ofaiptt (Bccmamg. 
PREPARATION OF GROUND FOE WHEAT. 
The best farmers of the present day do not 
spend more time, labor nor expense in pre¬ 
paring their fields for wheat seeding than 
was common forty or fifty years ago. Wo 
think they use les9 of each, the difference 
between modern and old methods being that 
the former are better directed and tho work 
is not done so much by what sailors call 
" main strength and stupklness,” It would 
go hard indeed with modem farmers if they 
put more preparatory work on their wheat 
fallows than is implied in the old-i'ashioued 
Way of plowing and cross plowing successive¬ 
ly three, fonr, or even five or six times in a 
season, especially if the land was infested by 
thistles or other perennial weeds. Much of 
this labor was waHted, and we are inclined 
to think worse than wasted, by misdirection 
It used to be a common remark among 
shrewd, practical farmers that good v heat 
was rarely grown where land had been 
plowed to kill the thistles. To use their 
plirase,,“it killed the nature of the land”— 
not a very accurate or scientific explanation 
of the result, but certainty a most expressive 
one. Slated more accurately, this excessive 
plowing reduced laud to so fine a tilth that it 
held too much moisture. Hence in winter 
and spring the soil became compacted by tho 
particles running together in a more or less 
thin mud. The frost hove out the roots of 
winter grain on till such land while so soon as 
dry weather came the surface formed into a 
crust which gradually hardened downwards 
through the summer. It is little wonder 
that good crops of wheat could not be 
grown, unless in exceptional seasons, by such 
methods as these. The bad effect of exces¬ 
sive plowing in breaking tip the natural 
water courses i hrough the soil, is now quite 
generally conceded. One deep plowing does 
not have this result, for unless the soil is en¬ 
tirely bare of vegetation, the decay of the 
sod beneath the furrow tends to establish 
other water courses in place of those which 
the plow has interrupted. 
The approved practice of best farmers Is 
to plow only once for wheat. Turn as good 
a sod as possible under the furrow and after¬ 
wards work altogether upon the surface. 
Work the ground often, for the more fre¬ 
quently it is stirred the shallower it can be 
cultivated, killing all weed* at the first rather 
th an letting them take root, making deeper 
cultivation necessary*. The old - fashioned 
harrow, or drag, is one of the very best im 
plementaevcr put into a summer fallow, and 
it would be u good thing if all fallows could 
be cultivated by* that alone. Tho drag com¬ 
pacts the soil and rarely if ever scratches 
more than two or two and n half inches 
deep. The deep cultivation sometimes given 
by horse cultivators going down ami turning 
up the soil four or five or more inches is little 
less injurious than tho old-fashioned method 
of cross-plowing. We know too well why 
this deep cultivation is practiced. Weeds 
are allowed to grow* in summer fallows until 
nothing but deep plowing will uproot them. 
Even then it is better to make the cultivator 
teeth sharp, so as to cut off obstinate roots, 
and then keep it not more than three inches 
deep, ir the fallow is dragged once a week 
with a well sharpened tooth-drag, it will cut 
off o» break off thistle roots more perfectly 
than less frequent but deeper cultivation 
would do. 
Next to a drag the roller is the best imple¬ 
ment to use in preparing a seed bed for 
wheat, and for much the same reason. It 
compacts the soil and helps to make a fine 
tilth but shallow seed bed. The drag alone 
rakes the clods of earth on the surface, leav¬ 
ing it rough and uneven. This is not an ad¬ 
vantage, as many have hastily guessed from 
a few experiments. Land left looking rough 
and full of hard clods of earth generally* pro¬ 
duces better wheat than where the surface 
is mellow and smooth. The reason is that 
these rough clods on the surface show fre¬ 
quent use of the drag, while the mellow, 
smooth surface shows more frequent use of 
the cultivator. Break these surface clods 
still more by going over after each dragging 
with a cultivator or clod crusher, which will 
compact the soil but leave the surface in 
better tilth for a seed bed, and the wheat 
will be still better. The drill will bring up 
enough clods to the surface to protect the 
wheat all that is possible, and these ridges 
left by the drill should be left as nearly per¬ 
fect as possible. A mellow seed bed, but a 
shallow one, is the result to be aimed at. 
