“WHEAT AFTER CORN.” 
PRACTICE ON AN OHIO FARM. 
Great Care in Seeding. 
HEAVY CORN ACREAGE.—The corn area of the 
United States being greater than ever this year, and 
the wheat crop mainly satisfactory, there will doubt¬ 
less be a larger area of corn, followed by wheat, than 
ever before; and still greater area would be sown to 
wheat if all farmers thought that wheat could follow 
corn, and give good returns. A great many farmers 
think that corn stubble cannot be properly prepared 
for wheat, that the stubs and corn shocks will be so 
much in the way as to make the attempt to seed the 
land entirely unsatisfactory. A great many follow 
corn with oats, and oats with wheat, thinking that a 
better seed bed can be had for the wheat in this way. 
As the oat stubble is prepared here for wheat, 1 
would much prefer corn stubble, if the corn has had 
proper cultivation. 
NEED OF CAREFUL CULTURE.—The best land 
for a corn crop is a strong clover sod. Taking one 
crop of corn, leaves the soil in fine condition for a 
wheat crop. It is entirely wrong to take two or more 
crops of corn from the land and follow with wheat 
with the expectation of securing a profitable crop. 
The more intensive the cultivation of 
the corn crop the finer the condition of 
the land for the wheat crop. If the corn 
cultivation is finished with level shallow 
work the land will be much easier to 
fit for wheat than if deep cultivation 
and ridge finish is given the corn. When 
the corn is laid by, with the rows on a 
ridge, these will be hard to level down, 
and it will be impossible to secure an 
even depth of seed bed, without making 
it ail too deep. I believe the greatest 
mistake made in fitting corn land for 
wheat consists in making the ground 
too loose, too deep. If the corn has had 
level shallow culture this is easily pre¬ 
vented. To seed corn land successfully 
the corn should be free from weeds. 
There is no modern drill that will seed 
filthy land as perfectly as it will clean 
land. The following plan will be found 
about if not the best to prepare corn 
stubble for wheat: 
FITTING THE GROUND.—A good size to make the 
corn shocks is 14 hills square and leave the corn in 
the shock on the land. It is too neavy to try to move 
it; the space gained will not compensate for the labor. 
As soon as the corn is in the shock, if the stubs are 
heavy and high, start ihe roller; all the stubs will be 
mashed over, and many of the green ones broken oft 
at the top of the ground. The roller should be driven 
in the same direction that it is expected to drive the 
grain drill. After rolling, if the land is solid, the disk 
harrow should be used, and to prevent ridging the 
land, should straddle each row. This will give the 
land two workings and leave it level. The disks 
should not be set to cut more than two inches deep, 
and an effort made to get the hard as well as the 
mellow land cut the same depth, driving the disk 
harrow in the same direction that the roller was 
driven. It is seldom that a farmer has a field where 
the soil is the same as regards solidity all over. It 
requires some care in handling the disk harrow, to 
have the soil mellowed the same all over the field. It 
Ihe driver will take pains to change the lever con¬ 
trolling the angle of the disks the even cutting of the 
soil can be secured, or else the hard parts of the soil 
must be gone over again. The disk harrow, in its 
work, will throw out some of the corn stubs with soil 
attached to the roots; these, if not crushed or torn 
to pieces, will remain much in the same condition for 
many months. If the drag harrow follows the disk, 
these loose stubs with the attached soil will be well 
torn to pieces. Then, if the roller is used again, the 
soil attached to these stub roots will nearly all be 
crushed loose, leaving only the stubs and naked roots. 
If these stubs have been dragged into piles by the 
harrow and found to be in the way of the drill, they 
can easily be moved out of the way. 
A GOOD SEED BED.—When the working of the 
land with the disk harrow, drag harrow and roller has 
been all in the same direction it has been found that 
the stubs and other loose material on the land ob¬ 
struct the drill in its working very little. I have had 
corn land covered with a heavy network of pumpkin- 
vines, that by working over with the disk harrow and 
allowing two or three days sun, were but little in the 
way of the drill. This preparation as outlined makes 
a going over the land five times, none too often. 
The rolling can be very rapid, if the roller is long 
and light. The last rolling is intended to crush the 
soil lumps attached to the stub roots and smooth the 
land, so that the drill tracks may be easily seen, that 
the driver may be able to do straight driving, and 
have his work present a finished appearance. There 
is a wish with many to put in a large area; this is 
all right if the work is perfectly done; all wrong if 
not. An even depth of seeding is very desirable, as 
well as to have every grain covered perfectly. Only 
the greatest pains in securing these two points will 
warrant an expectation of a maximum crop. 
