220 



THE WHEAT CULTTIBIST. 



during the winter months, does but very little injury 

 to the growing wheat. On such light, loamy ground, 

 which never requires under-draining, spring wheat can 

 be produced with much more profit than winter grain, 

 if the seed be put in at the very beginning of the growing 

 season. If such light loam be top-dressed with clay not 

 more than half an inch in depth, the argillaceous ma- 

 terial in the dressing will impart a firmness to the light 

 land, which is eminently essential for the production of 

 a bountiful yield of this kind of grain. When a dress- 

 ing of clay is apjDlied to such loamy ground, or to a soil 

 where light, black muck is the predominant character- 

 istic, it can be carted during the winter months, when 

 laborers and teams can find but little employment. In. 

 some localities the clay can be hauled on a sliding 

 vehicle and spread on the snow. Should the clay be 

 distributed in clods weighing eight or more pounds each, 

 two or three frosts and showers of rain will usually dis- 

 solve the lumps, so that, when partially dry, the clay 

 may be spread evenly with shovels, and* afterward har- 

 rowed into the soil, or mingled with the surface soil by 

 a two-horse wheel cultivator, which some wheat-growers 

 prefer to a plough for preparing the ground for a crop 

 of wheat, after the field has been thoroughly ploughed. 

 A dressing of marl, or muck, on such land, in addition 

 to the clay, cannot fail to produce a bountiful yield of 

 wheat, or of almost any other cereal grain. Farmers 

 who make and apply large quantities of compost, such 

 as Mr. Colwell is accustomed to prepare for his fields, 

 find that they can grow excellent crops of wheat, even 

 on our lightest loams. But the fertilizers applied to 

 light soils should be rich in grain-producing material, 

 and covered with a cultivator, rather than ploughed in. 



