484 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
years preceding. The soil was a good clay 
loam. The land was thoroughly prepared, 
and the seed drilled in without fertilizers of 
any kind, on the 15th of October. One plat 
was seeded with 3 pecks of “ Boughton,” a 
smooth, white, and rather tender variety; the 
next adjoining, with 3 pecks of “ Champion 
Amber,” a bearded red, and hardy wheat; 
the next with 4 pecks of “Boughton,” the next 
with 4 pecks of “Champion Amber,” and so 
on up to 8 pecks of each. The produce of each 
year in straw and grain, and the averages for 
the two, are given in the subjoined table: 
Table of Experiments Testing Different Amounts 
of Seed Wheat per Acre for 1880 and 1881. 
Variety. 
Amount 
of Seed 
per Acre. 
Strati 
pet- 
mO 
Lbs. 
, etc., 
4 ere. 
Grain , 
per Acre. 
Average, 
per Acre. 
1881 
Lbs. 
1880 
Bu. 
1881 
Bu. 
Straw, 
etc.Lbs. 
k o 
Boughton. 
3pk8. 
1880 
1856 
8.10 
17.06 
1868 
12.58 
4 “ 
1784 
1536 
10.80 
13.06 
1660 
11.93 
5 “ 
2192 
1552 
10.40 
15.46 
1872 
12.93 
“ 
0 “ 
2880 
1920 
15.40 
20.53 
2400 
17.96 
7 4 * 
2-400 
2640 
13.30 
25.33 
2520 
19.31 
“ 
8 “ 
2498 
1904 
11.20 
20.s0 
2200 
16.00 
(jhainpioriAmber 
8 “ 
2256 
2272 
12.40 
24.80 
2264 
18.60 
4 “ 
2720 
1408 
14.90 
14.40 
2064 
14.65 
5 “ 
3216 
928 
17.60 
15.20 
2072 
16.40 
0 “ 
3392 
1776 
17.60 
21.06 
2534 
19.33 
7 “ 
3424 
2560 
19.20 
28.00 
2992 
23.60 
8 ■' 
3680 
1920 
24.00 
25.33 
2800 
24.66 
The season of 1880 proved unfavorable— 
there was a heavy crop of straw, but the 
grain was seriously injured by the rust. Six 
pecks per acre, of “ Boughton,” and 8 pecks 
of “ Champion Amber,” gave the largest re¬ 
turns of straw and grain ; 3 pecks of each, 
the lowest. In the “Champion Amber” 
plats there was, with but a single exception, 
a corresponding increase in the produce of 
grain, and with not one in that of straw, for 
every additional peck of seed used. This 
was not the case in the “Boughton,” al¬ 
though the three most heavily seeded plats 
gave the best yields of both. 
These experiments were repeated last fall, 
the plats being located in a different 
portion of the same field, and hence 
on wheat stubble. The same methods, 
culture, varieties, etc., were employ¬ 
ed, and the seed drilled in on October 
14th, Again, no fertilizers were used, 
in order to avoid unnecessarily com¬ 
plicating the results. The season was 
dry, but favorable to the production of 
grain, no rust being visible in the crop. 
This year 7 pecks of both “ Champion 
Amber” and “Boughton,” gave the 
largest produce of straw and grain, 
and 4 pecks of each the lowest of grain. In 
the “ Boughton ” the three, and in the “Cham¬ 
pion Amber” the two most heavily seeded plats 
yielded best. The crop of the 3-peck “ Cham¬ 
pion Amber ” plat was exceptionally large. 
This plat had been marked, long before the 
results of the experiments were determined, 
by both the Farm Superintendent and my¬ 
self, as superior in fertility to the others. I 
prefer, however, to let its yield stand unal¬ 
tered, for the following reason. The experi¬ 
ments of a single season prove nothing. An 
astronomer takes not one, but many observa¬ 
tions of a heavenly body, when accuracy is 
aimed at. He argues that there is a high 
probability of the errors of the second cor¬ 
recting those of the first, that this probability 
in subsequent ones will amount almost to a 
certainty, and that the true value is given by 
the average of all. It is all-important that 
such a method of verification should be 
adopted in agricultural experimentation. In 
my experiments of last year, it is possible 
that the thinly seeded plats might have been, 
in spite of all the precautions used, inferior 
! in fertility to the average of the field, the 
j thickly sown ones, superior. This year the 
| reverse might have happened. It would fol¬ 
low that the results of the one year, and even 
the conditions precedent, tend to correct 
those of another. Hence the great import¬ 
ance of continuing the experiments over a 
series of years, and the greater value attach- 
| ing to average results. In this year and the 
: last the seasons were entirely different. This 
is clearly shown in the varying ratios of 
straw to grain. In 1880 the average ratio in 
! the 12 plats was 3.05 ; this year in the 14, (2 
not included in this discussion), it was 1.56. 
