SUMMER-FALLOWING. 35 



the wheat is hand-hoed in the spring to keep it clean. A few years 

 ago, in a field adjoining this experimental wheat field, and that is 

 of the same character of land, he made the following experiment. 

 The land, after wheat, was fallowed, and then sown to wheat ; 

 then fallowed the next year, and again sown to wheat, and the next 

 year it was sown to wheat after wheat. The following is the re- 

 sult compared with the yield of the continuously unmanured plot 

 in the experimental field that is sown to wheat every year : 



1. YEAB No. 1 Fallow No crop. 



No. 2 Wheat after wheat 15 bushels 3* pecks per acre. 



2. YEAR No. 1 Wheat after fallow 37 " " " 



No. 2 Wheat after wheat 13 " 3* " " 



3. YEAR No. 1 Fallow after wheat No crop. 



No. 2 Wheat after wheat 15 bushels 3 pecks per acre. 



4. YEAR No. 1 Wheat after fallow 42 " " " 



No. 2 Wheat after wheat 21 " Oi " " 



5. YEAR-NO. 1 Wheat after wheat 17 " li " " 



No. 2 Wheat after wheat 17 " 



Taking the first four years, we have a total yield from the plot 

 sown every year of 66 bushels 2 pecks, and from the two crops 

 alternately fallowed, a total yield of 79 bushels. The next year, 

 when wheat was sown after wheat on the land previously fallowed, 

 the yield was almost identical with the yield from the plot that has 

 grown wheat after wheat for so many years. 



So far, these results do not indicate any exhaustion from the 

 practice of fallowing. On the other hand, they tend to show that 

 we can get more wheat by sowing it every other } r ear, than by 

 cropping it every year in succession. The reason for this may be 

 found in the fact that in a fallow the land is more frequently ex- 

 posed to the atmosphere by repeated plo wings and harrowings ; and 

 it should be borne in mind that the effect of stirring the land is not 

 necessarily in proportion to the total amount of stirring, but is 

 according to the number of times that fresh particles of soil are 

 exposed to the atmosphere. Two plowings and two harrowings 

 in one week, will not do as much good as two plowings and two 

 harrowings, at different times in the course of three or four months. 

 It is for this reason that I object, theoretically, to sowing wheat 

 after barley. We often plow the barley stubble twice, and spend 

 considerable labor in getting the land into good condition ; but it 

 is generally all done in the course of ten days or two weeks. We 

 do not get any adequate benefit for this labor. We can kill weeds 

 readily at this season, (August), but the stirring of the soil does 

 not develope the latent plant-focd to the extent it would if the 



