1873.] 
95 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
raise 30 bushels of wheat per acre every third 
year, instead of 10 bushels every year. 
If we summer-fallowed and plowed under 
clover in order to produce the 30 bushels of 
wheat once in three years, instead of 10 bushels 
every year, no more produce of any kind would 
be raised. But my plan does not contemplate 
such a result. On my own farm I seldom sum¬ 
mer-fallow, and never plow under clover. I 
think I can enrich the farm nearly as much by 
feeding- the clover to animals and returning- the 
manure to the laud. The animals do not take 
out more than from five to ten per cent of the 
most valuable elements of plant-food from the 
clover. And so my plan, while it produces as 
much and no more grain to sell, adds greatly to 
the fertility'- of the land, and gives an increased 
production of beef, mutton, wool, butter, cheese, 
and pork. 
I greatly mistake the signs of the times if far¬ 
mers all ovey the country do not make an earn¬ 
est effort to curtail their labor bills the coming- 
season. And I shall be exceedingly glad of it, 
provided itleads to breaking up less land and 
the more thorough cultivation of the fewer 
acres under tillage. But if less hired labor 
means less work per acre on land under cultiva¬ 
tion, then I think the result will be bad for far¬ 
mers and bad for the country. 
We are going to have better times for farmers 
in the near future. And now is the time to 
prepare for them. Get the land ready. Make 
it clean, and get it into clover and grass. It 
will then be gaining in fertility, and when the 
good times come—as come they certainly will 
—this land can be plowed with a reasonable 
prospect of producing a good crop. But if you 
continue to plow as many acres, and undertake 
to work it with less labor, the chances are that 
you will get meager crops, and the laud will 
become more and more weedy, and when the 
gooff time comes for corn to bring a dollar a 
bushel where it now sells for 20 cents, and pork 
and beef bring 10 cents per pound, live-weight, 
where they now bring 3 cents, you will have 
little to sell. It will rain porridge, but your 
dish will not be ready to catch it. History, ex¬ 
perience, observation, and common-sense all 
demonstrate that good times never come to poor 
farmers. If you can not do anything else to¬ 
wards improving your farm the coming season, 
let me urge you at any rate to make an earnest 
effort to kill the weeds. This alone would add 
millions to the wealth of the country. 
“I do not find so much benefit from stirring 
the soil as I expected,” writes a young farmer. 
11 Two years ago, I sowed winter wheat after 
barley. On half the field I plowed the land 
twice, and cultivated and harrowed and rolled 
until it was as fine and mellow as a garden. 
The other half was only plowed once, and I 
think the wheat was quite as good on this half 
as on the part so thoroughly worked.” 
Very likeljn But this does not prove that 
stirring land does not accelerate the decomposi¬ 
tion of the inert organic matter in the soil. You 
forget that fermentation requires time. You 
would not think of turning a manure heap half- 
a-dozen times in a week for the purpose of 
accelerating decomposition. One good turning 
and fining would be just as good. Organic 
matter in the soil decomposes very slowly. It 
requires time. It is for this reason, among 
•others, that I advocate “ fall-fallowing.” It ex¬ 
poses the soil for a longer time than the so- 
called summer-fallow. A true summer-fallow 
should be plowed in the fall, and again in the 
spring. This gives the organic matter time to 
decompose. 
In 1859, I wrote an article on the cultivation 
of wheat, in which I said: 16 Wheat likes a firm, 
compact soil; and if left somewhat rough and 
cloddy, it is none the worse. It is easy to make 
the surface too fine and smooth for wheat.” 
This last statement led to considerable discus¬ 
sion at the time. It seemed to be a new idea 
to many farmers. But A. B. Dickinson, San¬ 
ford Howard, and, I think, John Johnston and 
George Geddes, indorsed the opinion, and I sup¬ 
posed it was now regarded as a settled fact in 
agriculture. 
Some men naturally run to extremes. If the 
doctor prescribes a rhubarb-pill, they say, “ If 
one is good, three must- be better,” and if the 
result is not pleasant or favorable they blame 
the doctor. Recommend summer-fallowing 
clayey soil, and some farmers will summer- 
fallow a blowing sand. Say three or four plow- 
ings in nine or ten months are good, and they 
will plow half-a-dozen times in two or three 
months, and blame you if the crop does not 
come up to their expectations. 
Stirring the soil does favor the disintegration of 
the mineral elements of plants and the decompo¬ 
sition of the inert organic matter. This is a well- 
ascertained fact. But it requires time. And, fur¬ 
thermore, a good deal depends on the soil. It is 
no use to stir soil that is loose and light enough 
already. We need work it no more than is neces¬ 
sary to kill the weeds. But on heavy clay soil we 
must plow more frequently. Said John Johnston: 
“ I get my best crops of wheat when I plow my 
fallow four times during the summer and use 
the large wheel-cultivator at least twice; and 
the better I pulverize my fallow, the better my 
wheat crop.” This is the testimony of one of 
the oldest, best, and most successful wheat- 
growers in the United States. His land is a 
clay loam. When he bought the farm the land 
was supposed to be almost too poor to pay for 
cultivation. He has made it one of the most 
productive farms in the State. 
