1872] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
415 
"But this thirty-acre field that you summer- 
allowed tliis year, how many times was it 
plowed?" — "Only once. I broke it Up in June 
■with a jointer-plow. I have an Englishman 
who is a capital plowman. He plowed the field 
in fourteen days, and made a complete job of 
it. Afterwards it was harrowed and cultivated, 
and drilled in with Diehl wheat the first week 
in September." 
This is certainly a cheap and to a certain ex- 
tent a very effective way of summer-fallowing. 
The land was plowed full seven inches deep, 
and the "jointer" or skim-plow threw the sod 
to the bottom of the furrow, where it was com- 
pletely covered with four or five inches of loose, 
mellow earth. There can be no doubt that this 
plan is becoming more and more popular. Said 
one of the best and most successful farmers in 
this section : " I would not let you plow my 
summer-fallow twice, if you would plow it for 
nothing." 
It may well be that turning up this partly- 
rotted sod, full of weed-seeds, would do more 
barm than good. So far as the wheat crop is 
•oncerned, it would be better to let these foul 
seeds lie dormant until the next plowing, three 
•r four years hence. But I still couteud that, if 
we summer-fallow at all, it is better to break up 
early in the spring (or, better still, if the land is 
a tenacious clay, the fall previous), and then 
cross-plow as soon as the sod is sufficiently 
rotted. Then harrow, cultivate, and roll, and 
make the soil as fine and mellow as possible in 
•rdcr to induce the weeds to grow. Then plow 
again, and thus destroy the weeds. After the 
wheat is up, harrow again, to kill the small 
weeds while in the seed-leaf. 
I am expecting to hear that the readers of 
Hie Agriculturist are getting tired with my re- 
peated talk about weeds. I have more than 
once made up my mind not to say another word 
•n the subject. But the truth is I can not help 
it. It seems to me that there can be neither 
pleasure nor profit in farming until we get the 
•pper hand of the weeds. I have had a hard 
fight with them on my own farm, but have suc- 
ceeded far better than I expected. 
The Deacon says he never saw the weeds so 
numerous as they are this season. He thinks it 
must be owing to the unusually dry weather 
that wc have had for two or three years. There 
may be something in this, so far as low, wet 
laud is concerned, but I tell him that it is more 
likely to be owing to our better plows and better 
cultivators, harrows, and other implements for 
breaking up and pulverizing the soil. We use 
them enough to cause a greater number of 
weed-seeds to germinate, and to distribute the 
roots of thistles, quack, wire-grass, etc., but not 
enough to kill them. 
For the first time during the last eight or ten 
years the midge, or so-called " weevil," injured 
our wheat the past season. Wherever the crop 
was late the straw rusted and the grain shriv- 
eled up, and there was also more or less midge. 
But, in the same field, where the wheat grew 
strong and ripened at the proper season, there 
was no rust and, so far as I could see, no midge. 
The past year was the worst season for wheat 
we have had for a quarter of a century or more, 
and I see no reason why we should feel alarmed 
at the appearance of the midge. But I am told 
that many of our farmers were afraid to sow 
white wheat, and have sown Mediterranean. 
Others have sown a mixture of red and white 
wheat together, thinking that if the midge de- 
stroys the white wheat the Mediterranean will 
escape. The trouble is that the millers will pay 
Utile if any more for the mixed white and red 
wheat than they will for the red alone. 
Mr. Peart, the butcher, who went to England 
last 3'ear on a visit, brought me some red wheat 
that ho says yielded 92 bushels per acre. I 
have sown it, but do not suppose it will be of 
any value here. Our own varieties are better 
than our culture. No matter what variety we 
sow, we can not expect a large crop unless the 
land is rich, dry, and in good condition. 
It would be a great blessing to the country if 
we shotdd have a good wheat crop next year. 
The wheat crop of Great Britain this year is 
unquestionably far below the average, and much 
of it has been more or less injured by the wet 
harvest weather. Good, sound American wheat 
will be wanted, but I fear we shall find that wc 
have not much to spare. Wheat is likely to 
bring a high price next summer, and there will 
be an active demand for our next crop, and Ave 
could sell immediately after harvest to good ad- 
vantage. Let us hope for a good crop. 
Mr. S. C. Gordon, of Ohio, writes : "What 
you say in regard to weeds — ' cause as many of 
the seeds to germinate as possible, and then kill 
them ' — is the correct doctrine. But beiug sin- 
gle-handed, and having rather an old farm 
pretty well stocked with weed-seed, it is an up- 
hill business." — No doubt about that. But 
stick to it. Every year the land will become 
cleaner, and the thorough working of the soil 
will make it richer. 
In regard to the latter point I have no sort 
of doubt, except in the case of a very light sand. 
