WHEAT CULTURE. 
BY DANIEL LEE. 
As our wheat harvest in the valley of the 
Tennessee is nearly over, and the yield sat- 
isfoctory, perhaps my gratitude to the Giver 
of all good cannot be better expressed than 
in an hum bio effort to promote the more 
skillful cultivation of this cereal. 
In preparing ground for wheat, Young 
America is apt to be in too groat a hurry, 
and neither grubs tip bushes or briars, nor 
plows nor harrows so thoroughly as the 
work should be done. Weeds, grass and 
brambles often occupy the soil with their 
strong perennial roots, and thereby have 
every advantage over the young, tender, and 
comparatively feeble, annual wheat plant. 
Defective tillage and careless clearing, in all 
new countries, make the struggle for life and 
space between rival plants very unequal, 
and to the injury of the wheat. This crop 
suffers badly from another neglect on the 
part of the Southern farmer; which is the 
omission to wash seed wheat thoroughly in 
gtrong brine to kill all the germs of smut 
before it is sown. The wheat grower who 
bows the seed of that black and poisonous 
fungus, called smut, by neglecting to use blue 
vitriol, copperas or common Balt, in solu¬ 
tion, as a preventive, will at no distant day 
be held guilt}' of an Indictable offenco. 
The evil named has no redeeming benefit 
whatever to the cultivator or the pub¬ 
lic, What will justify the deliberate pro¬ 
pagation of smut, coeklo, chess, garlic, red 
root, or any other pestiferous weed in wheat, 
to be spread over half the farms In the 
United States! The best interests of the 
nation demand that the full strength of its 
soil go to produce valuable crops of grain 
and other staples, and not be wasted in the 
annual growth of plants that supply neither 
food nor raiment for man nor subsistence for 
farm stock. 
As a general rule, subject to few excep¬ 
tions, all ground from which wheat is har¬ 
vested should have been seeded well in clover 
and orchard grass, timothy or herdsgrass, to 
occupy the land in the place of compara¬ 
tively worthless weeds. It la a fundamental 
principal in sound rural economy to keep 
the soil full of such seeds and plants as will 
give the farmer the largest return for his 
land and labor. Ou this principle, the soil 
no more needs rest than God's rain and sun¬ 
shine require rest from tlreir labors. The 
first lesson that I touch schoolboys in an ag¬ 
ricultural class is that the physical forces ou 
the farm, as elsewhere, never have more 
than a seeming rest. The sun cannot cease 
to shine aud warm the ground, nor tiio earth 
to turn on its axis that all fields may expe¬ 
rience that solar influence which is the 
former's great productive power. How oue 
can best uso this power of production is the 
problem to ho solved. Turnip culture in 
England, and corn culture in this country, 
before wheat, are doubtless steps in the 
right direction. But turnips, corn and wheat 
appoar to require more of the elements of 
fertility than common soils possess, if wo 
aim to secure largo harvests. Manure must 
be made at homo or imported before gener¬ 
ous crops of wheat will grow on most farms. 
I prefer raising manure rather than buy 
it-, because, ns I am situated, some four or 
five hundred miles from the ocean, it is 
cheaper, In our climate, one can nitrify 
lime for improving Ids wheat soil with equal 
facility and profit. As the nitrate of potash 
grows in India, ami the nitrate of soda in 
Chili and Peru, so the nitrate of lime grows 
spontaneously in Tennessee and Alabama. 
This force (nitrification,) may be extended 
indefinitely. It harmonises admirably with 
grass and clover culture, and irrigation, from 
Bay’s Mountain, aud a thousand other spurs 
of the noble Appalachian chain. 
