ISO THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. SEPT. fS 
WHEAT ON CLAY SOILS. 
W. X. CHAMBERLAIN. 
hoe. The yield was ten bushels of as firm 
wheat as I ever saw. The ten bushels were 
sown broadcast on eight acres of rich bottom in 
the fall of 1877, and 400 dozen sheaves were 
harvested the following summer, which gave 
only 45 bushels of shriveled wheat. The same 
land was sown again the succeeding fall with 
the same variety, and this year the yield is 100 
bushels of good wheat, or 121 bushels per acre. 
Both the Gold Medal and the Gold Dust are 
hard white wheats. The latter was obtained 
by the Department In Oneida County, New 
York, and is said to have originated in 
Kentucky. 
A Hybrid of Fultz & Clawson, obtained by 
myself by crossing the former with the latter, 
is shown at Fig. 4. It is one among four or 
five kinds which resulted from this cross, and 
as I was trying to develop the variety repre¬ 
sented by Fig. 5, I paid no attention to it tor 
the first year, but rejected it. I planted 25 
grains of it last fall, and the yield is oue pint. 
Fultzo-Clawson is the name 1 have given 
Fig. 5, and I claim that it is the largest-grained 
wheat we have in this country. It takes after 
both of its parents, resembling the Clawson in 
the shape, and the Fultz in the color of the 
grain. The chaff is of a golden-yellow color, 
that of the Clawson being red, and iliat of the 
Fultz, white. In the seasou of 187b, 1 fertilized, 
as before stated, a head of the Fultz with pollen 
obtained from the Clawson, and found that 15 
graius had been crossed. I planted these in 
squares 12 inches apart, both ways, oue grain 
in every square. The piece had been covered 
with powdered mortar obtained from an old 
chimney which had been torn down. I worked 
it several times during the fall and two or three 
Limes the next spring. The plants tillered 
wonderfully, some of them producing as many 
as forty stems from a single grain. Some of 
the ears measured six inches, but none of them 
contained over two graius to the epikelet. 
The product was oue quart. Owing to the 
many variations which this wheat has under¬ 
gone, I have not been able to advance with it 
as I could have wished, and have at preseut 
only four bushels. 
Random irk a, a wheat obtained by the 
Department from tli s Polish province of Sau- 
domir, is represented at Fig. 6. It is said to 
make the best flour in Europe. The ear is 
short, straw' soft, chaff red, aud the color of 
the grain is a light browu. The whole amount 
obtained by the Department was turned over, 
in the fall of 1877, to a gentlemau iu Maryland 
who was to raise it for the Department to dis¬ 
tribute iu L878. As raised by him, it was of a 
very inferior quality, aud 1 received eight 
quarts of it. I had this sown on upland early 
iu cue fall, but it did not ripen till about the 
4th of July. It is too late for this climate. 
The vield is two bushels of very good wheat. 
I am inclined to believe that if even the ordi¬ 
nary care given to the selection of seed corn 
were bestowed upon the selection of seed 
wheat, results would be much more satisfac¬ 
tory than they are at present, aud the older 
varieties would not so soon “ run out,” us the 
phrase is. Of the newer kiuds, the great ma¬ 
jority are no belter than the older ones; they 
appear so because of the extra care and atten¬ 
tion given to them. Hardiness and earliness 
are the two things mainly to he sought after 
in the choosing of wheat for seed. As to the 
Cultivation of Wheat In Drills, 
I have no doubt that an average of 50 bushels 
per acre may be obtained in favorable seasons, 
and occasionally' more than that. But our 
present system of agriculture will need to he 
greatly changed before a general rcsot t can he 
had to this method. The acreage both of this 
crop and of corn must he greatly reduced in 
order to allow the time requisite for their ade¬ 
quate cultivation. If, however, under the 
system proposed, one acre can be made to pro¬ 
duce as much as teu under the present system, 
the advantage would be great indeed, to say 
nothing about the immense saving of seed. If 
an acre he laid oil in ten-inch squares, it w ill 
take, iu round numbers, 57,500 grainB to plant 
it, or about one gallon of wheat. If we say 
that every grain produces twenty ears aud 
every ear, twenty grains, aud allowing 600,000 
of these to the bushel, w e have a product of 45 
bushels per acre. This, I think, is a very 
moderate calculation. A better plan than this 
would he to lay off the rows from east to west, 
ten inches apart, aud plant the grains three to 
four inches apart in the rows. This method 
would require about one peek of wheat. I 
propose planting oue acre iu this way this fall. 
In order that success may be assured, the 
ground must he made rich, or the plants will 
not tiller sufficiently. There is uo question iu 
my mind that the cultivation of w'heat will 
have as great au effect on this cereal as the 
cultivation of corn on it. 