HOW TO DRILL.—Usually, in preparing land for 
the drill, I work three shock rows into a land, from 
the outside to the center. The finish will be the cen¬ 
ter of the middle shock row of corn. There is likely 
to be at this finish a little more than the drill will 
cover, or else a strip much narrower than the width 
of tne drill. In either case the loss by lapping or not, 
perfectly drilled or covered, will be much less than if 
each shock row of corn was drilled separately. It 
would be preferable to put a half or whole day’s drill¬ 
ing in one land. In working the drill I always aim 
to drive it straight. If the corn rows have been 
straight they can be taken as a guide, and aid to 
secure perfect work. In going about the corn shocks 
there will be a little double work. After the field is 
finished, the small spare left undrilled on two sides 
of each shook should be drilled by going crossways 
of the other work, dropping the lices in time for the 
wheat to start at the edge of the drilled land and lift¬ 
ing as soon as across this vacant spot. It requires a 
good deal of care to get these spots properly drilled, 
as it is easy to drop the hoes a little too late. I 
always have a man to drive the team, riding on the 
drill, and another to walk behind the drill, and know 
that everything is working right. As to the crops 
secured after corn, I have several times secured 25 to 
26 bushels per acre, one time very nearly 30 bushels 
and another 39 bushels per acre. A neighbor secured 
this year from 35 acres 35 bushels per acre, also from 
25 acres 40 bushels per acre. This was on land 
cropped for nearly two generations. These are the 
best wheat crops ever secured from the land. 
Ross Co., 0. .JOHN M. JAMISON. 
SAWDUST FOR BEDDING. 
Since the advent of portable sawmills, and their 
frequent location throughout the rural districts, 
where timber is abundant, piles of sawdust available 
to the farmers have been left to the free use of any¬ 
one, suggesting a very convenient source of bedding. 
While the temptation to use it has been great, many 
have hesitated because it had been said that it would 
injure the land. Having a steam sawmill on my own 
farm, which I operate every year, I have a constant 
supply of sawdust, and have used it for more than 20 
years. While I would not wish to buy city stable 
manure containing much sawdust, I believe it has a 
place on the majority of farms. There 
is a certain resinous property in that 
made from evergreen trees, which will 
act as a poison, if the sawdust is ap¬ 
plied liberally to vegetation when in a 
tender state, and yet I know many 
growers of strawberries who cover their 
beds every Fall with it, raking it off be¬ 
tween the rows in the Spring where they 
leave it to keep down the weeds, while 
the berries are abundant and of superior 
quality. For bedding a hard-wood saw¬ 
dust is preferable if obtainable; if not, 
take the soft wood. If well dried it will 
keep the stock clean and absorb a large 
amount of moisture. I would not throw 
the product out under the eaves of the 
stable, but drop it in a basement or un¬ 
der a shed. It aids the mechanical con¬ 
dition of the manure, and if sufficient 
quantity is used the manure pile will 
not become solid and lumpy. 
In one of my manure cellars, where the 
manure from cows is saved, I had no hogs one Winter 
and to keep the pile from becoming solid I used saw¬ 
dust liberally, so that one-half of the pile was com¬ 
posed of pine sawdust. This was so fine when I came 
to draw it to the field that we used shovels instead of 
forks to handle it, and as some of my neighbors sug¬ 
gested that the sawdust would spoil it and damage 
the crop, I put 18 loads on a measured acre of corn 
stubble which had not been cutting over one half ton 
of hay, and planted to corn on only 400 or 500 pounds 
of commercial fertilizer, without barn manure; and 
seeded to oats for grain, and clover, while my usual 
dressing was from 20 to 30 loads per acre. From this 
acre I cut as fine a crop of oats as I ever raised, and 
the grain was very heavy, while it was followed by 
an unusually good yield of clover, and during all the 
years since, that plot of land has kept a lead over that 
adjoining. Five years later I grew on the same land 
with a light dressing of manure which was the first 
it had received since the oats grew, except a crop of 
potatoes on fertilizer alone, and 600 pounds of ferti¬ 
lizer, 190 bushels of ears of corn, from seed sent out 
by The R. N.-Y., which would shell out fully 100 
bushels per acre. This is only one instance of direct 
experiment with result, but I am satisfied this same 
manure in which one-half bulk was sawdust, without 
it would have been worth not over one-half as much 
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