18 WHEAT CULTURE. 



CHAPTER IV. 



INCIDENTAL REQUIREMENTS TO A LARGE YIELD. 

 PREPARING THE SEED-BED. 



Incidental to the six essential points named, is the 

 planting of the seed and the immediate preparation of 

 the surface to receive it. The ground should be more 

 thoroughly harrowed than some farmers do it, to level 

 and fine it as completely as possible, but all farmers well 

 know that the harrow will not crush the lumps, though 

 it cuts some of them to pieces while it pushes others 

 aside. The roller crushes and finely powders nearly all 

 of the surface soil, making a fine seed-bed for the drill 

 to run through and plant the seed, which it leaves in 

 shallow gutters, lightly covered with small ridges each 

 side. The ridges prevent the seed and young plant from 

 being blown bare in high winds, and will also catch the 

 snow and hold it to cover and shelter the wheat. 



TOP-DRESSING INSECTS AND DISEASES. 



When the grain is well up in the fall, it will more than 

 pay the cost to spread six or eight bushels of plaster to 

 the acre on the crop, and after the frosts appear and the 

 plants begin to be dormant, a dressing of four to six bush- 

 els of common salt, per acre, will be worth more than the 

 outlay, not only by making the crop more luxuriant, but 

 also by affording much security against injury by rust 

 and insects. In the spring again, as soon as the ground 

 is dry enough to allow of walking over it comfortably, a 

 dressing of four or five bushels to the acre of fine lime 

 will afford still further security against all insects or dis- 

 eases. Sowing lime and plaster as a top-dressing, fall 

 and spring, is needed for each crop, but the ten or fifteen 