1 omitted to mention that out of a gill of 
grains planted four inches apart last fall, not 
one was lost from winter-killing, while at least 
oue-half of that sown broadcast on the fields 
was so killed. 
Pulaski Co., Ya. 
It is a common impression in some quarters 
that sandy or gravelly soil is necessary for the 
successful growing of wheat, and thot_a stiff 
clay soil is not fit for it. Hence large tracts, 
counties or portions of States of the latter soil 
havo been given over almost exclusively to 
pasturage or meadow land; the plow has been 
used scarcely' at all. and wheat has been a 
“foreign product." This impression or belief 
I deem incorrect and injurious. It is not the 
sand or gravel that wheat needs, but the pul¬ 
verization, warmth aud drainage secured by 
such soil. If these can be secured on clayey 
soils, good wheat can be raised there. The 
plaut-food is there, or can be furnished by 
mauuring, and so is sufficient silica for the 
straw; they only need to be made available. 
Wheat cannot grow in the water or iu the 
mud. It will winter-kill or die of consump¬ 
tion under such conditions Nor can its roots 
pierce huge clayey lumps. These must be 
pulverized aud kept mellow. Our clay soils 
are not lacking in fertility. Our forests are 
magnificent, and the leaf mold of centuries 
has left a flue dark soil about six inches deep 
above the clay. Our newly-cleared land has 
always produced fine wheat. Decaying roots 
help to secure both drainage aud fertility, and 
the leaf mold is still rich and unexhausted. 
What our lauds longer cleared need most is 
drainage. 
Good wheat can be raised on clay soil 
without undcr-draiuiug by plowing in narrow 
lauds, about a rod wide, with deep dead-fur¬ 
rows, aud by using a heavy top-dressing of 
manure. This secures warmth and drainage, 
but at great loss of manure by wash. The 
deep dead-furrows, too, are a great inconveni¬ 
ence in cutting the wheat with a reaper. It 
is. therefore, found that 
Tlle-Drniulng Clay Soil 
is the only means by which wheat can be suc¬ 
cessfully' and profitably raised on it without 
frequent failures. Aud it is found that when 
tile-drained, the clayey soils, both of this 
country and of England, produce better wheat 
crops than the sandy or gravelly. I could 
mention many farms m this country and in 
England that prove this. 
Preparing ilie Soil. 
Supposing the clay soil, then, to be thor¬ 
oughly tile-drained, say 33 feet apart and 2i 
to 3 feet deep, the next point is its thorough 
pulverization aud proper enrichment. By 
the former I mean that the entire add!, dowu 
to the “hard-pan” clay, should be mechanic¬ 
ally stirred; by the latter, that the manure 
should be thoroughly mixed through the 
whole soli, so that the roots can reach it at 
the very' first. Both these results are secur¬ 
ed by a properly managed summer-fallow, 
that is, by mauuring broadcast in May, har¬ 
rowing the manure fine, plowing it under, cul¬ 
tivating the ground to keep weeds dowu iu 
summer, replowing the ground in August, and 
cultivating enough to pulverize and “firm” 
the soil before sowing iu September. But this 
involves much labor and the loss of an entire 
season’s use of the land, and I think I shall 
never practice it again. If it be said that the 
land needs rest, 1 should say food will, in part, 
supply the pluce of rest. A well-fed team 
works better every day than a half-fed oue 
every uUier day. Feed the land with enough 
tuauure or bone or superphosphate, and it will 
not often need a year’s rest. The very host 
preparation I know for wheat on clay is to 
plow under the winter’s manure, as described 
above, all the better if rather loose and strawy, 
as that helps to loosen the soil. Then, iustead 
of summer-fallowing, sow Hungarian grass; 
cut it in August and replow aud work the 
ground as if it had been summer-fallowed. 
Hungarian grass is oue of our best crops for 
hay. It costs little labor, aud on good soil 
will yield three tons per acre of thoroughly 
cured hay, fuLly equal, I think, to the best 
timothy hay as feed for milch cows. Then the 
thick shadiug of the ground by the crop keeps 
down all weeds aud promotes fertility iu vari¬ 
ous ways; while a mere summer-fallow, kept 
bare, is wasteful at fertility. This, at least, is 
the opinion of many of our best farmers. 
Then, too, the roots of the Hungarian grass 
seem to pulverize the soil. I never kuew it to 
plow up, immediately after cutting the hay, 
otherwise than very light and mellow for the 
wheat. 
Exhaustion of Fertility. 
This crop is, however, a rauk grower, and it 
is the coinmou impression that it exhausts the 
soil budly. But if cut quite green, as soon as 
it fairly heads out, I am confident, from ex¬ 
periments, that it docs not exhaust the soil 
ucarly bo badly as a crop of oats left to ripen. 