With this mellow seed bed secured, we do 
not care how hard and unpromising the soil 
beneath may be. Winter frosts will mellow 
it sufficiently for the roots of wheat the 
second season, and if we could prevent it we 
would never have a wheat plant strike its 
roots deeper than three or four inches in the 
fall. Lateral extension of the root to hold 
the surface soil ill a solid body to rise and 
fall together is what is wanted. With such 
a mat of roots, even the past severest winter 
within our remembrance did not destroy nor 
greatly injure some fields of wheat, while 
others, apparently nearly as thrifty in the 
fall but whoBB roots struck downwards, were 
almost entirety Winter killed. This lateral 
growth of roots i3 encouraged by keeping 
the under soil hard and also by surface ma¬ 
nuring and tho use of commercial manures 
drilled in with the seed. In no other way 
can we account for the remarkable effects of 
light applications of superphosphate on 
wheat the past season. 
Where stubble ground is plowed for wheat 
the same general principles hold good as for 
summer fallows. Half the failures of wheat 
on oat or barley stubble come from a second 
plowing, or such deep cultivation as to 
amount to the same thing. It is the com¬ 
mon experience of farmers that stubble 
ground got in hastily* and roughly gives bet¬ 
ter wheat than with more careful culture— 
often better than the pet summer fallow*. 
This would not be so were not the labor so 
generally misdirected. Plow as early* as 
possible. Work us much aa possible with 
drag and roller, and if you cultivate, go shal¬ 
low to disturb the decaying Btubblo as little 
as possible. By always cultivating shallow 
and using the drag and roller as much as pos¬ 
sible, a stubble ground can be made very 
nearly equal to the best summer fallow, and 
better far than the average of those which 
are thought to be most thoroughly (and 
deeply) cultivated. 
-- 
CAUSES OF FAILUEE IN FAEMING. 
It is a very popular idea that men of quick, 
ordinary capacity, simple in their ideas, in¬ 
ferior in discernment and frugality, plainly 
ignorant, though industrious, are capable of 
farming successfully—time lending experi¬ 
ence. Experience, it is true, is the chart 
upon which tiie terraculturist bases the as¬ 
surance of his future success ; but as In most 
other industrial pursuits, it must be at tended 
with skill, judgment, ambition and industry 
in order that ho may attain the So-muoh-de- 
sired end. 
Every farmer is liable to meet with ad¬ 
versity ; it being beyond human control, 
none can avert it. But the judicious and 
experienced farmer can notice numerous 
unmistakable errors effected hy the unskilled 
culturist. He foresees, and consequently 
avoids, losses which the injudicious farmer 
is left to realize. 
One of the causes of failure in farming is a 
want of adaptation of the production to the 
soil. Thus we notice fanners grow wheat or 
corn in an exhausted, clayey soil ; grasses 
on the hill side, &c. This, the intelligent 
reader will admit, is a very improper coarse, 
The reverse were more conducive to success. 
Another cause of failure is practicing the 
special crop system. The disadvantages in 
this method of soil cultivating are obvious. 
If the crop cultivated proves a failure, it 
might be said one season’s farming is a fail¬ 
ure. Again, constant successive cultivation 
of the same crop will render the soil unpro¬ 
ductive under the most judicious tillage, 
from the fact that the proper nutritive ele¬ 
ments requisite iu any particular case will 
become exhausted. The soil obtains its min¬ 
eral constituents from the subjacent rocks, 
and some of them are contained in very 
small quantities, and thus would be very 
soon exhausted, in mixed husbandry the 
nourishment consumed in each preceding 
crop is constantly restored by the decompo¬ 
sition of its subsoil. From this it may 
readily be inferred that special-crop farming 
greatly augments the liability of a fatal ter¬ 
mination. 
Overstocking is also to be considered as a 
cause of unsuccess. Especially is this the 
case in the summer season, where farmers 
are in the habit of turning their cattle out 
to pasture* this error is also modified by 
turning them out too early in the season. 
Too large a stock turned out. to grass too 
early is certainly loss to the elaborate farm¬ 
er. The herbage of the field lias not yet at¬ 
tained its proper nutritious principles,—it is 
young and tender, and when the over stock 
assails it, soon the field is laid almost bare, 
rendering the pastures insufficient the re¬ 
mainder of the season at least under ordin¬ 
ary conditions. Such proceedings will also 
most assuredly deprive the soil of its neces¬ 
sary protection against the reefs of stern 
winter, and there will be continual alternate 
freezing and thawing the following spring, 
which is very injurious to the growth of the 
succeeding crop. 