Rain water, charged with carbonic acid, 
dissolves out so much lime from our moun¬ 
tain masses of lime-rock, that it is sometimes 
difficult to say where saltpeter caves cease 
and'saltpotor plains begin. That such plains 
ore naturally adaptod to wheat, the intelli¬ 
gent reader need hardly be told. But If the 
wash of limestone rocks develops such vege¬ 
tation, and mold rich In nitrogen, ns form, 
ultimately, a strong wheat soil, why may not 
the skillful wheat grower make a calcareous 
earth for clover, wheat, com and timothy, 
where nature has failed to supply limo in 
adequate quantity? Unquestionably, it com¬ 
ports with man’s most natural laziness to 
wish Providence had made every form and 
field first rato wheat land. But such, how¬ 
ever, is not tbo fact; although labor and 
study will remedy the defect, whatever it 
may be. 
Burnt lime and salts of lime, such as the 
nitrate, sulphato and phosphate, are so use¬ 
ful and available In grain and grass culture, 
that I do not hesitate to urge their use in 
prepaiing ground for wheat, clover, meadows 
and pastures. Common salt, and all sea 
Balts greatly strengthen weak Boils, if used 
with lime. Our old fields generally lack 
true agricultural salts, which the ocean should 
bo made to supply. It is full of the salt of 
the earth, which is fit, and only “fit for the 
dung heap.” 
In treating of wheat culture in tl,o State of 
New York, in the Country Gentleman of 
June 10,1809, a writer says: 
“8'o long ago as 1814, Dr. Lee said, ‘It 
will not, 1 trust, bo deemed incredible if I 
express the opinion that by the aid of a little 
practical science, good wheat may he grown 
profitably in any county in this Ktnte.’ This 
accords almost exactly with my experience 
and observation.” Twenty-five years have 
elapsed pinco the conviction was expressed 
that wheat maybe profitably grown in all 
thenon-caleavcous counties of New York; 
and on granitic soils in Georgia, (south of the 
New York and New England drift forma¬ 
tion,) us well as in Tennessee and Maryland, 
1 have had occasion to test the soundness of 
my judgment in this matter. It is no longer 
an Induction of science, but a demonstrated 
trutii, that wheat lias been profitably rai.-ed 
on the nan-calcareous soils of New England, 
Now York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and 
other Southern States. 
Our rapid increase of population and need 
of wheat bread, impart peculiar interest to 
this question. In place of robbing ten or 
twenty acres of their natural manure to en¬ 
rich five acres for a large yield of wheat, we 
should draw agricultural salts from springs, 
creeks, livers or the ocean; or from rich 
swamps, hills and mountains. Invaluable 
concentrated manure is wholly within our 
reach. All wo need is to understand that it 
is better policy, as a nation, to augment the 
elements of grain and cotton in the soil than 
to diminish our Bupply by a system of de¬ 
pleting agriculture. 
-... — -— 
THE HAY HARVEST. 
How I Secure my Hay Crop-Value of the 
Hay. 
There are but three acres. This origin¬ 
ally was next to worthless; hence it cost 
me but little to purchase it. Two-thirds of 
it is composed of low fiat laud ; the rest is a 
knoll. The knoll is yellow loam cropped to 
death; the rest graved and clay, and more or 
less wet, affording mostly wuter-grasses. This 
was the condition when 1 purchased the 
land. I at once umlerdrained the low land. 
This gave me a corn crop the next year, and 
oats and barley (mixed) the year following; 
both crops heavy. The land was seeded 
with the last crop to clover and timothy. It 
was an excellent catch; tho ground was 
mellow; and in the fall a heavy coat (of 
clover) covered it. This wus left without 
feeding off. The next year it was a cloud, 
a mass of growth that was unsurpassed. 
All this while the yellow knoll did noth¬ 
ing, though it was manured. What was 
sown was straggling. 1 noticed in the 
spring that the yellow soil, which was 
thought to be dry, was frozen and wet, while 
the laud immediately below and alw ays the 
wettest—wet, in fact, while the other was 
thought to bo dry—was now dry, fit to be 
used; it was dry and mellow, in the finest 
possible condition, early, before sowing was 
thought ofi 
The explanation was, the lower land was 
drained, the upper not. Would draining in¬ 
deed help this already “ dry” land V It was 
drained. There was a magic at once. It 
was mellow with the rest, and afforded bet¬ 
ter crops than before without any extra ef¬ 
fort. Why was this ? There was the same 
soil, plowed no deeper—it had been plowed 
pretty deep before. 
