1869.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
371 
field for a loai of hay, two pitch and one load, 
and those two men will wait longer between 
eacli cock for the loader to start his team than 
it lakes them, or even one man, to pitch the 
hay ! I have, on several occasions, timed them 
— watch in hand— and found this to be the case. 
They put on a little over half a ton of hay, and 
then drive it to the barn — all the men going 
back and forth. 
Most peopie overestimate the weignt of their 
loads. I thrashed my wheat this year as we 
drew it from the field. A man and a team from 
a neighboring farm helped us to draw, and I 
told him I wanted big loads. He brought on 
what he thought "as heavy as a team ought to 
draw." I asked him how much he thought his 
team could draw at a good pace. " Two tons," 
he said. He pitched off the load to the ma- 
chine and had on nine bushels, or say 540 lbs. 
of grain, and certainly not over 450 lbs. of 
straw 1 . So that his "big load" did not weigh 
half a ton ! And yet that same man would 
think nothing of drawing a cord of green 
beech wood, weighing about three tons. The 
biggest load thrashed out only eighteen bushels, 
and consequently did not weigh over one ton. 
"We drew in with two teams and three wag- 
ons. As soon as the wagon was unloaded, the 
man that carried away the grain pulled it out 
of the way, the other load drove up, and the 
team was attached to the empty wagon and 
taken to the field for another load. The ma- 
chine sometimes thrashed three bushels in two 
and a half minutes, and averaged a bushel a 
minute, but we had no trouble in drawing the 
wheat fast eneugh. Later in the day, however, 
I put three teams to draw, and four wagons, 
with another man, to pitch. I did this for the 
sake of getting up the rakings, which is always 
slow work. It was Detfil wheat, and I had 
five hundred and seventy bushels from eighteen 
acres, or thirty-one and three quarters bushels 
per acre. The wheat round the fences was 
killed out by the snow, and there were about two 
acres in the field, where a stone underdrain got 
choked up, that yielded not more than half a 
crop; and on the whole field the Hessian fly did 
considerable damage. Nevertheless, I beat the 
Deacon, as he had only twenty bushels of Amber 
wheat per acre. But I am not at all satisfied. 
It will do, perhaps, for a new beginner on a run- 
down farm, but I want forty bushels per acre 
as an average crop, and fifty bushels in good 
seasons. Fifty-six bushels of white wheat per 
acre have been grown in this county, and we 
have just as much sun now as we had then, and 
it is a pity if science and art cannot make land 
as rich as it w T as made by nature. 
My " fall-fallowed " barley did not turn out 
as well as I expected. Last year I had one field 
that yielded over fifty bushels per acre, and this 
field looked a great deal heavier. Last year the 
season was very dry and hot, this year very wet 
aud cold, and I have an idea that crops in a wet 
season never turn out as well as they look. 
The field contained ten acres, and we had four 
hundred and thirty bushels of barley, with six 
loads of rakings still to thrash. This may 
bring it up to the desired five hundred bushels, 
but it is rather doubtful. Three or four acres 
were badly lodged, and we lost considerable in 
harvesting it. We did not sow quite fifteen 
bushels on the ten acres, but it was thick enough. 
Another field of fourteen acres, after corn, 
gave four hundred aud forty-eight bushels, or 
thirty-two bushels per acre, with a few rakings 
yet to thrash. I had barley on this same field 
five years ago, and the yield was only twelve 
bushels per acre. This is, so far, encouraging, 
and the improvement is due to nothing but stir- 
ring the soil. The field was in corn last year, 
on a three-year-old clover sod. It was only a 
fair crop. We cultivated it as often as was nec- 
essary, say once a week or ten days, until the 
first of August. Then as soon as the corn was 
cut, and while the stooks were still in the field, 
we ran a two-horse cultivator between the rows 
of stooks, and after the stalks were removed, 
say the first or second week of November, we 
ran the cultivator the other way, using four 
horses abreast, and setting the teeth to run as 
deep as the land had been plowed in the spring, 
aud perhaps a little deeper. It was plowed 
once the next spring, and sown to barley. 
J. J. Thomas writes me: "There is one point 
dwelt upon in the ' Walks and Talks ' which I 
like very much. This is, the practice of sum- 
mer-fallowing to eradicate weeds. We are a 
weedy nation. There are, doubtless, growing 
this day, within the limits of these United 
States, in farm fields, enough weeds to load a 
line of wagons around the globe, according to 
estimate. We must induce our people to clear 
them out, — broadcast, — not so much by hand- 
hoeing and finger work." — The real difficulty 
lies in the indisposition of nearly all of us to 
do anything now that can be postponed. We 
summer-fallow because that is a part of ordi- 
nary farm routine ; but we postpone breaking 
up the land as late as possible. A " summer- 
fallow" is often nothing more than a field of 
clover plowed, at the earliest, in May, and more 
frequently not until June or July, and then the 
weeds kept down by the use of the harrows and 
cultivator. If the land is plowed in August or 
September, just before sowing the wheat, it is 
considered something extra. Excellent crops 
of wheat are often raised in this way, but I 
never liked the plan. It does not cause enough 
of the seeds of weeds to germinate. The har- 
rows and cultivators seldom go more than three 
or four inches deep, and the three or four inches 
of the old sod lie undisturbed underneath. 
