THE WHEAT CULTTTRIST, 



223 



or harrowed thoroHghlY, the crop would have been much 

 heavier, with half the labor. Were I to manage the 

 light, sandy loam soils of the United States, where the 

 surface soil and the subsoil are not compact, I should 

 seldom use a plough in preparing the ground for any 

 kind of crop. Such a cultivator as is illustrated on 

 page 142, would be a far more satisfactory implement for 

 preparing the soil for wheat, or for any other crop, than 

 a plough. The object is to keep the best soil at the 

 surface. With a cultivator, it can be readily done. But 

 with a plough, the fertile mould is worked downward 

 farther and farther beneath the surface. 



Of all soils to be cultivated, or to be restored, none 

 are preferable to the sandy light soils. By their porous- 

 ness, free access is given to the powerful effects of the 

 air. They are natural in that state, to which trenching, 

 draining, and subsoil ploughing are reducing the stiffer 

 lands of England. Manui'e may as well be thi-own into 

 water, as on land underlaid by water. Drain this, and 

 no matter if the upper soil be almost quicksand, manure 

 will convert it into fertile, arable land. The thin cover- 

 ing of mould, scarcely an inch in thickness, the product 

 of a century, may be imitated by studying the laws of 

 its formation. This is the work of " I^'ature's apprentice 

 hand ; " man has long been her journeyman, and now 

 guided by science, the farmer becomes the master work- 

 man, and may produce in one year quite as much as the 

 apprentice made in seven. 



Pasttjking Wheat, in AuTraiN" oe Winter. 



Many years ago, we used to see it recommended in 

 agricultural papers, to pasture off wheat in late 