This ripening of any crop—oats, corn, timothy, 
etc.—seems to he the thing that most exhausts 
the soil. Hence, if the Huugarian is cut quite 
green, as it should be to secure the beet hay 
and prevent the seed from shelliug and Vant¬ 
ing, it does not seem to exhaust the manure 
much, for when plowed up aud thoroughly 
mixed with the soil, it seems to have its full 
effect on the wheat. Aud this grass is a far 
more profitable crop, net per acre, than oats, 
aud might well take the place so generally 
filled by the latter in most systems of rotation. 
Applying Fertilizers. 
The general rule would seem to be that the 
fertilizer, whether bone, stable manure, or 
superphosphate, should be applied as near to 
the seed wheat us possible. This gives the 
wheata vigorous start, secures a stocky growth 
and makes it cover the ground before winter 
sets iu. Hence, houe or phosphate should be 
sowed in the drill with the wheat. This is nicely 
—I may say perfectly—done by the “fertilizer 
attachments” now found on our best wheat 
drills. If the phosphate or bone is sowed 
broadcast before the wheat is drilled, only a 
small portion comes where the wheat roots can 
lay hold of it at the,first. The same principle 
holds true of stable manure. Where applied 
as described above, with the Hungarian grass 
crop, it becomes thoroughly aud evenly worked 
through the entire loose soil. Thu wheal roots 
strike it at once, find it wherever they pene¬ 
trate the loose soil, and oven when they pierce 
the tough subsoil they find some of its soluble 
parts washed down before them by the sum¬ 
mer rains, aud awaiting their arrival. If, how¬ 
ever, the manure has uot been thus applied to 
a previous crop, aud must be applied directly 
to the wheat, it should be worked well down 
into tho soil. From my experience 1 should 
say, if you care most for the timothy or clover 
catch, then top-dress aud harrow iu: if most 
for the wheat, plow the manure under. Nor 
will the mauure be found all at the bottom of 
the furrow. That is the worst plowing, for 
clay soil at least, that turns the furrow exact¬ 
ly bottom side up. Each furroAv should “ lap 
half,” like one clapboard ou another; aud it 
the manure is thoroughly harrowed before 
plowing, say with a Thomas' harrow, aud a 
jointer is used on the plow, the manure will 
be found all through the soil. The drill iu 
mellow soil will put tho seed down at least 
three inches below thogeueral surface ; aud its 
roots will at once strike the manure ami not 
need to wait for it to be washed down from 
above. This waiting maj 7 bo a great detriment; 
for sometimes we havo dry weather for two or 
three weeks after seeding, aud no rain to wash 
the manure dowu. Last year I tried both 
modes of applying mauure, side by side. When 
plowed under, it gave far the best wheat ; 
where used as a top dressing it helped the 
grass catch most. If, however, the wheat 
must be sowed broadcast aud harrowed iu, 
then top-dressing will he best both for the 
wheal and the grass catch. 
Mode of feowing. 
Drilling the wheat is, however, in most, or iu 
all cases, far better than broadcast sowing. It 
scatters the seed more regularly, puts it to a 
better aud more uniform depth, gives better 
chance for the economical application of phos¬ 
phate, bone, etc., and guards better against 
winter-killing. The wheat plants arc at the 
bottom Of V-shaped grooves, and the same 
frost and thawing that lieave8 and exposes 
the wheat, crumbles down the dirt from the 
sides of these grooves, and covers the roots 
again. 
The Harvesting 
is now done far the most cheaply by the self- 
biuding harvester. It. can be hired in most 
wheat-raising localities uow for about $1 per 
acre, and the cost of wire is slight, not as 
much per acre as that of the clothing worn 
out in binding by baud; for hand-binding is 
not ouly ihe hardest and most disagreeable 
farm work, hut the most ruinous lo clothes. 
The wire bauds are an objection, however. 
It is almost impossible to cut and remove 
them fast enough for these all-deVouring 6team 
thrashers; and so a large part is apt to pass 
through the machine and the pieces are fouud 
both in straw aud wheat. Strong magnets in 
the spouting at our mills, remove the hits of 
wire from the wheat, hut no means have yet 
been devised to remove them from the straw. 
But those who have once tried Hie self-binders 
will lie slow to go back to hand-bindiug, aud 
Yankee ingenuity must remove the wire from 
the straw, and substitute straw or twiue for 
wire as bauds. 
INTER-CULTURE OF WHEAT. 
CONIIAD WILSON. 
The practice of cultivating the wheat crop after 
the method usually applied to corn, has recent¬ 
ly been growing in iavor among practical 
men, and if the principle is sound, it must 
hugely and favorably influence Itiu yield pur 
acre and the cost of production. As this cereal 
is the leading bread crop of the world, the 
problem of Its yield and cost cannot he too 
closely examined by farmers. According to 
tho light we now have on tho subject, the indi¬ 
cations are iu favor of the new method. But 
the final decision of the question will be more 
surely reached after a series of experiments 
more extended and systematic than the most 
of those that have yet been tried. 