On clays and clay loam, the more you stir the 
soil the more plant-food will you develop. But 
it takes time. The Deacon and I used to have 
a good deal of discussion on this point. He 
thought it a very bad thing to " sun-burn " the 
land. But I believe I have convinced him, not 
so much by argument as by actual experiment, 
that there is no danger in exposing laud to the 
hottest sun, provided it is frequently stirred. A 
wet clay ^oil will bake and perhaps "burn" in 
the sun; but drain it and reduce it to a fine 
tilth by repeated plowings and harrowings, and 
it certainly will not sun-burn. We all know 
that a good summer-fallow retains far more 
moisture than land that has been " shaded " 
with a crop of oats, barley, or peas. 
Mr. Smith, of Virginia, writes that he tried to 
grow some mustard, but that " it was a com- 
plete failure, probably on account of the dry 
season." I did my best to discourage everyone 
from sowing either mustard, rape, or turnips 
unless the land was in the very best condition. 
It should be made as fine and mellow as a 
garden. 
Mr. S. adds : " Suffering and loss from drouth 
seem to be the rule here — or, at any rate, more 
the rule than the exception. I think this sec- 
tion, however, is on the whole good for sheep 
husbandry, and with good management I think 
it would be a good wheat section. I have this 
year over 20 bushels to the acre on a field of 
summer-fallow, and I have heard of one man in 
the neighborhood of Alexandria who had 30 
bushels per acre." 
"This," he adds, "is certainly not very dis- 
creditable to old Virginia, more especially as it 
has been stated at the New York Farmers' Club 
that five bushels was considered a good crop in 
Virginia. I think those men whose remarks 
are so widely circulated ought to be more care- 
ful in their statements." — 1 think so too. 
"What we want here," continues Mr. S., "is 
a little more ammonia, and then, so far as I see, 
there will be no great difficulty in growing 
wheat. I intend to make that and mntton and 
wool the chief products of my farm." — Mr. S. 
has hit the nail right on the head. When I 
first read his letter, I thought he meant to say: 
"What we need is a little more money." But 
be means precisely what lie says — " a little more 
ammonia.'" He goes to the root of the matter. 
If you can get ammonia you can get large crops 
of wheat, and if you can get large wheat crops 
you can make money. How to get ammonia at 
the cheapest rate is the great question of scien- 
tific agriculture. Keeping sheep, and raising 
clover, rape, mustard, peas, turnips, and other 
highly nitrogenous crops to feed them on, and 
buying some bran, oilcake, etc., in addition, is as 
good a plan in Mr. Smith's case as I can suggest. 
The great trouble is that we do not get money 
enough for our meat. The consumers in our 
cities have to pay enough for it, but the money 
does not seem to find its way into the farmers* 
pockets. If I want a beefsteak, the butcher will 
charge me eighteen cents a pound for it, and it 
is not unfrequently very poor stuff at that. If 
I want to sell a carcass of beef, I should proba- 
bly get not to exceed seven cents a pound. 
I do not say that the butchers make exor- 
bitant profits. One would think there is com- 
petition enough to prevent this. I suppose one 
trouble is that our beef is not as good as it should 
be. There is too much bone, tallow, and inferior 
parts of the carcass in proportion to the 
choice cuts. We want belter bred animals. 
One of my neighbors has some thrifty two- 
year-old steers. "I am overstocked," said he, 
" and want to sell them, and all that those rascally 
butchers will offer me is $35 per head." I pre- 
sume they offer him about what they are worth 
to kill. But why kill them ? To make them 
into really good beef they want twelve mouths 
of good feeding. Many farmers in this section 
seem to have come to the conclusion that it does 
not pay to feed cattle, and are selling off every- 
thing that the butchers will take. The conse- 
quence is that the meat-market is flooded with 
inferior beef that must be sold at a low price — 
and is dear at that. It seems to me that those 
who have good young animals should hold on 
to them, aud give them good feed. But ill-bred, 
inferior animals may as well be sold as not. It 
is impossible to fatten them in winter or keep 
them over to good advantage. 
Turnip Flavor in Milk and Butter. 
Col. Thos. S. Strobecker, of Venango Co., Pa., 
says he has been repaid "many times over" for 
his subscription to the Agriculturist by the sim- 
ple benefit derived from Ogdeu Farm's informa- 
tion that if turnips are fed only immediately 
after milking their taste will not be communi- 
cated to the contents of the udder. He states 
that last winter he fed turnips to five cows until 
the milk and butter became so strong that it 
could not be used. He then tried Col.Waring's 
plan, and found that "there was not a particle 
of turnip flavor in the milk or butter." After a 
time the taste returned. On investigation, he 
found that one of the cows was nearly dry, and 
was milked only once a day, while she was fed 
with turnips twice a day. She gave but a pint 
of milk per day, so that when fed in the morn- 