And now, for the first, grass flourished 
here. The clover equaled the lower crop. 
And the whole is now in meadow. 
1 begin Uayiag early,—too early, you 
would say, for so every ouc said when I first 
began the practice several wars ago,—for it 
must bo remembered this is the celebrated 
Herkimer county district, (N Y.,) where they 
do such tilings. I put the scythe In, or 
rather the mowing machine, tho middle of 
June. This was two weeks ahead of the 
time. But it was the proper time for me. 
The hay was cut, half of it, The tedder 
went to work ljlglit and left, scattering it. “A 
tedder for so litilo hay! ” Yea. The tedder 
did it better than I could do it, ancl it did it 
speedily and almost constantly, giving it 
only time to dry a little more at the top. 
My hay was cut early in the day. At 10 
o’clock tho tedder was doing its work, aud, 
foolish as it seemed, aud was said to he, It 
kept at it all day, the sun shining hot. This 
kept the hay in tho air—sun and hot air em¬ 
bracing it, and yet not bo continuously as to 
crisp it; it wag being cured, though in the 
sun, virtually In the shade. 
When night came 1 was tired, and so were 
the horses, But the hay had been dried, raked 
up, and secured. It was dry, and fresh, and 
green (in color,) fragrant, once in tho baru- 
It was worth its weight in gold, almost, yow 
would have said bad you seen it; and you 
would have said it was worth its weight in 
gold quite, had you seen it fed out to stock 
in winter. The butter was summer butter 
literally as to quality, surpassing the best 
fall-made article; it was June butter, made 
from Junc-cul grass. 
The yield of hay was two tons to the acre. 
This was not much. Had it stood half a 
month longer it would have weighed half a 
ton more, for putting the soil in order. 
Plaster and ashes were now applied,—and 
guano would havo been sown had the land 
been poor and tho crop badly needed It. 
There was a drouth, hut tbo clover heeded 
it no moro than though showers had been in 
its stead. It was still early, and the ground 
had not been much dried; the spring rains 
yet told, but most, tho ditching. Besides, 
the long root of tho clover was penetrating 
this deep mellow soil, — for that it was to a 
Certain extent mellow, now that the water, 
surplus and sour, had gone out of it. Here 
was breathing. Tbo water went down fresh 
from tho sky with its pure fertility, and 
warmth, and light, and the root followed It; 
it penetrated till it reached the tile. Will 
the drouth affect bucU a root, such a stem? 
This did not; for the tufts shot up, aud soon 
there was a sight again, a cloud. Of course 
tho drouth will affect nothing now, and It 
did not. There was a growth equal, fully, 
to the first. The plaster and the ashes aided 
here. There was no plaster used before, be¬ 
cause the crop was heavy enough without, 
and the second crop was had in view to be 
plastered. 
This crop was secured, strange a9 it may 
seem, in the midst of “haying.” But the 
difference between this crop and the sur¬ 
rounding crops! The one green—green 
when cured —the other, though without 
rain, pale. This was the fore part of Au¬ 
gust. When September cauie the field wus 
again green, and soon crowded the ground, 
but not bo densely us before. The drouth 
was very severe, burning up many fields in 
grass. This was the only truly green one— 
because the only thoroughly drained and 
taken care of. 
Towards the close of October there was a 
good stand again, tempting the scythe. But 
no scythe was put in. That would have 
been sacrilege to the land. The crop would 
have gone unprotected Into winter quarters, 
and been—seriously hurt—ruined, were not 
the tile doing their work. 
Now only the cattle were turned in. They 
were turned in just before the time of the 
heading of the clover, and kept there till 
winter. There were cattle enough not to 
feed it down, but to keep it from further 
shooting up, and to lower it somewhat, 
leaving still a plentiful protection and a 
good licit coat pi' manure which the nitro¬ 
genous clover furnishes. 
Now, there arc heavier crops raised. The 
yield in some of the European countries is 
double that recorded here, but it Is done by 
forced means—by irrigation and stimulating 
measures, where labor is cheap and hay is 
an anielc that cannot be dispensed with. 
