1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
255 
freely for a herd ; that does not make him a breed¬ 
er. If he owns the stock long enough to breed two 
or three generations, he may prove himself worthy 
the name, otherwise the herd runs out and is sold 
for very little. The action of the Short-horn breed¬ 
ers, in admitting to record animals showing a cer¬ 
tain number of thorough-bred crosses, is promotive 
of good breeding, inasmuch as it will make breed¬ 
ers careful to preserve their pedigrees, and to make 
good crosses. The system of recording the pedi¬ 
grees and performances of horses, is productive of 
similar effects, and the general result is an increase 
of value in pedigreed stock, and an understanding 
of what constitutes merit in pedigrees. 
It is a little difficult to see the value of a pedigree, 
in judging of amilk and butter cow like the Jersey, 
except, indeed, as the pedigree indicates purity of 
blood. If we could see a record of the performances 
of the cows as yielders of butter, both in the line of 
the sire and of the dam, as we may study in the 
trotting registers the performances of the horses, 
we might soon hope to make great progress in 
breeding butter cows, and be morally certain that 
the number which would annually die of milk fever 
would greatly increase. What a stopper this is upon 
breeding butter cows!—Is there no 6ure remedy ? 
Talks on Farm Crops.—No. 5. 
By the Author of “ Walks and Talks on the Farm," 
“ Harris on the Pig," etc. 
Merchants, manufacturers, bakers, professional 
men, mechanics, capitalists, laborers, millers, rail¬ 
road men, ship owners, farmers, forwarders, rich 
and poor, high and low, one and all, are hoping for 
a big crop of wheat the coming harvest. 
But nothing can now be done to secure such a 
result. We can only hope and wait. The time for 
work was a year ago, or even two or three years 
ago. We cannot make land dry, clean, and rich in 
a day. Spasmodic efforts are of little avail in agri¬ 
culture. We must look ahead, and lay our plans 
and make our preparations for many days, months, 
and years in advance. We want, as farmers, to 
cultivate an abiding faith in our calling—to feel 
that our products will always be wanted. 
“ Never mind all that,” said the Deacon. “ What 
we want to know is how to make farming pay. We 
don’t false wheat because people must have bread 
to eat, but because we want to earn a living for 
ourselves. And I tell you, farmers have seen hard 
times for a few years past, and if we are going to 
have better prices for wheat, corn, oats, beef, mut¬ 
ton, wool, and pork, we can all understand that it 
will be better for farmers and better for the country. 
It is nothing new. We have had such times again 
and again. High and low prices succeed each other, 
and will continue to do so. But what of it ? ” 
“ Simply this, Deacon,” said I, “that high prices 
are of little benefit to the farmer who has little to 
sell. It is the good farmer who feels the effect of 
good prices. A farmer who only half works his 
land, and raises only average crops, will never make 
much money, no matter what prices may be. This 
was seen during our own war. The farmers who 
paid off their mortgages were the men who had 
previously got their land in condition to produce 
good crops, and who kept good stock and fed lib¬ 
erally. They had something to sell when produce 
brought high prices. It will be just so in the future. 
But it is a lesson most of us are slow to learn.” 
As I have said, it is too late to do anything to in¬ 
crease the yield of wheat this year. But in three 
months we 6hall be busy sowing the seed for the 
wheat harvest of 1878. We can do much, during 
these three months, to increase our chances of 
securing a large and profitable crop. 
There are three prominent plans of preparing 
land for wheat. 1st.—The old English summer- 
fallow. 2nd.—The modem summer-fallow. 3d.— 
Sowing after spring crops, or after wheat, or on a 
fresh-turned clover-sod. The last is seldom prac¬ 
tised in this country. In England it is very com¬ 
mon, but in our dry climate it can be adopted only 
on very light, easily worked land. 
“ In England,” 6aid the Doctor, “ I saw farmers 
plowing the clover sod and sowing the wheat the 
very day the land was plowed. And as you suggest, 
the same thing might be done here on light land ; 
and on heavy soil when we have rain enough to thor¬ 
oughly soak sod land—which is rarely the case.” 
