148 



THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 



Summer Fallowing for Wheat in Old Yirginia. 



J. W. HofF, M.D., Wirt Court House, Ya., writes: 

 Wheat is sowed on fallow ground, and after corn crops. 

 The latter is put in with the old shovel-plough, and the 

 former generally with the harrow. The varieties raised 

 are the red chaff, the white wheat, and the Mediterra- 

 nean. The Mediterranean is considered to be the surest 

 crop ; but the yield is not so great as, and the flour is 

 inferior to, white wheat and red chaff. Guano is not 

 used, nor any other manures, save, now and then, a few 

 wagon-loads of barn-yard manure to the acre ; so that it 

 is hard to tell what our lands would do if properly ma- 

 nured and fertilized. Under the present mode of cul- 

 tivation, the average yield per acre, of clean wheat, is 

 about 8 bushels ; although some land will bring from 

 20 to 30 bushels per acre ; and I believe that the greater 

 portion of our tillable land would, if properly fertilized 

 and cultivated, bring, upon an average, 20 bushels per 

 acre. The rust damages the wheat in this section of the 

 coimtry more or less every year. In 1850 it caused 

 almost an entire failure of the wheat crops in all North- 

 western Yirginia. Early wheat suffers less from rust 

 than late wheat. To avoid the rust, farmers should sow 

 their wheat in the early part of September, when the 

 season is favorable. Of the varieties of wheat mentioned, 

 the Mediterranean is less liable to take the rust. Whe- 

 ther this is owing to any peculiarity in the growth of 

 the wheat, its nature, or whether it be from its ear- 

 lier growth and maturity, is not yet decided ; but it is 

 generally believed to be owing to its earlier maturity." 



A farmer in New York wrote against the practice of 

 summer-fallowing, and stated that land should be ploughed 



