248 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



Aug. 



ment, in this manner, it will pay. Let your plow- 

 ing be done in August or early in September, and 

 this will bring better crops and less vermin. 



— The above we cut from the Bureau county 

 Republican ; by the way a well conducted and live 

 paper. And we have observed from time to time 

 that the editor takes a deep interest in agricultural 

 matters, and we thereforefore read his pages with 

 much interest, but as'he has been lead into one or 

 two errors in his visit to the chintz bug, or rather 

 has drawn some erroneous conclusions, we insert 

 the article with the view to point them out. 



Good Culture, is a remedy for the chintz bug, 

 for when the crop is vigorous, the attack of the in- 

 sect is less apparent, as he can only suck the jui- 

 ces from the lower leaves, while the others sustain 

 the plant; and the yield is but little diminished. 

 Thus far the principle holds good, but there is one 

 or two things more to be considered. Early sow- 

 ing so as to bring the crop forward in good season 

 before the insect has had time to accumulate in 

 large numbers is one of, if not the best remedy, 

 for so soon as the straw gets hard the bug leaves it 

 for some more succulent feed. Suppose we take a 

 field of spring wheat sown early, good soil and well 

 put in, one half well drained, and the other half 

 more moist, the dry part will come forward faster, 

 and will be ripe before the more moist part. We 

 will suppose this field to be alike shocked by the 

 bug which has been bre^ alike all over the field, 

 and at once commences that progressive) ratio of 

 promotion that makes the crop swarm with the 

 foetid rascals. Now let us observe from day to day 

 the progress of the insect ; like a vast army he 

 moves towards the more succulent grain,and leaves 

 the more advanced to ripen and fill out to its ut- 

 most, but alas, for the immolated portion, it is now 

 to be borne down with a double portion of the ar- 

 my of invasion and must yield. The result is that 

 part of the field is nearly ruined and a part has 

 turned off a heavy crop. 



In putting on manure there was nothing more 

 natural than to put it on the dryer and apparently 

 poorer portion of the land, this stimulated the 

 growth of the straw, and hence a heavy crop. But 

 had the seasen been more moist, so as to have giv- 

 en a large growth of straw, the manure plowed un- 

 der in AuguPt would have been more disastrous to 

 the crop than the chintz bug, for between lodging 

 and rust it must have succumbed entirely. 



The conclusion at which the editor arrived, that 

 manure and high culture is the remedy, should be 

 taken with some allowance. Very true, it has suc- 

 ceeded in this instance, but the manure part might 

 be unsafe to repeat the next. We suspect that the 

 secret lies in the August plowing, to which we have 

 before called the attention of our readers. 



Mr. S. W. Arnold, of DeKalb county, who is 

 one of the most successful growers of spring wheat, 

 plows in August for this crop. So soon as his oats, - 

 barley and other crops has been drawn from the 

 field the plow follows at once. By this he has all 

 the advantage of a summer fallow without its ex- 

 pense. 



With a proper soil, early and thick seeding 

 thorough harrowing and rolling so as to insure rap- 

 id growth and early maturity, we have as yet to 

 see the first material damage to a crop of spring 

 wheat by the chintz bug. 



Pall Plowing for and Culture of Spring 

 Wheat. 



Fall plowing in the north part of the State has 

 become one of the settled principles of successful 

 fanning. It has doubled and quadrupled the area 

 sown to spring wheat, oats a»d barley, has in- 

 creased the product and materially lessened the 

 cost. Without fall plowing no remunerative crop 

 of spring wheat could be grown, from the simple 

 fact that the crop must be sown as soon as it is 

 possible to harrow in the seed. It has been often 

 proved that sowing spring wheat on corn stubble 

 without fall plowing is better than to plow. If 

 this is the case, there must be some good reason 

 for it, and this reason must be the late season at 

 which the plowing can be done, or in placing at 

 the bottom of the furrow the free potash that the 

 earlier autumn^ months had disintegrated for the 

 next crop, and which must be near the surface. 

 Taking this as a hint, we should plow early, so as 

 to give the surface the longest possible time for 

 exposure to the elements. It matters little to us 

 what this change is, so long as we know the condi- 

 tion exerts such a decided effect on the new crop. 

 We may therefore lay down the rule, that the long- 

 er the surface is exposed after plowing, so much 

 the better, unless we have a green crop to plow 

 under, which will supply the needed element of 

 growth. 



Some of our best farmers make it a rule to plow 

 as soon as possible after harvest, for all land in- 

 tended for wheat or barley. As oats are sown la- 

 ter and appear to do nearly as well on spring 

 plowed land, the plowing for this crop is often 

 passed over to the spring work, but this is bad pol- 

 icy, and should be corrected. If our farmers 

 would plow their spring wheat land in August and 

 September they would have much better crops. 

 In the culture of spring wheat we have several 

 points to attend to : 



1st. Early fall plowing. 



2d. Seeding at the time the frost is leaving the 

 ground. 



3d. Thorough harrowing and rolling. 



4th. The bearded are better than the bald va- 

 rieties. ■ • ' 



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