“ That is true,” said the Deacon, “but two years 
out of three we are suffering from drouth just at 
the time when we want to sow wheat.” 
“And consequently,” said I, “ we must get our 
land plowed and worked down fine for weeks be¬ 
fore we want to sow. This is our only safe plan. 
A rain that would be of little use on sod, or on a 
rough, cloddy field, might be sufficient to make a 
fine, mellow soil moist enough to cause wheat to 
germinate at once, and give it a good start. How 
best to get land in this condition, is the most im¬ 
portant question for the wheat-grower. On very 
heavy clay land, it may be necessary to plow early 
in the spring, or in the fall previous, and to plow 
again during the summer, and again before sowing 
the wheat. This is what I call an old English sum¬ 
mer-fallow. Three or four plowings, followed each 
time with roller and harrow, or cultivator, make 
the land mellow and moist,- and in fine condition 
for the seed.”——“ No doubt about that,” said the 
Deacon, “ but it costs too much. It will not pay.” 
“ There I think you are mistaken, Deacon,” said 
I. “ You must recollect that the work is done af¬ 
ter we are through planting corn, and when there 
is often little for the teams to do. Farmers often 
let their horses lie idle while they are hoeing, or 
fighting the potato bugs. Hire an extra man and 
keep the horses at work. A good three-horse plow, 
that will cut a fifteen or eighteen-inch furrow, is 
one of the cheapest and most effective implements 
yet discovered for working the land.” 
What I have ventured to call “A modern sum¬ 
mer-fallow,” is decidedly the most popular in this 
section. A clover-sod is broken up in June, and 
this is all the plowing that the fallow receives. All 
the rest of the work is done with the roller, har¬ 
row, cultivator, or gang-plow. The sod is not dis¬ 
turbed. The surface-soil is stirred sufficiently to 
keep down the weeds, and if the work is well done, 
we have four or five inches of fine, mellow soil on 
top of the decaying sod, ready to receive the seed 
in September. A little fine manure spread on the 
surface, and harrowed or cultivated in, is a great 
help. And if we are going to get a good price for 
wheat, we could use guano with profit. 
Now, as to which of these two methods is best, 
will depend much on the character of the land. My 
own opinion is, that we are in little danger of plow¬ 
ing the land too much. Still, on light, sandy loam, 
and especially if a little manure or guano is spread 
on the surface, it may be unnecessary to plow more 
than once. But on heavier land I think it is far 
better to plow three times—say once in June, again 
the last of July, and finally just before sowing. 
But whether we plow only once, or whether we 
plow twice, or three times, we must not allow any 
weeds to grow on the fallow. Even if the weeds 
are all killed before sowing the wheat, we must re¬ 
member that the growing weeds pump up a large 
amount of water out of the soil and evaporate it 
through their leaves. And one of the great advan¬ 
tages of a fallo.w for wheat is, that it furnishes a 
moist seed bed. 
In sowing wheat after wheat, or after barley or 
oats, our principal aim must be, to retain as much 
moisture in the soil as possible. As soon as the 
crop is harvested, start the plow. Turn in the 
sheep and pigs to glean the stubbles, but do not 
wait for them. And no matter how dry the weath¬ 
er is, or how hard the land, do not Wait for rain. 
Put on three horses and break up the soil. Follow 
with a roller. Then harrow, and roll again where- 
ever the land is cloddy. The roller will break some 
of the clods, and press others into the soil. Go 
over the land again with a harrow, and this will 
pull up the clods and leave them on the surface, 
where the roller will have another chance at them. 
By repeated harrowing and rolling, as here indicat¬ 
ed, the land can be reduced to a comparatively fine 
condition. At any rate, no matter how dry and 
hard it is, enough of the clods can be broken up to 
furnish fine soil to cover the clods that cannot be 
broken. Stick to it until this is ascomplished, and 
before leaving the field, let every clod be pressed 
down into the fine earth by the roller. 