In comparing the averages of the two years, 
it will be noticed that 8 pecks of “ Champion 
Amber ” and 7 pecks of ‘ ‘ Boughton, ” gave the 
highest yields, that the three 
most heavily seeded plats of 
each were the best, and 4 
pecks the worst. These, and 
other interesting points are 
more clearly brought out by 
the following diagram, in 
which the averages of the 
grain and straw of each va¬ 
riety, for the two years, are represented by 
lines of proportional length. 
The diagram explains itself. It is seen, for 
example, that in both varieties the grain 
reaches its lowest point at the 4-peck line, its 
maximum in the “ Boughton ”at the 7-peck, 
and in the “Champion Amber” at the 8-peck. 
The diagram photographs the increments. The 
straw, e, /, of the “ Boughton ” keeps fairly 
parallel with the grain. a,b; in the “Champion 
Amber,” c, d, until the 7-peck line is crossed, 
when the two converge. The two varieties 
approach each other most closely at the 6-peck 
line, but the “ Champion Amber” lines keep 
well above the “Boughton” throughout. 
To sum up.—It appears that the verdict of 
the experiments of this year and the last, 
with these two varieties, is in favor of mod¬ 
erately thick seeding (6, 7, and 8 pecks per 
acre), for average soils in this section of 
; country. The 3-peck “Champion Amber” 
; plat of 1881 shows, however, that on superior 
! soils these amounts can be safely reduced. 
Why should 4 pecks give, in both varieties, 
the smallest returns ? Is it possible that, like 
the Church of Laodicea, this amount of seed 
is neither one thing or the other—not 
enough to secure the advantages of heavy 
seeding, and too much to secure those of 
light? Again, the lower ratios of straw to 
grain in the 8-peck plats of both varieties, as 
compared with the 3-peck, show that the 
opinions of those who assert that heavy seed¬ 
ing will increase the straw at the expense of 
the grain, are not well taken. As to varieties 
—in the 26 experiments of the two years, 25 
are in favor of the “ Champion Amber.” 
The 5-peck “Boughton” plat of 1881, gave a 
yield of grain exceeding that of the corres¬ 
ponding “Champion Amber” one, by only 
26 /ioo bushel. Finally, these experiments 
confirm the observations of Stevens and 
others, that heavy seeding tends to hasten 
the maturing of the crop ; the heavily seeded 
plats were cut two days earlier than those 
that were thinly seeded. 
Getting Out Muck. 
Fresh muck contains valuable plant-food, 
but usually in an unavailable form. There 
are many instances where muck, applied to 
land, has proved positively injurious. Muck 
needs to be exposed to the action of the frost, 
rain, and sun, or, as it is termed, “weathered,” 
for a season before it is fit to be used as a fer¬ 
tilizer. Even after it has thus been subjected 
to the elements, it is usually best to employ 
the finely divided muck as an absorbent of 
liquid manure in the stable or shed, or even 
the barn-yard. In this way the food ele¬ 
ments are brought into a better state for the 
plants to feed upon. If the “weathered” 
muck and the manure can be composted to¬ 
gether for a time, a still more valuable fer¬ 
tilizer is obtained. 
The lull in the farm-work, and the dry 
weather that frequently comes at this time, 
makes the getting out of muck a timely piece 
of work for October and early in November. 
The accompanying engraving shows a fiat- 
bottomed scow, or “ boat,” that is built for 
the rapid and easy removal of muck from its 
bed, to a place upon dry ground. If the dis¬ 
tance is short, a tram-way may be built, upon 
which the vehicle may pass the more easily. 
American Cheese and its Export. 
BY HON. X. A. WILLARD, LITTLE FALLS, N. Y. 
-— 
[Owing to lack of space, we were obliged to divide 
Mr. Willard’s article for last mouth.—E ds.] 
Other Varieties of Cheese Needed. 
But whether the opinions set forth are well 
grounded or not, there are other and more 
urgent reasons why American dairymen 
should enter at once upon the manufacture 
of different varieties of cheese, to suit the 
tastes and wants of the different nationalities 
of which our population is composed. We 
have among us a large foreign element other 
than English. Immigrants from the con¬ 
tinent of Europe have acquired a taste for 
that variety of cheese made in the country 
from which they came. They do not call for 
Cheddar, but would eat freely of that which 
they have learned to like in their old homes. 
The German enjoys his Limberger and Gruy- 
ere, the Swiss his Schweitzer Kase, the Hol¬ 
lander his Edam and Gouda, the Frenchman 
his Neufcliatel, Brie Camemberh and Roque¬ 
fort, the Italian his Parmesan and Gorgon- 
zala. There are many varieties of cheese 
which, if introduced here, would soon have a 
large consumption, not only among foreign 
born citizens, but our native population. 
The statistics of immigration show that since 
1846, eight million immigrants have passed 
through the port of New York, to say nothing 
of other ports. During the first half of 1881, 
DIAGRAM SHOWING AMOUNT OF BOTH GRAIN AND STRAW. 