Here are only the dressing of the ashes and 
plaster, and tno securing the two crops, in¬ 
stead of seven hundred and fifty-eight cut¬ 
tings and dressings. 
The next year finds my lot a little less in 
its yield—only a little. There is now 6omc 
timothy, with the clover. The crop is less 
bulky, but heavier for its bulk, and the 
farmer’s adjoining, or almost anv other farm¬ 
ers, (npt quite,) will tell you it is better. This 
bright, solid timothy “ can’t be beat,” They 
say this because it seems so; they never test¬ 
ed it; they never read a fair test. 
Small Farmer. 
--* 
“Early Sebec” Potato.—A correspondent of 
the Maine Farmer, who has been socking; to 
learn the origin of this potato, says“ Recently 
I learned that a fellow dealing- iu ‘ truck' in Bos¬ 
ton, who claimed to have lived once iu Sebec — 
tho town is probably none tho better for It—to 
• raise tho wind' pul. this new name to ngood old 
potato. The nnrno is applied to a variety that 
was brought to this place (Sebec,) by Mr. Wm. 
Mitchell of Dover, about forty-five years ago. 
Mr, M., then an old man, worked a long time in 
the Province of Now Brunswick, receiving his 
pay, as was the custom of tbo thue9, In silver 
eoiu, which he brought in bis pack through the 
forest by way of Boulton. He found a potato 
in the Province so satisfactory to his taste that 
ho brought seed in that toilsome journey, from 
which this part of the State has since rejoiced." 
- ■ ■ ■■ - • - 
Sensible Suggestion*.— There aro a great many 
pool>lo who road the Rural for information aud 
to got the experience of others; and there 
are some who write their experience in farming, 
&c. Now, friends, when you toll what grapes do 
best with you, please tell us what kind of soil 
you raise them on. When you tell us what va¬ 
riety of berries does best with you please tell us 
what kind of foil it Is cultivated upon—whether 
sand, gravel, loam, clay, or sandy loam. That 
corn grower in Canada told us the whole story; 
that was sensible.—II. M., Pine Valley., N. Y. 
-- 
Fertilizer for Wheat.—"Will some of the prac¬ 
tical and intelligent farmers of tho Rural give 
the best fertilizer and mode of applying for 
wheat in black slate land; also some modes of 
cultivating ihe soil for tbe same? Any advice or 
information upon the above subjects will be 
thankfully received by a young agriculturist. 
—Z. A. 0., Mill Creel r, TFc«t Tit. 
---- 
Clipping Wheat, — The Yolo (California) Mail 
Bays:—** We hear of many farmers in this county 
who have been busily engaged with their mow¬ 
er?, clipping off tho tops of early sowed grain. 
The practice is found beneficial in preventing a 
too rank growth of straw and subsequent falling 
down of the stalks before maturity.” 
!|nfcastrial topics. 
CO-OPERATION AMONG FARMERS. 
SECOND ARTICLE. 
We are gratified to see some of the agri¬ 
cultural journals inclined to discuss this 
question, than which none is, financially, 
moro important to the farmer. Fanners aro 
so isolated, confer so little with each other 
as to their mutual interests, bo seldom dis¬ 
cuss the bearings of political measures upon 
themselves, that politicians, boards of trade, 
and other manipulators of political and do¬ 
mestic affiiirs, take no account of them in 
planning and carrying out their measures. 
The Maryland Farmer pithily says:—“A | 
projected measure that would transfer mil- I 
lions from the profits of agriculture into 
other’s hands, may be resolved upon by a 
half-dozen wealthy gentlemen, of elegant 
enterprize, seated in a private parlor around 
a board of direction, without exciting any 
more concern among our farmers than if the 
subject matter related to China or Japan; ” 
and then it urges the necessity of farmers 
organizing themselves into societies, which 
it suggests should be called “ Patrons of 
Husbandly.” 