There is a class of farmers whose method 
of tilling the soil appears to be handed down 
from one posterity to another, and present¬ 
ing the same series of phenomena through¬ 
out, viz. a lack c f ambition and enthuifiasin 
as well as skill. Simply a dragging along In 
a kind of nit which their ancestors had 
already modeled and scooped out before 
them. Any attempt to pursue a different 
course would doubtless incur a fatal shock 
at once, in consequence of the want of prop¬ 
er qualifications. Other causes noticable are 
waste, unnecessary fencing, &c.; but as they 
are of less moment we shall not enter into 
detail about them. J. M. a, 
-♦♦♦- 
COMPARATIVE VALUE OF FERTILIZERS. 
Editor Rural :—Being a constant reader 
of your most valuable paper I come to you 
now for a little information in the way of 
utilizing night soil, so us to obtain the best 
possible results. What, would be the relative 
value of a barrel of night soil utilized us yon 
would recommend compared with a barrel 
of fertilizer or bone dust ‘ Would you rec¬ 
ommend wood ashes as proper to use with 
night soil, and if so what proportion would 
you use (—Constant Reader. 
That uiglit soil is a very valuable manure 
is generally understood ; but it frequently 
disappoints because too much benefit is ex¬ 
pected from very small applications. Of 
course if applied in a nearly crude state it is 
bad handling and absolutely impossible to 
distribute over a field. When deodorized 
and reduced to powder as it may be, it is 
touch reduced in strength ; but in that state 
it can he applied with the seed in drill -: and 
always produces an excellent effect. Tins is 
the pouorette of commerce, and if fairly 
made is a valuable fertilizer. As to its value 
compared with fertilizer, (we presume super¬ 
phosphate is meant,) it depends upon charac¬ 
ter of soil and crop. Where land is deficient 
in phosphate of lime und for wheat or clover 
especially, on such soil we consider an hon¬ 
estly made superphosphate drilled-in superior 
to any other manure. It is also the manure 
for turnips and other members of the Braa~ 
stca family. But for corn, potatoes and 
most, other vegetables, nitrogenous manures 
are more needed unless there is a very great 
deficiency in phosphates. Our general plan 
is to spread all nitrogenous manures (includ¬ 
ing night soil) on the land as evenly as possi¬ 
ble and rely on superphosphates drilled with 
fall or spring grain to supply any deficiency. 
We have always used supei-phosphat.es con¬ 
taining a considerable warranted percentage 
of ammonia, though results nearly as good 
have been produced on some soils by super¬ 
phosphate made from burned bones which, 
of course, contain none. Our correspondent 
hails from Buffalo and we feel safe in com¬ 
mending him to the Buffalo Fertilizing Co. 
(L. S. Crocker) for reliable information. 
With regai-d t o the final question wo would 
advise our correspondent not, on any account, 
to use ashes with his night soil, at least not 
before he had both under ground. Ashes 
expel the ammonia, and unless there be fresh 
soil to absorb it much is lost. If ashes and 
ammoniaoal fertilizers are applied together 
in the hill, the ashes will make the mixture 
more immediately effective by liberating the 
ammonia speedily and putting it in position 
for roots of plants to feed on it. 
--*-*•♦- 
ASHES vs, BARN-YARD MANURE. 
Uxleached ushes contain, besides large 
quantities of potash, lime and carbonic acid, 
notable amounts of siliea, alumina, oxide of 
iron and magnesia, soda, sulphuric and phos¬ 
phoric acids, and chlorine. Wbea leached 
the potash is the principal substance elimin¬ 
ated, and, if the wood from which the ashes 
have been made is burned at a low heat the 
principal part of the potash will be leached 
out. 
When wood Ls burned in large fire places, 
or m large heaps, under a strong heat, the 
product contains large qualities of soda anrl 
potash in the form of insoluble silicates, 
which are gradually set free, and hence the 
long continued effects of ordinary leached 
ashes on laud, from the slow transformation 
and giving out of potash, soda and other 
compounds. And thence, also, the variable 
value of leached ashes. But, when one or 
t wo tons are applied per acre, the effects are 
shown for ten or fifteen years, and even 
longer in many cases. 
The soluble portions of one ton of wood 
ashes, according to Bishop Watson may be 
represented by sixty pounds of crystallized 
carbonate of soda, twenty pounds of sulphate 
of soda, and twenty pounds of common salt. 
