THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



150 pounds guano per acre over the whole field, 

 fallowed in with large ploughs. 



45 acres Mediterranean yielded 1,040 bushels, 

 about 23 bushels per acre. 

 105 acres Poland and Moravian yielded 1,123 

 bushels, about 10| bushels per acre. 



The Poland and Moravian wheats were great- 

 ly injured by Joint worm, and the Mediterra- 

 nean sustained but little injury from it. En- 

 couraged by this experiment in 1854, I sowed a 

 stubble fallow field of the best wheat land I 

 have, about one-half low grounds, say 97 acres, 

 with 182 bushels Mediterranean wheat from 

 24th to 29th August, ploughing in with the fal- 

 low ploughs an average of 150 pounds guano to 

 the acre, in unequal quantities, according to the 

 quality of the land. This crop which was some- 

 what injured by a hail storm, lodged and har- 

 vested in bad weather, with great loss from 

 shattering, produced 2,618 bushels — over 26 

 bushels per acre in 1855. No part of our crop 

 was much injured b}^ joint worm, and the 

 general yield of wheat in the neighborhood was 

 good — my own about 22 bushels average on 250 

 Sicres. The quality of the land in Mediterra- 

 nean was very good, and may it not be a ques- 

 tion whether with any kind of wheat forced by 

 guano on poor soils the produce of grain will be 

 in proportion to growth of straw. 



The Joint worm seems now to have passed 

 over our county, appearing this year only in 

 spots and doing no material injury. The rust, 

 fiy, joint worm and other pests, like epidemic 

 diseases in the human family, seem to return 

 and prevail on cycles of years, and whenever 

 any one of these shall come back upon us, I 

 shall return again to the cultivation of Mediter- 

 ranean as the hardest to resist them of any 

 wheat that I know. It seems now, in some de- 

 gree, to have undergone that mysterious pro- 

 cess of running out in productiveness which all 

 other kinds have done in succession after a few 

 years cultivation. At least this is the popular 

 opinion, and it appears to me to be a subject 

 worthy of careful investigation both as to its 

 truth and the remedy for it. 



We are also much perplexed by the careless 

 practice of farmers in giving new names to old 

 varieties, and we have now several kinds in cul- 

 tivation with various names in diff'erent locali- 

 ties. There is another subject to which I think 

 you might profitably call the attention of wheat 

 growers in your paper. The adaptation of dif- 

 ferent varieties to various soils. I have myself 

 been bafiied in obtaining any certain results 

 from the variable character of our Spring Avea- 

 ther in May and June, sometimes very wet and 

 in other years dry — the first affecting the for- 

 mation of grain at the time of blooming, and 

 the last its plumpness in filling — so that a few 

 days change will sometimes make an early or 

 late variety Avhich had been very productive in 

 one season, a failure in another. 



CULTIVATION OF WHEAT. 



March, 1856. 



Geo. C Gilmer, Esq. 



Dear Sir : — I agree with you that there is 

 scarcely a farmer who does not know something 

 which, if generally known, might benefit the 

 mass, and I am therefore induced to communi- 

 cate to you the system pursued by me in the 

 cultivation of wheat. You say that experiments 

 are expensive and always troublesome. As a 

 general thing I agree v/ith you, but the gentle- 

 man you mention, who from the use of a bushel 

 of lime to an acre, kept off the joint worm and 

 fly with good effect, and my system of wheat 

 growing, may, I think, be regarded as excep- 

 tions to the rule, so far at least as expenses are 

 incurred. My practice in the culture of wheat, 

 was to steep or rather manure the seed before 

 sowing with nitre (saltpetre) and lime, alone 

 sometimes and sometimes with lime and ashes 

 mixed, plaster and ashes mixed, or unleached 

 ashes alone, just as I had or could obtain the 

 articles, if not, I preferred unleached ashes 

 alone. I pursued the practice for many years, 

 with the most beneficial results, a visible and 

 striking instance of its benefits occurred with 

 me in the year 1846. I had purchased some 

 land which had been under tenture for many 

 years, and so badly farmed that it was said to 

 be worn out. One field immediately on a pub- 

 lic road contained a flat knoll, composed of a 

 light grey colored soil, in character it might be 

 said to be an impulpable powder, it ran together 

 during the winter season, and had a soft soap 

 appearance on the surface, so poor that it would 

 produce nothing scarcely. I sowed the field in 

 wheat and some time after it came up, a Dutch 

 neighbor of mine who passed the field almost 

 daily for years, and had always observed this 

 particular spot containing about an acre, re- 

 marked to me that I must possess some secret 

 in sowing wheat, that he knew I had not ma- 

 nured that particular spot, and yet the wheat 

 looked as well upon it as upon the other part of 

 the field, and that I must have hoaxed the land 

 to make wheat grow upon land that he had 

 never seen any grow on before. I at once com- 

 municated to him all I had done, and advised 

 him to use the same process and he could raise 

 wheat on his land as well as I did, but as you 

 remarked, experiments are troublesome and ex- 

 pensive, and he did not adopt it, sold out in a 

 few years and moved to the west. So it is with 

 most farmers, you cannot induce them to devi- 

 ate from the old beaten track of their fathers, 

 and therefore they do not succeed. The suc- 

 ceeding year I used upon another field of the 

 same fiirm bone dust, I had sowed about 3^ to 

 4 bushels to the acre on a part of it, (about half 

 the proper quantity,) my neighbours kept a 

 watchful eye upon its effect up to harvest, and per- 

 ceiving but little difference between the growth 

 of the part sown with the bone dust, and the 

 other part of the field, condemned the experi- 

 ment as expensive and useless. It was not so, 



