very highly manured, is apt to cause during tfte hot 

 season of summer, a too rapid growth of straw, at the expense 

 of the seed; and rust, lodging, and ultimate failure, is fre- 

 quently the consequence.* 



It is an established law in vegetable economy, that an extraordinary growth 

 of the stem and leaves is always at the expense of the fruit or seed. Hence, 

 fruit trees very rarely bear while in a very thrifty state; but require first to be 

 checked in their growth, in order to produce fruit. 



Now, as it is during the heat of summer, a season when vegetation ad- 

 vances most rapidly, that wheat matures its seed, it is more liable, on this ac- 

 count, to suffer from too vigorous a growth, than other plants which ripen 

 their seed later in the season, such as Indian corn. 



In modern tillage, wheat more generally follows clover than 

 any other crop; years of practice having confirmed the opinion 

 entertained by many intelligent farmers, that clover is the best 

 preparative for a crop of wheat. The practice is as follows: 

 The clover field having been mowed or fed off, is generally 

 turned up the second year of its having been laid down to 

 grass. In this case, all "farmers who work it right, give but 

 one ploughing, and harrow in the seed by passing the harrow 

 twice in a place the same way with the furrows." 



If the clover sod is completely subverted by the furrow slice 

 being turned flat, whereby all the vegetable matter is com- 

 pletely shut in, or buried, the sward thus turned in, will begin 

 to decompose, according to the favourable state of the weather 

 and other circumstances, in from ten to fifteen days. This, by 

 many, is considered as the proper time for putting in the 

 wheat. 



* Genesee Farmer, vol. v. page 273. 