On my own farm it is only on portions of the 
field where such work is necessary, and we do not 
go over the whole field, but only on what the men 
call the “ clay spots.” We go round and round on 
them with the roller and harrows, until the clods 
are all broken up. When thoroughly reduced to a 
fine, pulverized condition, these clay spots are the 
best wheat land on the farm. In the summer-time, 
the men are always longing for rain when they are 
plowing or harrowing, or rolling, or cultivating 
these clay spots. Of course, a good soaking rain 
would facilitate the work, but the land is in far bet¬ 
ter condition afterwards, if the clods are knocked 
to pieces when dry. And in point of fact, the clay- 
land farmer, instead of wishing for rain, ought to 
be thankful that we have such a drying climate. 
Clay land, thoroughly worked when dry, makes a 
splendid seed-bed as soon as we have a good rain. 
“ But suppose you do not have a rain,” said the 
Deacon, “ what are you going to do then.” 
“ The land,” said I, “will not be the worse for the 
working. We have three or four inches of fine soil 
on top, and this acts as a mulch, and keeps the soil 
below much more moist than it would be if left 
cloddy or unplowed. Let it lie until you want to 
sow the wheat. Then start the plow, and I shall 
be greatly mistaken, even if we have had no rain 
since the land was plowed, and harrowed, and 
rolled, if there is not two or three inches of the 
lower soil in a moist condition. Drill in the wheat 
at once, and if the weather is still dry, and likely 
to stay dry, roll. If not, not. When the soil is 
moist and mellow underneath, a little roughness 
on the surface is no objection for winter wheat.” 
As I said before, the indications are favorable for 
better prices for wheat, and it will pay to take more 
pains to prepare the land properly. When this is 
done, then, but not until then, it will probably pay 
well to buy some good commercial manure, to sow 
on our wheat this fall. We are getting artificial 
manures of far better quality and at cheaper rates 
than ever before, and in many cases we can afford 
to use them freely. If I was going to buy manure 
to sow on wheat this fall, I would select that which 
furnished 40 to 50 pounds of available nitrogen, 
and 40 or 50 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid per 
acre, at the cheapest rate. Nearly all the artificial 
manures offered to us, contain too much phos¬ 
phoric acid, and too little nitrogen for wheat. 
Pay no attention to those who tell you our soils 
are “ exhausted.” We must drain the land where 
necessary ; kill the weeds and cultivate thoroughly; 
provide a good seed-bed, and drill in the wheat in 
good season, and our chances for a good crop are 
as favorable as they ever were. 
Of course we shall use all the manure we have. 
The trouble is that we do not have enough of it— 
or rather we do not make it rich enough. It con¬ 
tains too much straw — too much carbonaceous 
matter and potash, and too little grain, bran, or 
oil-cake—in other words too little nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid. The remedy is to feed our stock 
better—or buy nitrogen and phosphoric acid in the 
shape of guano or other commercial fertilizers. 
I wish we might have a great crop of wheat in 
1878, and get §1.75 to §2.00 a bushel for it. And wow 
is the time to make preparations, x do not differ 
with those who recommend growing more green 
crops instead of summer-fallowing. But a@ we do 
not, or can not, or will not, raise the green crops," 
let us summer-fallow for winter wheat, and fall- 
fallow for spring wheat. 
The Balance op Trade.— The Bureau of Statis¬ 
tics publishes some very interesting figures relative 
to the business of the country in its last quarterly 
report. The total imports of the country for the 
year ending June 30, 1876, were $476,677,871, and 
the total exports amounted to $596,890,973, leaving 
a balance in our favor of $120,213,102. In Septem¬ 
ber the gain in our favor was even greater, equalling 
more than 20 millions of dollars. The gain during 
the whole year 1876 may probably amount to a 
balance in our favor of $320,000,000, a most grati* 
