THE WHEAT CTJLTUEIST. 



159 



tliat the tender rootlets take firm hold and keep their 

 place. 



The advantage of this comparative firmness of the 

 substratum is apparent in the practice, now so common, 

 of seeding corn land to wheat, without any ploughing 

 beyond what has been given to the corn. The action of 

 the tines of the wheat drill, or any such scratching of the 

 surface as will give the seeds a slight covering, is found 

 to answer all necessary purposes even on tolerably tena- 

 cious clays. It is insisted, indeed, after much expe- 

 rience, that tills is the most successful practice for corn- 

 land seeding." 



Deep and Shallow Ploughing for Winter Wheat. 



On this subject, a writer in the "Cultivator and 

 Country Gentleman " thus speaks of deep and shallow 

 ploughing for wheat. He says : 



" I have heard some farmers argue that winter wheat 

 requires a deep, mellow soil ; and to prove their theory, 

 they would adduce instances in which the roots of 

 wheat plants have been followed downward several feet 

 deep. I have my mind on an instance where a well- 

 digger traced the roots of a wheat plant over four feet 

 into the earth. There appeared to have been in former 

 years, in that place, a large hole or excavation, which 

 had been filled up with surface soil, and had never be- 

 come very compact ; and the wheat struck its roots 

 downward almost as far as the stems grew upward. 



The theory of ploughing deep for winter wheat 

 would be a good one, if we did not have the frosts of 

 winter to contend with. The roots of the wheat plant 

 are not elastic, like India-rubber. If they were, winter 



