26 WHEAT CULTURE. 



Her harvests, leaving time and room to make more per- 

 fect preparations for early planting. But with early 

 harvesting of the main crop, a portion of the largest and 

 finest of the grain, sufficient for their needed seed, should 

 be left standing to ripen perfectly, to be gathered by hand 

 with cradle or sickle, and then also thrashed by hand 

 with the flail. 



Many more arguments or reasons could be given for 

 early planting or early harvesting, but space requires us 

 to be brief. 



PROPER DEPTH TO PLANT. 



In the matter of depth to plant, as in regard to time 

 of sowing, nature's methods may be considered, making 

 due allowance for attendant circumstances. Nature 

 drops the seed on the surface, then covers it very slightly 

 with only dust and light leaf -mould or straw and chaff 

 from the parent plant and surrounding litter to shelter 

 it from the sun-rays ; she fflants in the shade, where de- 

 caying matters cover and nourish until the plant is fairly 

 rooted, but she never plants deeply nor covers heavily. 



Several circumstances must dictate the proper depth 

 for wheat in different localities, such as the kind of soil, 

 the degree of temperature and moisture, and the season 

 at which the planting is done ; these and other condi- 

 tions must^ more or less, control the matter, so that no 

 invariable rule can be laid down for all situations and 

 periods, but much must be left to the judgment and skill 

 of the operator. In light, porous soils, that are rather 

 dry and warm, more depth of covering will be needed 

 than in heavy, moist lands. About one inch in the for- 

 mer and three-fourths of an inch in the latter will not be 

 far from right, as a general practice. A depth of not 

 less than three-fourths of an inch nor more than an inch 

 and a half are probably the extremes for wheat, to secure 

 the best results. Sandy and gravelly lands will admit of 