Reasoning from the analogy of corn and other 
hoed crops, and judging from the testimony 
given in actual trials, the present presumption 
is clearly in favor of inter-culture. Yet it nou 
appears that some recent experiments con 
ducted by careful and capable rum, have given 
results that are far from confirming this pre¬ 
sumption. 
Probably no journal during the last two 
years has done more to encourage this method 
than the Rural New-Yorker and its efficient 
editor. When, therefore, the conductor of this 
journal, with a candor that gives weight to his 
opinion, announced that liis latest experience 
in the after-culture of wheat has weakened his 
faith iu the practice, it is time tor the rest of 
us to re-examine our belief, and test still fur¬ 
ther the ground on which it rests. 
But so far as I understand the points in the 
latest Rural experiment, the discouraging 
facts were mainly two: first, the breaking 
down of the heads of the wheat, either from 
excessive weight of gram, or from lack ol 
vigor in the stem, or from the violeuce of the 
wind; and. second, a deficiency of grain in 
many of the heads, tending to reduce the yield 
of the crop. 
Now is it not possible that both of these re¬ 
sults may have arisen from a deficiency of 
some element in the soil, which, had it been 
present in more abundance, would have coun¬ 
teracted the evil? Supposing this to be so, 
then is it not also possible that if either salt, or 
lime, or magnesia, had been added lo tile soil, 
Ihe result, in both of these cases might have 
been very different. So, also, if the variety of 
grain had been different. 
It must bo remembered, however, that as 
the Rural editor, in this trial, had but one 
special object in view—to test tho question of 
inter-culture—he naturally confined himself to 
that point. But it is now, I believe, under¬ 
stood to be his purpose to extend his experi¬ 
ments another year, so as to include a wider 
range of factors aud conditions, and thus 
make the trial more exhaustive, aud perhaps 
conclusive. 
In the meantime it only remains for farmers 
to hold themselves open to conviction and 
push steadily forward in quest of new facts and 
more light, and thus at the eud of another year 
we shall all be wiser men. But one thing is cer¬ 
tain: if it shall finally be fouud. after more 
rigorous trials, that the method of inter-cultnre 
really warrants the claims advanced by those 
who have tested it the longest and most thor¬ 
oughly, then the effect will he to give to this 
cereal an increase of yield, aud a margin of 
profit that will chcei desponding farmers in 
the Eastern States, and restore to many aban¬ 
doned fields the verdure of returning wheat 
crops, and the promise of a new husbandry 
that means more bread for consumers aud bet¬ 
ter prices for the farmer. 
It was certainly a significant fact, aud some¬ 
thing more than guess-work or accident, when 
Mr. Heiges of Pennsylvania was able, by Ibis 
method, to increase the yield of his wheat 
crop, uot once only, but in repeated trials, from 
23 bushels per acre to 50, or over. It was also 
perhaps equally significant, when Mr. Groff of 
the same State, obtained by using the horse- 
hoe, a yield of 61 bushels; when Mr. Blount, 
in Tennessee, got 67 bushels per acre by culti¬ 
vating iu drills 16 inches apart, and when the 
yield of Mr. Perkins, of Iowa, by the same 
principle ol special culture, was ut the rate of 
80 bushels, while other progressive farmers, 
both here and in England, have reached similar 
results by a similar jjrocess. 
Now, as the further trials to be made the 
coining year by the Rural and perhaps by 
other parties, will be more comprehensive, and 
include a wider range of factors than hitherto, 
they will doubtless be more than usually im¬ 
portant, and of great interest to farmers. 
There is, therefore, still room for faith iu the 
inter-culture of wheat. If it will give, ou a 
geueral average, anywhere near the increase 
for this cereal that it gives for corn or for car¬ 
rots. for mangels or melons, for potatoes or 
pumpkins, then it will richly reward the efforts 
of the earnest men who are working ouL the 
problem. If the principle is established, it 
will show uot ouly that wheat culture pays, 
but that systematic experiments also eau be 
made to pay, and that if fanning 1 b ever to he 
made an exact science, it will he mainly 
through field trials when guided and controlled 
by the clcur light of intelligent thought. 
-- 
SOME FACTS IN REGARD TO WHEAT 
GROWING. 
HENRY STEWART. 
It is a notorious fact that wheat-growing in 
the Eastern and some of the Western States 
has been abandoned by many farmers for 
the alleged reason that it does not pay, and 
that it is cheaper to purchase flour. This 
excuse would be a valid oue if it were true, but 
it is not true, at least in the great majority of 
cases. The frequent allusions iu agricultural 
papers to keeping accounts have put farmers 