Mr. Ira Cook, of San Francisco, formerly a 
good Western Hew York farmer, writes me am 
interesting account of the wheat crop of Cali¬ 
fornia. “Just think of it,” he says, “ only a few 
years ago wheat was shipped here from Hew 
York to supply bread for the inhabitants; now 
California is one of the largest wheat-produc¬ 
ing States, if not the largest, in the Union.” 
According to the last census, California pro¬ 
duced 291 bushels of wheat to each inhabitant. 
This was the largest production in proportion 
to population of any State of the Union except 
Minnesota, which produced nearly 43 bushels 
to each person. Oregon stood third, 251 bush¬ 
els; Iowa came next, 24£; then Wisconsin, 
24j; then Hebraska,_17|; Indiana, 16|; Michi¬ 
gan, 131; Illinois, 111; Ohio, 10-^; Missouri,81; 
Maryland and Delaware, 71, Kansas, 6|; Vir¬ 
ginia, 6. These are the only States that pro¬ 
duce a surplus. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, 
and Hevada produce 5£, and Tennessee and 
Kentucky 5 bushels to each inhabitant, or about 
enough for home consumption. All the other 
States have to look to the above-named States 
for more or less wheat. All the old slave States 
produce less wheat now in proportion to popu¬ 
lation than before the war, while I suppose the 
negroes, now they are their own masters, will 
eat more wheat-flour than formerly. On the 
whole, there is nothing in the outlook that need 
discourage wheat-growers. 
Mr. Cook sends me a copy of the San Fran¬ 
cisco Bulletin, with an account of three wheat 
farms in the San Joaquin Valley, the largest of 
which is 36,000 acres. “ The produce of this 
farm for 1872 was 1,440,000 bushels.” This is 
40 bushels of wheat from every acre on the 
farm 1 The farm is 17 miles long. “At the 
season of plowing, ten four-horse teams were 
attached to ten gang-plows—or 40 horses with 
as many plows were started at the same time, 
following in close succession. Lunch or dinner 
was served at a midway station, and supper at 
the terminus of the field, 17 miles distant from 
the starting point. The teams returned on the 
following day.” 
Mr. Cook asks, “ What do you think about 
it?” I think, 1st. The editor knew no more 
about farming than some of his newspaper 
brethren on this side the Rocky Mountains. 
2d. I think it is poor farming to put every acre 
of the farm in w’heat; I would have reserved a 
few acres for the support of the teams, etc. 
3d. I think I would have had the barns in the 
neighborhood of the “midway station,” and let 
the men and teams stay at home nights, instead 
of first at one terminus and then at the other. 
4th. I think after the wheat is cut and thrashed, 
and left in bags on the field, it would keep 
“forty horses” very busy for over a year to 
draw it to the most central point on the farm. 
There would be 43,320 tons of wheat, equal to 
say 30,000 good two-horse loads. If the wheat on 
the average was five miles from the barn, and 
the horses traveled 30 miles a day, each team 
would draw three loads a day, or 60 loads in 
all, and it would consequently require 500 days 
to draw in the wheat. 5th. I think if the 40 
horses plowed 40 acres a day they would be 
doing well, and would finish plowing the field 
in 900 days, or if they kept at it through rain 
and shine, Sundays and week-days, they would 
get the field ready for harrowing and sowing in 
a little less than two years and a half. 6th. I 
think the Bulletin man should try again. 
Clearing- Timber Land. 
Several of our readers who have asked for 
information on clearing up timber land and 
utilizing the timber are referred to this article 
for replies to their inquiries. The opening up 
of the vast Western prairies to settlement by 
means of the various railroads which penetrate 
them in every direction for hundreds of miles, 
has to a large extent drawn away attention 
from the still unsettled timber lands. But, after 
all, it is a question whether or not the settler 
on a clear open prairie, without a tree or bush 
in view, has not really a harder work before him 
to make a comfortable homestead than the set¬ 
tler in the dense forest. A gentleman well known 
as an agricultural writer of repute, and as pos¬ 
sessing in no small degree good judgment and 
common-sense (the Hon. Geo. Geddes), said re' 
cently that if he were a younger man he could 
desire no more profitable business-than to take 
a thousand acres of Michigan timber laud, clear 
it, and after raising a crop of wheat, seed it to 
grass and clover and raise sheep and wool. 
The labor or expense involved in the clearing 
did not seem to deter him from expressing this 
favorable view of the operation. At any rate, 
it is quite certain that many readers of the 
American Agriculturist are engaged in this 
business, notwithstanding so many have chosen 
to make themselves homes on the prairies. 