This is in the view of our recommenda¬ 
tions in the Rural of April 3. We endeav¬ 
ored to illustrate how co-operation would 
assist the small farmers to purchase all the 
expensive improved implements with a very 
small outlay to each one; and that this 
would soon teach them the benefits of moro 
extended unions for the purpose of protect¬ 
ing themselves against opposite combina¬ 
tions, aud giving uniform prices to their 
products. 
Every other industry is organized; tho 
coal trade, the grain trade, the liquor trade, 
all branches of commerce; every branch of 
labor; the masons, the carpenters, the shoe¬ 
makers, the painters, the printers—even the 
hotel waiters, all combine to defend their in¬ 
terests. But the farmer is utterly indifferent 
to the action of all other classes. He seems 
to consider himself entitled only to what 
others condescend to give him. After Ms 
produce passes into the control of a few 
broken, who make a diligent study of the 
question of supply and demand, the former 
often has the mortification to see the prico 
go up fifty to seventy-fisc per cent.; and the 
middle man, for simply handling, gets many 
times the profit of the farmer, through whose 
long toil and the use of capital, it has been 
produced. The farmer appears to regard 
himself as carrying on business entirely alone, 
uever realizing that his brother farmer’s in¬ 
terest is identical with his own, and that 
when all these are combined aud intelligent¬ 
ly directed, with unity of action, all may re¬ 
alize such price as tho supply and demand 
will warrant. 
Local markets arc often affected disas¬ 
trously to the Interest of the farmer by a 
want of co-operation and proper regulation 
of the supply. Take the article of hay, which 
depends to a large extent upon the local de¬ 
mand-taken to market in hulk, a slight 
over-supply will sometimes sink the price 
twenty-five per cent, on a single day. With 
a proper union among those who supply the 
market, this could never occur, as it would 
be brought forward only a9 fast as demand¬ 
ed, aud, besides, an agent of the union would 
be ready to take any surplus upon the mar¬ 
ket. But, as it is, every farmer operating 
independently, many must become the prey 
of speculators. 
Look at tho salt Interest of this State, 
huge in proportions, formerly unorganized 
aud its product selling at all prices, from 
seventy-five cents to three dollars per barrel, 
but for many years it has been almost uni¬ 
form lu price, under a powerful organiza¬ 
tion which controls every barrel made. 
Then the coal trade of our cities, all con¬ 
trolled by an organization that fixes the price 
*f every ton sold. But. go upon the hay 
market of any city, and it will not he re¬ 
markable to find a variation of three to five 
dollars per ton in the sales of the same quali¬ 
ty of hay on the same day. 
Why is the Farmer thus Careless of His Own 
1 merests ? 
Any answer that can bo made i3 not cred¬ 
itable to his intelligence or his enterprise. 
One of the principal reasons may be found 
in the nature of h* occupation. The farmer 
being the producer of the principal articles 
of his consumption, and his main wants be¬ 
ing thus supplied at home, he is not fed to 
study the operations of other classes; the 
nature of his occupation renders him more 
independent of physical needs, and thus ma¬ 
terially more indolent. He sells only his 
surplus, and having first supplied his own 
wants, he becomes comparatively indifferent 
as to the residue. His indifference is some¬ 
times strikingly shown in his reply to one 
who undertakes to demonstrate to him the 
great gain that would accrue from adopting 
some improvement, — “ Yes, the thing looks 
well enough, as you talk it, and I shouldn’t 
wonder if there was lots of money in it; but 
1 lived last year, and I guess I shall next." 
He is your true conservative. He never pro¬ 
poses to take a new and shorter road, ns 
long as he gets safely over the old one. 
Then, as before mentioned, living so much 
dispersed over the country, being so little 
brought Into social relations to each other, 
they have never conceived the possibility of 
combining to equalize and give uniformity 
to the price of their products. 