Accordingto experiments made in England, 
at Newcastle-upon Tyne, with prepared 
barnyard mamtrs, the analysis made pre¬ 
vious to application showed sixty-five parts, 
twenty-five consisted of carbonaceous mat¬ 
ter, of course inert except as a source of car¬ 
bonic acid. This leaves about ten per cent, 
of inorganic matter : only 0.6 of nitrogenous 
or fertilizing matter was contained, and 
about three per cent, of other fertilizing sub¬ 
stances of considerable value. 
If manure, prepared as it is in England 
contains only the quantity of valuable mat¬ 
ter we have shown, manure as it is generally 
made in the West, with its ammonia and 
other volatile matters thrown off by fermen¬ 
tation, Us soluble portions washed and ear 
ried away by every rain that falls, would 
contain but a trace of the valuable substances 
of the original dung—probably not more than 
one or two per cent. 
Now, since leached ashes are found par¬ 
ticularly to be of nearly equal value, as 
manure, to unleashed ashes, it would follow 
that a ton of ashes would be equal to from 
forty to sixty tons of ordinary barnyard 
manure. Why f The average quantity of 
ashes from 100 parts dry oak, beech, birch, 
etc., is 2.57. Of 100 parts of such ashc*, 13.57 
arc soluble, or will be given immediately to 
the action of water; S6.5G are insoluble or 
such as are left, as the refuse of ash works. 
These 86.42 parts may be taken as being of 
the same worth as the ten per cent, found 
valuable in the analysis of the manure here¬ 
tofore mentioned. Therefore a ton of leached 
ashes representing 100 parts, ought to be of 
equal value with ten tons of manure, re¬ 
presenting ten per cent, of valuable com¬ 
pounds, or of forty or more tons as commonly 
made in the West, representing two and one 
half or less per cent, of value. 
But there is another source of value in the 
application of ashes to land. They supply 
not only the inorganic matter necessary to 
plants, but they act chemically as insolvents 
npon other salt* Already in tho soil ; or they 
act in neutralizing acids. 
On the farm, ashes act most notably upon 
the legumes, as clover, peas, beans, etc., and 
promote the growth of red clover w*here 
this plant Is indigenous. Mechanically, they 
render sandy soils more compact and heavy 
clays more friable. Besides, in Horticulture, 
they promote the growth of vegetables, and 
notably are of exceeding value to fruit trees 
in assisting to form large crops of fair fruit. 
Therefore, besides the opinion given In a 
general way, we would prefer where fruit 
trees are concerned, unless the soil is undeni¬ 
ably poor, the application of one part of 
ashes rather than 100 parts of manure ; and 
for this reason :—The manure would stimu¬ 
late the trees to form wood, while the ashes 
would assist the trees in the production of 
fruit. If the soil is realty poor then use ashes 
in connection with manure.—TF. Rural 
-*-*-■*- 
ECONOMICAL NOTES. 
Renovating Land,— Winslow Arey says 
in the Maine Farmer :—I have bad experience 
eno’igh to satisfy rue that my method of 
renovating land is a sure one. I consider 
Juty and August the best time to break up 
land. It will pay one good interest to let 
i t lie the first year. Do not plow it the second 
time until the sward is well rotted. Plowing 
and reseeding will restore what the cattle 
have taken off the land. Such land may 
produce a ton and a half to the acre the first 
year. The true reason why so many com¬ 
plain that plowing and seeding pastures does 
no good, is this:—They put tlieir cattle on 
and feed so close as to kill the roots. These 
pastures must be fenced. The expense of 
fencing is trifling when we take into con¬ 
sideration the fact that the feed will grow on 
so much less land. I had a field this spring 
that had been seeded twice with grain with¬ 
in five years, and the grass was as stout, 
when I put my cattle into it, as any grass 
anywhere within twenty miles. 
Wheat on Clover Sod.— The best prepara¬ 
tion fora wheat crop is a good clover lay. 
This should be turned under by the first of 
August, to give time for decomposition be¬ 
fore sowing the wheat. If the plowing is not 
done till the first of September, when the 
wheat Is to be sown, another month must 
pass before any real benefit can Occur to t he 
growing plant. Lime sowed on the clover 
before turning it under, assists materially in 
hastening decomposition, and if plowing has 
been deferred until nearly seeding time, it 
will be foxuid very advantageous. Take one 
year with another, I have observed that a 
good, healthy growte in the fall is essential 
to success in growing wheat, and the farmer 
cannot take too much pains in trying to 
secure this growth.—J. H., in Ohio Farmer. 
-_3 
