AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
307 
the plow so us to drag in the farrow, will be found 
of service in helping to turn under the clover. Ma¬ 
nure well, and use the two-horse cultivator thor¬ 
oughly about the last of August, and you have a 
good seed-bed. 
VARIETIES. 
My favorite kind of wheat is a bearded variety, 
known as the' “ Kentucky White,” or “ Hutchin¬ 
son’s.” I know that bald varieties, such as “Blue 
Stem,” “Soule’s” and “White Flint” will, if not 
damaged by insects or rust, yield the most per acre, 
but owing to the midge (see Insects), I much prefer 
bearded varieties-: Take the earliest, best and clean- 
est wheat you can get for seed. Depend upon it, 
dirty seed will bring a dirty crop—I don’t believe 
that wheat will turn to chess. 
If any thing should prevent early sowing - , I would 
then sow “ Mediterranean,” because it will mature 
here quicker than any other variety, which is quite 
an item in late sowing. Treatment of seed is the 
same upon either clayey or sandy soils. 
TIME OP SOWING. 
The last week in August and first week in Sep¬ 
tember I have found the best time for sowing. In 
this section sowing later is useless, unless you sow 
“Mediterranean.” Should the weather be very- 
growing, and the wheat getting too much top to 
stand the deep snows, turn on your stock and feed 
it off. There is no danger in pasturing wheat mod¬ 
erately, if your land is well drained. In fact, I 
think it does it good by enriching the soil. The 
plants should not be nipped close to the ground— 
but moderately pastured, so as to reduce the tops 
of the plants to enable them to winter safely. 
MODE OF SOWING. 
I sow “broadcast,’’and use a half bushel measure 
to sow out of. Take a strap, pass it through one of 
the handles of the measure, (or a hole made for the 
purpose), and unite the two ends so that when it 
goes over the neck the m'easu're will be convenient 
to dip the right hand into. You can thus always 
know exactly how much seed you are using per 
acre. On a ridge 11 feet wide, ! go and return upon 
the same ridge. Place the seed in bags in the most 
convenient places upon the field. A little practice 
will enable any person to sow quickly and evenly. 
QUALITY OF SEED, ETC. 
I have found 1% bushels per acre enough, when 
sown early; if sown late (Mediterranean) I would 
sow two bushels per acre. I have tried brining the 
seed, liming it, aud various highly recommended 
decoctions, but never realized any benefit from their 
use. Sow good clean seed, and it need only to be 
well covered with good earth. Dibbling and drilling 
in the seed does very well when only a small quan¬ 
tity is sown, and you wish to obtain as much from 
the amount of seed sown as possible; but when 
much ground is sown I decidedly prefer broadcast 
- sowing, notwithstanding a larger amount of s.eed 
is used. Drilling in wheat, and then hoeing it after¬ 
wards, does exceedingly well in theory, but does not 
. succeed so. well in practice; every thing must be 
done nearly right to enable yon to hoe without 
hoeing up your wheat. In fact, when the wheat 
crop is the main crop of the farm, aud much has to 
depend upon hired labor, the simpler and the 
stronger the working implements are, the better. 
We raise wheat to pay , and if we do not raise as 
■ much per acre, if the profit is more, the better for us. 
HARROWING AND ROLLING. 
After sowing, harrow thoroughly—you can not 
harrow too much,—and put on a good heavy roller. 
The land is then ready for furrowing for surface 
draining. I have found it a good plan to roll 
wheat also in the Spring, as soon as the frost is out 
of the- ground—particularly upon land that the 
frost has hoyen much. It presses many roots into 
the ground, which would otherwise be killed by the 
_ sun. I have also found it a good plan upon apiece 
. of wheat which has suffered much from the action 
of jack Frost, but has clumps of wheat still left, to 
run over it twice in the Spring with a light harrow, 
and then roll with a heavy roller. It divides the 
remaining roots, aud although hard looking at first, 
the growing crop will soon astonish you with a 
change for the better. I do not believe in sowing 
“ plaster ” in the Spring upon wheat. Plaster should 
be used, if at all, upon the crop which precedes the 
wheat. If I thought my land was not rich enough 
in the Spring, I would top-dress with either stable 
manure or guano ; but I prefer to have the land 
rich enough before the wheat is sown. 