This is turned up at the second plowing, just 
previous to sowing the wheat, and the seeds it 
contains will then germinate, but too late to 
give us any chance to kill the weeds. They 
have undisturbed possession of the soil for three 
or four years — first in the wheat and then in the 
grass. In the wheat they go to seed, and not 
unfrequently in the clover and grass also. And 
when this sod, three or four years hence, is 
plowed up and planted to com, it is no wonder 
that we have to resort to "hand-hoeing and 
finger work." All this is the result of our 
unwillingness to plow the land tha fall previous. 
If I was going to summer-fallow a piece of 
land next year for wheat — say a three-year-old 
clover sod — I would plow it this fall, as early as 
convenient; then cultivate it in the spring, 
and as soon as the sod was rotted, say by the 
time we were through planting corn, cross-plow 
it and harrow thoroughly; then a week or 
two later put on a four-horse cultivator, run- 
ning it as deep as possible, going both ways, 
and as often as wa3 necessary to tear the land 
all to pieces; if cloddy, roll and harrow after 
the clods had been softened by a shower; put 
four horses abreast on the roller, and fasten the 
barrows behind, and go over the land until all 
the clods are broken up. If the work has been 
thoroughly done, the weed seeds will start by 
the million. The more the better. It would be 
ft lucky thing if we made the land so mellow 
that every seed in it would germinate. The 
young plants are easily killed if taken in time. 
Keep the cultivator going. Better hire an extra 
man in haying and harvest rather than let the 
horses lie idle while the weeds are growing in 
the summer-fallow. Thistles, especially, must 
not be allowed a breathing spell. They are 
very tenacious of life, but in our splendid cli- 
mate we ought to be able to kill them in one 
season. After harvest plow the field again. 
This may give us another crop of weeds. If 
so, all the better. The cultivator, run both 
ways, will make short work of them. Drill in 
the wheat about the 20th of September, and 
seed down with a peck of clover seed per acre 
in the spring. If good strong land, well drain- 
ed, naturally or artificially, I should expect 
thirty bushels of wheat per acre, and clover 
that would have to be cut early in June the 
next year, or you will not be able to cut it at 
all ; and then four, five, or six bushels of seeds 
afterwards. Mow it or pasture it the next sea- 
son, and then after you are through sowing the 
winter wheat, draw out and spread fifteen or 
twenty loads of rich, well-rotted manure per 
acre, that was piled in the spring, and turned 
over two or three times, to cause the weeds to 
germinate. Spread the manure evenly, and let 
the grass grow through it, and the next spring 
plow under the grass and manure just before 
you are ready to plant, and drill in the corn as 
fast as you plow and harrow the land. Culti- 
vate it thoroughly, and there will be little hoe- 
ing to be done, but a good deal of husking. 
All this is the result of plowing the land 
this fall. Neglect this and you cannot possibly 
get the full benefit which ought to be derived 
from the summer's cultivation. We fail to 
avail ourselves of the clement of Time, — one 
of the most important forces in agriculture. 
The fall-plowing gives us six months more time 
for the oxygen of the air to decompose the soil, 
and for the freezing and thawing to disintegrate 
and mellow it. 
I have just let the job of building a hundred 
rods of stone wall at $1.37'|a per rod, and the 
men board themselves. It is too much. In old 
times the same work was done for less than half 
the money. But I have found to my cost that 
it is better to pay enough to secure the best 
men. One man laid me a wall at $1 per rod, 
and in two years it had to be laid over again. 
Another man built me some at 8T'| 2 cts. a rod, 
but cheated me woefully. I did not understand 
the tricks of the trade, and he availed himself 
of my ignorance. The trouble seems to be in 
not lapping over the stones, and binding them 
properly. " I could cheat any man," said an 
old builder, " unless he watched me all the 
time." And I presume this is the case. The 
only remedy seems to be in getting men who 
have a reputation at stake. I have made up 
my mind to pay enough to secure the best wall 
builders I can find. It is a great nuisance to 
have a wall tumble to pieces in a few years. By 
the time we have got out all the stones from the 
land that come within reach of a plow running 
nine or ten iuches deep, I shall have stones 
enough to fence the whole farm into twenty- 
five or thirty-acre lots; and ten fields certainly 
ought to be enough on any farm. 
If farmers in other sections have been as late 
in haying as they were here, Timothy seed will 
be cheap next year. Half of the hay was not 
cut until the seed was dead ripe. To feed out 
Timothy seed worth $3.00 or $4.00 per bushel 
of 45 lbs. is poor economy, even if the horses 
