232 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



turn clover sod, and sow and harrow in wheat, and get a good crop. We 

 count thirty bushels of wheat per acre a first-rate crop. 



R. G. Pardee. — That may do on the old fields of Long Island, but gen- 

 erally I do not think it would answer. The soil must be manipulated until 

 it is thoroughly pulverized. At least eight per cent of the soil must be 

 made as fine as flour Generally, wheat fields are not pulverized half as 

 much as would be profitable. On new lands the surface is covered with 

 that finely pulverized soil, of the woods' mold. After that is exhausted 

 the land fails to produce because the owner fails to pulverize it sufficiently. 

 The reason Mr. Fuller is so successful as a horticulturist, is because he 

 has made his soil pulverient. The forepart of July is the best time to stir 

 the soil, and make it very fine. It cannot be made too fine for any 

 purpose. 



Mr. Van Brunt, of Long Island. — We sow wheat upon land that has 

 been in garden vegetables and well worked during the summer, and conse- 

 quently does not require so much stirring at the time of sowing. 



Mr. Fuller. — My rule is to stir land at any time — any month. I would 

 like to hoe my garden every day. 



Mr. Quiun, the manager of Prof. Mapes's farm — The best crop of wheat 

 I have ever seen was upon well-drained land, near Newark, N. J., plowed 

 deep and fertilized with superphosphate, and finally pulverized, and drilled 

 in, and cultivated. It produced 50 bushels per acre. Until we adopt 

 some such improvement, as a general thing, we must expect to hear of 

 continual failure of wheat crops. 



John G. Bergen. — Whatever it may be in some places, as a general thing, 

 on Long Island, under draining will not pay. It won't do to lay down au 

 imperative rule for under draining. We must keep the exception con- 

 stantly in view. 



Mr. Quinn thought there is no sandy soil that will not pay for draining. 

 He has spent $50 an acre for draining, and had it all return in four years, 

 by the increase of crops, and he thought in a drouth that under drains 

 would be highly beneficial to the sandiest soils in this country. 



WHEAT RAISING IN ILLINOIS. 



Solon Robinson. — I will read a portion of a letter from Marshall co., 

 111., which speaks of the present crop as a good fair average of the last 

 six years, and then snys : 



"It i? manifest that the quantity of wheat grown per acre is diminish- 

 ing ; and unless some means are discovered whereby more certainty in the 

 growing of wheat can be attained, it will be a losing business. Indeed, it 

 is very questionable if ihe raising of wheat now pays the farmer, on an 

 average, saying nothing about the capital invested in land, wore than the 

 lowest wages paid ordinary farm hands. When the season is favorable, a 

 good crop is grown, and the prices are sure to be down. Selling wheat at 

 40 to GO cents per bushel scarcely pays the farmer better wages than he 

 pays his hired help ; and when he fails to grow a crop at all, he looses 

 seed, expenses, and all j and there are many who have, since last harvest, 