HARVESTING. 
I always let wheatjiitended for seed' 'getideag ripe; 
the rest I would commence cutting befor'dthe grain 
is quite hard. If too green, it makes dirty and 
heavy work ; but when you have a good deal to cut;? 
you had better cut some of it a little green, thaiib 
lose by its.getting too.ripe. ..-Bearded varieties al¬ 
ways shell very much when dead ripe. If care is 
used, however, in handling, not so much is lost by 
shelling as one would at first suppose. When wheat 
ripens from the head downwards you can cut. very 
green without danger of shrinking. I do not, like 
some wheat-growers, say that wheat is better and 
plumper cut green, for it is my belief that every 
crop should come to maturity before harvesting. 
Never bind too large. Have the sheaves of mod¬ 
erate and uniform size. Rake thoroughly, as it is 
very easy to leave enough to pay for cutting and 
binding upon the ground. In setting up or shocking 
I always set 10 or 12 sheaves together in a row, 5 or 
6 on each side ; I never cap my shocks. If careful¬ 
ly set up, they will stand; and in case of rain, will 
dry quicker without caps. We often have what is 
here called catching weather—and often grain is 
damaged. It is therefore the safest to house or 
stack as soon as the grain is fit. 
THRASHING, CLEANING AND MARKETING. 
Now that horsepower thrashing machines are so 
easily obtained, the old-fashioned way of thrashing 
with the “ flail,” or with horses upon a large floor, 
is mostly done away with, and the new-fashioned 
machines are a great advantage to the farmer. I 
think, however, that wheat for seed is better if 
thrashed with the flail, and would always prefer it 
to that thrashed with a cylinder at great speed, 
which I believe injures many of the grains ; perhaps 
not enough to prevent their growing, but enough 
to prevent the plant from being as hardy as though 
the grain were perfectly sound. It is a farmer’s 
duty to clean not only his wheat for seed and bread, 
but every bushel he sells, thoroughly. On account 
of the carelessness of too many farmers in this re¬ 
spect, our market for wheat is injured very much. 
In marketing, as a general rule for at least this sec¬ 
tion of the country, it is better to sell in the Fall; 
you save all that would be lost during the Winter 
by mice, rats, etc., and have theuse of theproceeds 
sooner. Much, however, depends upon circum¬ 
stances, and a man must use his judgment in the 
matter; for it often happens that wheat is low in 
the Fall, with every prospect of being much higher 
in the Spring. In such case hold on to the grain ; 
but if a good price is offered in the Fall, sell it. 
INJURIOUS INSECTS, RUST, ETC. 
Under this head I shall be very brief, for learned 
men have written much upon the subject, which 
every farmer ought to read. To those who have 
not, I would say, by all means read the works of 
Dr. Fitch, of New-York, upon the insects injurious 
to vegetation. The wheat fly or “ midge ” does a 
great deal of damage to late-sown wheat, and is 
much worse upon bald, than upon bearded varieties. 
For this reason I always sow bearded varieties. In 
my opinion the only remedy for the midge is—to 
drain well—manure well , sow early, and sow an early 
kind of hardy, bearded wheat. In every case where 
I have done this, I have escaped the ravages of the 
“ midge,”—while my neighbors who have done 
otherwise have suffered very much. I examined 
this season a field sown very late with “ Mediterra¬ 
nean,” the seed of which was mixed with “ old red- 
chaff” (bald). Every head of the bald was com¬ 
pletely destroyed by the midge, while the bearded ' 
was but little injured; and I firmly believe that in ' 
sowing late, mixing in a bortion of bald wheat seed 
would preserve the bearded variety from the 
“ midge.” If the wolf (or grain weevil) attacks the 
wheat, (which it seldom does here, to any extent,) 
I would thrash out as soon as possible. If any in¬ 
sects survive the thrashing cylinder, I would spread 
out the grain to the sun, when they will all vanish. 
