466 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
.July 17 
ing the working of fine than of coarse granular but¬ 
ter. A lack of salt sometimes allows a poor flavor 
to become more noticeable than would have been the 
case if the butter contained more salt. It is well to 
remember, then, that the milk or the cream ripening 
are not entirely responsible for all the butter flavor. 
Wisconsin Dairy School. k. h farrington. 
(To be continued.) 
HOEING THE WHEAT CROP. 
ARE WIDE DRILLS AND CULTIVATION PROFITAHLK ? 
One of our readers in Kentucky asks us the following questions: 
1. Would it pay to drill winter wheat in rows 18 or 20 inches apart 
and cultivate in spring with a horse hoe ? 2. Have there been 
any conclusive experiments in this country along this line ? 3. 
What varieties of wheat for high culture and heavy manuring 
would you recommend for the Cumberland Plateau in southeast 
Kentucky ? 
Will Not Pay for Labor. 
For the regions with which I am acquainted, Michi¬ 
gan and Illinois, I can say it would not pay to drill 
and cultivate winter wheat. It is possible that a 
somewhat larger yield may be obtained, but not 
nearly sufficient to pay for the extra expense. In 
England, where land is very expensive, it is not an 
uncommon practice to drill in wheat, putting two 
rows about six or eight inches apart, and then leaving 
20-inch spaces between. In Michigan, I have grown 
wheat by this method, and so feel, for that region, 
that I can answer with 
some degree of experience 
and authority. The method 
of growing wheat in drills 
is very simple, and it is 
cultivated very much as 
sugar beets are cultivated, 
with a one-horse cultivator 
which covers, at least, 
three rows at a time, the 
man walking in the center 
row. Cultivation generally 
takes place once or twice 
in fall, and as many times 
in spring. In regard to 
using less seed than is com¬ 
monly used, I will say that 
I believe, in the majority 
of cases, very much less 
seed would give superior 
results. Two years since, 
I sowed one-half bushel on 
one acre, and on the re¬ 
maining 19 acres of the 
field, I sowed five pecks to 
the acre. The acre with 
the one-half bushel ex¬ 
celled in quality and yield 
that of the remainder of 
the field. However, in the 
case of a severe winter in 
which the wheat suffers 
from winterkilling, so 
light a sowing as one-half 
bushel to the acre might 
prove almost an entire fail¬ 
ure. P. G HOLDEN. 
Illinois Agr. College. 
Interculture of Wheat. 
In 1878 and 1879, I made 
experiments on the farm 
of the Ohio State Univer¬ 
sity, in the intercullure of 
wheat, the wheat being 
drilled in rows 14 inches apart at the rate of three 
pecks per acre. In both cases, adjoining plots of 
land, sown in the ordinary manner and not cultivated, 
made decidedly the best returns. The disadvantages 
of cultivation, as found in these experiments, which 
were made on rich bottom land, were that some 
plants were unavoidably destroyed by the trampling 
of the teams and by being covered with earth, and 
that the cultivation retarded the ripening of the 
grain, rendering it more liable to injury from rust. 
In following seasons, wheat was harrowed as early in 
the season as the ground could be worked, and while 
this tore up some plants and covered others, it was 
found to do less injury than the more elaborate cul¬ 
ture, and to be one of the surest methods of getting 
a catch of clover, the seed being sown at the time of 
harrowing. 
The following experiments in interculture of wheat 
have been made by American experiment stations: 
Alabama (bulletin No. 2, October, 1888.)—Difference 
not enough to pay cost of cultivation. 
Kentucky (Bulletin No. 15, September, 1888 )—Wheat 
was sown in drills 14 inches apart and alternate plots 
were cultivated twice—once before the wheat began 
stooling, once just before heading. The cultivated 
rows made the best appearance, but the uncultivated 
rows gave a higher yield of grain and straw. 
Indiana (Bulletin No. 16, August, 1888).—For three 
seasons, wheat was sown in wide drills and the spaces 
were harrowed. The results were unfavorable to 
harrowing. 
Kansas (Bulletin No. 4, September, 1888) Alternate 
rows of wheat were removed and the spaces cultivated 
with the hoe, with inconclusive results. Harrowing 
across the rows was found injurious. In later ex¬ 
periments (Bulletin No. 20, July, 1891), harrowing 
again proved injurious. 
South Carolina (Bulletin No. 7, September, 1892).— 
In five experiments out of six, wheat harrowed in 
April, yielded slightly less than that not harrowed. 
Utah (Reports for 1892 and 1893)—Hoeing wheat re¬ 
duced the yield,the injury being proportionate to the 
depth of the hoeing. 
The experiments of the Ohio Station do not lend 
encouragement to a reduction of quantity of seed 
wheat per acre below about six pecks. Our highest 
average yields have come from seedings of six to 
seven pecks. We hesitate to recommend a variety of 
wheat for a latitude so far distant as that of southern 
Kentucky. At the Kentucky Station, as reported in 
Bulletin No. 57, September, 1895, in a very unfavor¬ 
able season, Democrat, Unnamed, Lancaster and 
Jones’s Winter Fife made the best yields. At the 
Tennessee Station, the best returns were given in 
1889 (Bulletin, vol. 3, No 2, April. 1890), by Tasmanian 
Red, Nigger, New Golden, German Emperor and 
Michigan Amber. The same year, Lancaster, Ful- 
caster and Everitt High Grade gave the best yields at 
the North Carolina Station (Bulletin No. 71, May, 
1890). Fultz and Michigan Amber are recommended 
by the Arkansas Station (Bulletin No. 11, September, 
1889), as the result of two years’ observation, as being 
*• varieties well suited to that latitude”. Fultz has 
done relatively better in general in southern latitudes 
than at the Ohio Station. In 1895 the Maryland Sta¬ 
tion reports, in Bulletin No. 35, that Fultz, Currell’s 
Prolific, Valley, Badger, Tuscan Island and Wiscon¬ 
sin Triumph have given the best three-year average 
yield. 
