1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



183 



plow a clover-ley in August, top-dress with guano 

 or fine manure, or completely invert greensward. 

 Last of August, roll down the furrows, manure, 

 harrow well, then sow wheat and grass seeds, and 

 clover seed in the spring. If the wheat should 

 happen to fail, you will be likely to get a good 

 field of grass. But more than three-fourths of the 

 wheat I have grown, has been on inverted sod, and 

 usually has done better than that on old ground. 

 I am satisfied that most of our farmers can grow 

 winter wheat with more certainty than they can 

 spring wheat, and that it would be better for them 

 to raise wheat for family use, than to purchase 

 western flour. 



The varieties of wheat I have grown, as field 

 crops, have all, except the Japan, been "white, 

 bald wheats ;" these make a whiter quality of flour 

 than the red chafied and bearded wheats, but I am 

 not sure as these "white, bald sorts" are as hardy 

 and pi'oductive as the bearded varieties. 



In August, 1860, I forwarded to Col. A. G. 

 Boyd, Hancock, Md., samples of five varieties of 

 winter wheat, which he sowed in September, 1860. 

 In August last I received a letter from Col. B., in 

 which he says : "All the varieties of wheat you 

 sent me last fall, I observe are smooth (bald.) 

 There is existing among our farmers a prejudice 

 against smooth wheat, and I am beginning to be 

 of the opinion that it is not without substantial 

 reasons. Certain it is, that our smooth varieties 

 are more subject to the ravages of the fly and oth- 

 er insects, and to the elemental diseases incident 

 to the wheat crop, and yield little or nothing, 

 whilst the bearded varieties, with few exceptions, 

 escape the insect and these diseases, and j-ield re- 

 munerative crops." 



I have grown from 10 to 16 bushels of bald 

 wheat from the bushel of seed sown — and some of 

 our farmers have done better, getting 20 or more 

 to the bushel of seed. But among the dozen va- 

 rieties of wheats I experimented with (in drills) 

 the past season, four of them were bearded wheats. 

 While growing, and when harvested, I was satis- 

 fied that the bearded varieties were the most pro- 

 ductive, the produce of Avhich has been sown, as 

 well as several other varieties, (14 in all,) and an- 

 other season I hope to be able to test the correct- 

 ness of Col. Boyd's views. If the bearded varie- 

 ties prove decidedly the hardiest and productive, 

 I shall cultivate them in preference to the smooth, 

 or awnless sorts. 



I wish I had an opportunity of forwarding you 

 a few heads, each, of the diff"erent varieties I grew 

 the past season. It would satisfy you that beau- 

 tiful samples of winter wheat have been grown in 

 the "Old Granite State" — and I am full in the 

 faith it can be done again. Taking a scries of ten 

 years, I believe we can grow winter wheat, with as 

 much certainty as it can be grown in any other of 

 the States in the Union, or out of it. 

 Yours, most respectfully, 



Levi Bartlett. 



Warner, N. H., Dec. 16, 1861, 



Soaking of Seeds. — One of the best methods 

 of preparation of seeds for an early start is to soak 

 them in diluted liquid manure. Hen dung is 

 much recommended for this purpose. Sometimes 

 soaked seeds do not come forward, or rot in the 

 ground ; but frequently it is the case that the seeds 



are not attended to, but are allowed to heat, or 

 sometimes to get dry, before they are sown. 

 Another point is to have, for small seeds, the soil 

 in a warm friable condition ; if the seeds are soaked 

 and the surface of the soil is warm, and the soil 

 itself is pressed down close to the seed, by rolling, 

 or the hoe, when the sowing is done, it will make 

 a material diffei-ence in the time which they will 

 take to sprout ; and besides this, the manure with 

 which their out«r coat is saturated, protects them 

 from the attacks of worms and insects. — Michigan 

 Farmer. 



PEED TOUR CROPS. 



Dr. Beccana, more than a century ago, re- 

 marked that "we are composed of the same sub- 

 stances which sen'e as our nourishment." The 

 same observation applies with equal correctness 

 to plants. Dr. Lee, when Principal of the Agri- 

 cultural School near Rochester, New York, sever- 

 al years ago, took considerable pains to demon- 

 strate this fact. "He first," says a writer, "ana- 

 lyzes the plant or produce, and finds out what it is 

 made of. He then knows what materials must be 

 supplied to feed it in order to obtain a good crop." 

 He ascertained, by a series of very ingenious and 

 carefully conducted experiments, that one hun- 

 dred pounds of Avheat ashes contained forty-seven 

 pounds of phosphoric acid. In one hundred 

 pounds of the ashes of oak wood, he found there 

 were two pounds of phosphoric acid. In com- 

 menting upon tills fact, the writer above men- 

 tioned says : 



"Now how many pounds of drj^ oak ashes must 

 be applied to an acre to give a crop of wheat, both 

 straw and grain, equal to thirty bushels, and sup- 

 ply it with all the phosphoric matter needed ? In 

 order to solve this problem, we must remark that 

 thirty bushels of wheat at 60 pounds per bushel, 

 will weigh 1,800 pounds. One hundred pounds 

 of wheat, when burned, will yield 2^ pounds of 

 ashes. Of course, 1,800 pounds of wheat, will 

 contain 40^ pounds of ashes, and thus40A pounds 

 will contain a trifle over 19 pounds of phosphoric 

 acid. To one pound of wheat there is usually 2h 

 pounds of straw ; we shall, therefore, in order to 

 produce 30 bushels of wheat, have about 4,500 

 pounds of straw, containing 315 pounds of incom- 

 bustible matter, which, if burned, will he left in 

 the form of ashes. It has been found by experi- 

 ment that ] 00 pounds of ashes from wheat straw, 

 contain 3 and 1-lOth pounds of phosphoric acid. 

 This 4,500 pounds of straw will contain, therefore, 

 9.76 pounds of phosphoric acid, which, added to 

 the 19 pounds in the wheat, will make 28.76 

 pounds. Now, if you want to supply this phos- 

 phoric acid by the application of oak ashes, con- 

 taining 2 pounds in every 100 pounds, you will 

 need 1,400 pounds. A bushel of such ashes will 

 weigh nearly 70 pounds, so that you will want 

 twenty bushels of ashes." 