The wire worm is the curse of wheat-growing 
here. As yet I think no certain remedy for this 
pest has been found. The best remedy I have tried 
is frequent plowing and harrowing, both in Spring 
and Fall, disturbing them as much as possible, nev¬ 
er allowing a field to remain too long in sod. Old 
pastures or meadows are complete nurseries for 
wire worms. But above all things, cultivate an in¬ 
timacy with birds. Not only wire worms and 
“ midge,” but all kinds of insects injurious to the 
farmer; are destroyed in countless numbers by the 
birds ; and until we encourage in every practicable 
way 'the presence of birds, we may expect to suffer. 
I believe rust, like mildew, is caused by exhalations 
which arise from the ground, with damp fogs, and 
stimulate the growth of the plant to such an extent 
as to cause the rust to appear; and I further be¬ 
lieve that thorough draining, good cultivation, with 
the use of hardy varieties, early sown, are the best 
preventives. Where lands are rich in ammonia, 
the straw will be ranker and much later. I should 
in such cases sow about two bushels of salt per 
acre just before any danger of rust. 
In conclusion I would say that I consider 35 bush¬ 
els per acre a fair crop. If everything is right, 
more per acre will grow; and I have no doubt that 
the day is not far distant when, wheat-growing hav¬ 
ing become more of a science, 50 and 60 bushels 
per acre will be called an average crop. There is 
one thing I am convinced of, and that is, that in 
spite of all known injurious insects, wheat can, un¬ 
der proper management, be grown to pay the farm¬ 
er, and pay well, too. I think the onslaught of the 
insect tribe upon the wheat will result in good, by 
bringing about a much better system of farming, 
which otherwise would never have been attained. 
Farming in. Iowa. 
Raising Wheat and Corn—Shelter for Stock, etc. 
To the Editor of the American■ Agriculturist : 
Our best wheat is raised on prairie sod, turned 
over the previous Summer. The first season of my 
farming in this section, I sowed 20 acres of Spring- 
wheat on prairie sod, which had been turned over in 
June of the previous year, and corn dropped in every 
third furrow. It was harrowed well, at the time 
of sowing, without cross plowing. I never had a 
finer piece of wheat. The next Spring I cut the 
corn stalks from 12 acres, raked them up and burned 
them. On part of this I sowed wheat without 
plowing, and part was plowed before sowing. I had 
much the'best wheaton the unplowed portion. 
We do not use any manure, the soil being sufficient¬ 
ly rich without it, but the time will probably come 
when manure Will be valuable. 
Most of our corn is planted on freshly turned 
prairie sod, dropping from two to four kernels in 
the crevice between every third furrow, and stamp¬ 
ing it in with the heel. We sometimes raise as 
much as 50 bushels per acre in this way, and the 
ground is in good condition for Spring wheat. 
Much of the stock in this country is still wintered 
without shelter of any kind. I had a stable for my 
horses, the first winter of my coming here, but 
nothing for any other stock. The winter was very 
severe and I resolved to have a shelter before anoth¬ 
er winter. Going to the timber, I cut and split 
strong oak stakes for posts, 8 feet long. These 
were set in a ditch 2 feet deep, 6 inches apart, and 
a plank spiked to each stake on top, the earth be¬ 
ing filled in firmly about the bottom. Ten feet 
south of these I set another row of posts, 10 feet 
apart, and fastened cross timbers on the top of each 
one, running to the plank on the . stakes. Rails 
were laid on these timbers, and when we thrashed 
ourwlieat in Autumn, thestraw was used for a roof, 
topping off with prairie hay. Rude as this is, it 
forms a good shade in Summer and a -shelter in 
Winter. 1 have seen unprotected cattle snowed in 
so that only their heads were visible. 
Mahaska Co., Iowa. W. Gij.mouR. 
