214 TALKS ON MANURES. 



climate of England is better adapted for wheat-growing than West- 

 ern New York." 



" I do not think," said I, " that Mr. Lawes' land is any better 

 than yours or mine; and I do not think the climate of England is 

 any more favorable for growing wheat without manure than our 

 climate. If there is any difference it is in our favor." 



" Why, then," asked the Doctor, " do we not grow as much 

 wheat per acre as Mr. Lawes gets from his continuously unmanured 

 plot?" 



This is a question net difficult to answer. 



1st. We grow too many weeds. Mr. Lawes plowed the land twice 

 every year; and the crop was hoed once or twice in the spring to 

 kill the weeds. 



2d. We do not half work our heavy land. We do not plow it 

 enough tlo not cultivate, harrow, and roll enough. I have put 

 wheat in on my own farm, and have seen others do the same thing, 

 when the drill on the clay-spots could not deposit the seed an inch 

 deep. There is "plant-food" enough in these ''clay-spots" to 

 give 17 bushels of wheat per acre or perhaps 40 bushels but we 

 shall not get ten bushels. The wheat will not come up until 

 late in the autumn the plants will be weak and thin on the 

 ground ; and if they escape the winter they will not get a fair hold 

 of the ground until April or May. You know the result. The 

 straw is full of sap, and is almost sure to rust ; the grain shrinks 

 up, and we harvest the crop, not because it is worth the labor, but 

 because we cannot cut the wheat with a machine on the better 

 parts of the field without cutting these poor spots also. An acre 

 or two of poor spots pull down the average yield of the fiald 

 below" the average of Mr. Lawes' well-worked but unmanured land. 



3d. Much of our wheat is seriously injured by stagnant water in 

 tlic soil, and standing water on the surface. I think we may safely 

 say that one-third the wheat-crop of this county (Monroe Co., N. 

 Y.), is lost for want of better tillage and better draining and yet 

 we think we have as good wheat-land and are as good farmers as 

 can be found in this country or any other ! 



Unless we drain land, where drainage is needed, and unle?s we 

 work land thoroughly that needs working, and unless we kill the 

 weeds or check their excessive growth, it is poor economy to sow 

 expensive manures on our wheat-crops. 



But I do not think there is much danger of our falling into this 

 error. The farmers who try artificial manures are the men who 

 usually take the greatest pains to make the best and most manure 