ELEVEN YEAK8 COMPARISON OF WHEATS AT OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION. 
Average Yield per Acre. Average Weight per Bushel. 
Valley. 
Velvet Chaff. 
.60.13 
Poole. 
Dietz. 
.59 85 
Red Fultz. 
.29 97 
Martin’s Amber. 
.... 59 82 
Tuscan Island. 
.29 40 
Nigver. 
Egyptian. 
Egyptian. 
.29 21 
Valley. 
Dietz. 
Theiss. 
Velvet Chaff. 
Fultz. 
.59 14 
Democrat. 
. 27.28 
Mediterranean. 
.26 87 
Mediterranean. 
.58 85 
OlawBon. 
.26 58 
Silver Chaff. 
Poole. 
.58 52 
Surprise. 
Red Fultz. 
.58 51 
Fuliz. 
Theiss. 
... 57 39 
Martin’8 Atnber. 
Surprise. 
Ohio Experiment Station. pHAs. e. thoknk. 
A Prophecy by Prof. Roberts. 
Two years ago, I prophesied that, wherever land is 
high-priced and the cultivation of wheat, oats and 
barley is continued, interculture would, necessarily, 
have to be adopted in many localities. We have been 
practicing it for three years with wheat, not so much 
for a practical experiment as to illustrate to our stu¬ 
dents the large growth of the plants produced by 
tillage. We now have a plot of oats drilled with wide 
intervals (16 inches), which we are hand cultivating ; 
up to this time, the results are very marked. Another 
year, we shall construct a horse hoe suited to cultivate 
all of the drill rows made by one passage of the drill 
over the field. This we purpose to do on a large 
scale and then, after the crop is removed, plow the 
ground, fit it thoroughly and seed without a crop. 
We have already mowed a heavy crop of hay from 
land which was seeded last year by this method after 
the barley had been removed. We had made two at¬ 
tempts to seed with barley [?— Eds ], and had failed 
both times. On the small field referred to, we shall 
get, by the early mowing, another heavy crop of hay. 
As to varieties, it can only be said that those which 
will stand up under this intensified culture, will be 
adapted to intercultured wheat raising. The weaker- 
strawed varieties will, without doubt, lodge if inter¬ 
cultured two or three times in the spring. Of course, 
if the drill marks be twice as wide as is now common, 
but half of the seed will be 
necessary. Our oats, at 
the present time, look as 
though they would be bet¬ 
ter if we had used only a 
quarter as much seed as is 
common in this locality, 
that is, skip every other 
drill mark, and sow half as 
much as usual in the drills. 
The cultivation which is 
purposed will, without 
doubt, cause the plants to 
become very strong and to 
tiller freely, i. r. Roberts. 
Cornell Exp. Station. 
Hoeing Wheat Will Yet 
Become Popular. 
1. It cannot yet be de¬ 
cided positively, for this 
country, from the few ex¬ 
periments so far conducted. 
The opinion prevailing at 
present, so far as I can de¬ 
termine, is that the extra 
expense or labor does not 
justify hoeing wheat Per¬ 
sonally, I am inclined to 
think that it will yet be¬ 
come advantageous to prac¬ 
tice it, as intensive farm¬ 
ing increases, and espe¬ 
cially where labor is com¬ 
paratively cheap. The 
heads are larger and better 
filled, and there is a greater 
proportion of grain to 
straw in weight. Experi¬ 
ments already conducted 
seem to warrant the fol¬ 
lowing directions to farm¬ 
ers who care to run some 
risk in trying it: Make 
the rows no more than 16 
inches apart, sow a little more than half the 
amount of seed to the acre, in rows eight inches 
apart, and cultivate shallow, perhaps no more than 
one inch. The disadvantages claimed for wide rows 
are that the wheat, growing ranker, is more suscep¬ 
tible to disease and lodges easily. 2. Experiments in 
hoeing wheat have been carried out on a very small 
scale in Kansas and Utah, and, I think, at Cornell 
University, and, of course, in many places in Europe. 
In Spain, Japan, and other countries, it is quite com¬ 
mon. It ought, by all means, to be given a more 
thorough trial in this country. 3. I cannot recom¬ 
mend, with any authority, any particular wheat 
varieties for southeast Kentucky. I would suggest 
that the following be tried, however, if they have 
not been already, with preference in the order named: 
Zimmerman (Kansas), Dawson’s Golden Chaff (Michi¬ 
gan and Canada), Rudy and Turkey. As to the rate 
of seeding, until our system of farming changes ma¬ 
terially, an average of six pecks per acre is required 
for the best fields m a. carleton. 
Dairying on Small Farm. —1. Will dairying on a 
small farm pay ? 2. Will soiling dairy cows pay, that 
is, will the profits justify the cost? 3. What is the 
best rotation on a dairy farm where ensilage is used ? 
Ohio. buckeye 
THE McKINLEY ST R*A WBERRY. Fig, 196. S>eei Rukalisms, Page 471. 
