166 [Assembly 



CULTURE OF WHEAT. 



To the American Institute : 



My father, Elisha Nash, of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, some 

 years since, sowed two fields of spring wheat the same season. The 

 soil on which it was sown, was formed from the decomposition of 

 granite, mica slate and other primitive rocks. 



The first field was located on rolling land, near the crown of the 

 swell; it contained about one-third of an acre by measurement. It 

 had been cropped for several years previous, alternately with Indian 

 corn and potatoes. The land was in fair tilth, though not remarka- 

 bly rich, it was good mellow tillaged land, and nothing more. 



In the spring of the year the land was prepared for a crop of wheat 

 and it produced a remarkably large yield by the acre. There was 

 gathered from it full eighteen bushels of sound wheat, free from smut 

 or disease of any kind. The straw grew large, of a golden bright 

 color. The wheat when ground, produced flour of an excellent 

 quality. The berry of the wheat was plump and the heads on the 

 straw were heavy and contained from sixty to eighty kernels of grain 

 in the single head. 



Granite and mica slate and primitive rock soils are usually unfa- 

 vorable to the growth of wheat, and a very large crop from this piece 

 of land was not anticipated. Tue undertaking to raise a crop of 

 wheat from this soil was more an experiment than otherwise, but it 

 bountifully rewarded the labor and expense of the culture. 



Before plowing, there was carted and spread over the ground about 

 twenty loads of manure, or soil taken from under two stables where 

 cattle had been housed several years This soil appeared to have 

 been strongly impregnated with the urine from the stables. The ma- 

 nure thus acquired being spread over the land, was plowed under at 

 the first plowing. The land was cross plowed by a light plow. The 

 field was then sown with fair red spring wheat, and then harrowed 

 in. The wheat sown on the field was prepared in the following man- 



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