The farmer, operating thus singly, ignor¬ 
ing all his brethren, Is met by a combination 
of middle men, who manipulate him as they 
choose, fix a prico upon his products, get 
them under their control, and then, survey¬ 
ing the whole field, fix quite another price 
for the consumer. The folly of tho farmer 
brings no blessings to the consumer. All 
other occupations being organized, the 
farmer is, therefore, very likely to fall a 
prey to all. 
llow Shall a Remedy Be Effected 1 
The most effectual way to arouse the 
farmer 1 upon this subject is through the ag¬ 
ricultural journals. A geater number may 
he reached through this channel than any 
other. This want of organization among 
them should be illustrated iu every variety 
of form and they urged to take action; for 
uutil the farmer shall have enterprise enough 
to protect his own Interest, commercially, 
he will never make great progress in the 
science of his art. They havo a political 
power, which, when wielded judiciously, is 
absolutely cont rolling, yet they meekly take 
whatever crumb of comfort Is given them. A 
politician, accustomed to the meekness and 
indifference of agriculturists, would hut laugh 
were he told that such and such a measure 
were demanded by the farmers I But tell him 
that the liquor dealers, or the railroad Interest, 
demanded thus and so, ancl he would be all 
attention. "When the fanners shall have 
organized their great Industry as other in¬ 
dustries are organized —a National Society 
with affiliated societies In every State, coun¬ 
ty and town, tho membership embracing 
formers all over tho country — then a whis¬ 
per to a politician of tho wants of the 
formers would penetrate to the very bottom 
of his heart, and command most profound 
attention. The National Society must be 
first formed as a nucleus aud center of 
action, from which to organize outward to 
the extremities. 
The newspaper must be the moving 
agency in its organization and the channel 
through which its action may be dissemi¬ 
nated. The greatest obstacle to such an or¬ 
ganization and a general hearty co-operation 
of the mass of fanners in it, is the want of a 
more general circulation of agricultural 
journals among them, through width to 
reach them. But tho formation of such a 
society, with a persistent effort to extend it, 
would necessitate an effort to extend the 
circulation of agricultural papers, as a means 
of bringing Us objects before the great mass 
of farmers. 
After organizing the parent society, a 
powerful and perhaps necessary means 
would be to send out lecturers to arouse the 
dormant formers and organize county and 
town societies. These lecturers would, in a 
familiar aud easy way, explain its objects, 
answer objections, and urge action which 
otherwise might be long delayed. 
When we contemplate the faet that there 
are more than two million farm owners in 
the United States, aud twelve millions of its 
population engaged in agriculture, and that 
there is no organization for the purpose of 
protecting aud defending this immense do¬ 
mestic and commercial interest, while every 
other interest, however comparatively trivial, 
is armed to the teeth for self-defence, shall 
we not be aroused to action and to the 
adoption of such means as will cause agri¬ 
culture and its interests to be protected and 
respected as tho most important human ac¬ 
tivity?— E. w. s. 
->-- 
Forsyth, Ga.—I could write you a column or 
two on the Interest that this place possesses 
alike for capitalists and laborers. As a fruit 
growing region it is unsurpassed. The climate is 
delicious adapted to all kinds of grain, while 
improved land will produce a bale or more of 
cotton to the acre. A wiiite man can cultivate 
it himself. The laud can be bought; we would 
be glad to sell a part to improve the rest There 
are several Northern families living in and 
around the place, engaged In merchandise, tho 
mechanic arts and farming. There arc two ex¬ 
cellent schools In ihe town, the female, with a 
hundred pupils, is styled the Monroe Female 
College. We need laborers of every kind, the 
more intelligent, the more acceptable; the f reed- 
men generally prefer a warmer climate, and 
move very readily to the lower and less healthy 
counties. So that there would not bo a very 
long-continued competition with them. 
Now a? to tho attraction ct capital for manu¬ 
facturing, there are a dozen sites or more with¬ 
in this county that aro capable of competing in 
volume of water or height of fall with any on 
tho Connecticut. Their owners are beginning 
to appreciate thoir value. In only one Instance 
is u full held at ao high a figure that our men of 
limited cash capital cannot avail themselves of 
it. But even Its owner, though making a hand¬ 
some living out of mills, could be induced to 
become a partner in a firm competent to de¬ 
velop its inexhaustible powers for manufac¬ 
turing purposes,—w. J. M. 
