THE CULTIVATOR. 
275 
SOWING WINTER GRAIN. 
Wheat —It is not always easy to tell whether early or 
late sowing would be most advisable. Early sown grain 
gets the best hold against the winter, and where it is not 
liable to attacks from insects, will generally yield best. 
But it unfortunately happens that the Hessian fly (a de¬ 
scription of which was given in our last number) is usu¬ 
ally more injurious to early than late sown grain; because 
a generation of the insect is sometimes brought forward 
in the fall. This is avoided by late sowing. But there 
is another insect which must be looked out for—that is the 
yellow maggot, (Cecidomyia tritici) also described in 
our last. This insect attacked the late sown winter 
wheat most, in this neighborhood, the present season, so 
that we are something in the predicament of the old na¬ 
vigators, who in endeavoring to steer clear of Scylla, 
were swallowed up by Charybdis. If we sow early and 
escape the worm in the head , (C. tritici) we are sure to 
have the worm at the bottom of the stem, ( C . destructor.) 
If we sow late it is the reverse. So we see that all cir¬ 
cumstances must be taken into consideration in determi¬ 
ning the proper time for sowing, and the insect whose 
attacks are most to be apprehended, must be most guard¬ 
ed against. 
Preparation of the ground.—In this operation, regard 
should be had to protecting the crop from injury during 
winter. This injury takes place in two or more ways. 
First—on land where too much water is retained near 
the surface, the roots of the grain are sometimes thrown 
out by the heaving of the soil under the action of frost, 
and by alternate freezing and thawing, the plants are left 
without any hold on the soil, and so perish. Against in¬ 
jury from this cause, we should use all practicable means 
to prevent water from standing on the surface, or re¬ 
maining in too large quantities near the roots of the 
grain, and for this purpose would not only use drains, 
but should resort to subsoil plowing, loosening the earth 
to as great a depth as possible, thereby allowing the sur¬ 
plus water to descend at once so deeply that the heaving 
by frost is in a great degree avoided. Second—grain 
is sometimes injured from the rains and winds car¬ 
rying the earth away from the roots. This oftentimes 
injures the crop more than any thing else. The mode 
of sowing in drills is the best remedy against this, which 
we have seen. The drill mode has, also, other impor¬ 
tant advantages, such as the security of the crop against 
rust and mildew. We spoke of this mode in our num¬ 
ber for February, in describing the farm-management 
of Mr. Thos. Noble, under the head of “ Farming in the 
West.” The grain is sown very expeditiously with a 
machine drawn by a horse. The rows are left in a small 
hollow, so that the rains, instead of washing the earth 
away from the roots, are constantly bringing a little 
more over them, which operates as a security both against 
the winds and frosts. This mode of sowing, is now ve¬ 
ry extensively adopted in England, where its advantages 
are becoming every day more and more acknowledged. 
In that country, the spaces between the rows are some¬ 
times cultivated, either by hand, or by the horse-hoe. 
Proper quantity of seed per acre .—We will here give 
a rule, which, though at variance with some theories, we 
are quite satisfied is correct—viz. that the richer the 
ground, the less seed is required. It is the practice with 
some farmers to sow no more than two-thirds the usual 
quantity of seed on poor land, while on that which is rich, 
they sow an extra quantity—in the latter instance they say 
“ the land can bear it,” in the first, they suppose it can sup¬ 
port no more. These conclusions must have been adopt¬ 
ed without v£ry close observation of the operations of 
nature in such cases. In the first place, there is not much 
land so poor that nothing will grow, and if it does not pro¬ 
duce something valuable, it is sure to produce that which 
is valueless ; and if grain on poor soils is sown thin, 
it is overpowered by the more hardy natural growth. 
Grain will not spread, or tiller, on such soils, and it 
must, therefore, be sown so thick that the crop may suf¬ 
ficiently cover the ground at once, before the wild plants 
can obtain a foot-hold. In this way, only, can such pos¬ 
session of the soil be secured as to insure from any crop 
a fair yield. On the other hand, grain-plants on rich 
land, have a natural tendency to tiller, and this tendency 
is always in proportion to the strength of the soil. It is 
from this cause, that wheat on rich land often recovers 
from the attack of the fly, while that onpoor soils is kill¬ 
ed. The strength and vigor of the roots in the former case, 
continue to throw up new stalks, till after the insect ceases 
its ravages; but from the want of this energy, the plants 
on poor soil, perish under the first-attack. Itisthus evi¬ 
dent that poor land requires the most seed. 
We are aware that farmers are not agreed as to the re¬ 
quisite quantity of seed, even on the same soils. In dif¬ 
ferent sections of the country, the quantity varies from 
one bushel to two bushels per acre, and we have not 
found that this variation is much regulated by any differ¬ 
ence in the quality of the soil. We think too small a 
quantity is generally sown. The most successful wheat 
growers we have ever known, have been in the habit of 
using two bushels of seed per acre, on land of fair me¬ 
dium quality, and we should in general prefer this quan¬ 
tity to less. 
Rye.— The objections against the early sowing of 
wheat, do not, many of them, apply to rye. The latter 
is comparatively exempt from attacks of the Hessian fly, 
and we believe wholly so from the attacks of the wheat 
midge—improperly called weevil. In this latitude, there 
is no objection to sowing as early in September as is 
convenient. If it acquires too large a growth, it may be 
fed off by calves or sheep. Indeed a considerable object 
in sowing this grain, in some parts of the country, is to 
afford pasture in the fall, winter, and early in spring, 
when it cannot be had from grass. In some of the stock- 
districts of Ohio and Kentucky, it is highly valuable in 
this respect. Where snow does not accumulate to pre¬ 
vent its being pastured, we know of nothing equal to it 
for calves, ewes, and lambs, in the fall and winter. But 
even where snows of considerable depth lie on the 
ground for months, it is an object well deserving atten¬ 
tion for fall and spring pasturage. If animals are only 
allowed to feed on it when the ground is in a proper 
state—that is, when they will not poach it with their 
feet—it may be pastured quite closely in the fall and win¬ 
ter without injury to the yield of grain, and there is no 
doubt that pasturing sometimes increases the yield. In 
some parts of the country, it is fed in the spring till 
grass will afford a “ bite.” It is then allowed to grow 
till the grain is filled and begins to turn, when hogs are 
turned in to eat it. At this stage of the grain, it does not 
shatter out, and the hogs get it pretty clean, trample down 
the straw, and leave a good deal of manure. This is 
considered, in the districts where it is practiced, one of 
best modes of enriching ground. 
Rye requires a lighter soil than is most congenial to 
wheat. It often does well on quite sandy or gravelly land, 
where wheat would fail. Wheat is generally more profit¬ 
able on a soil to which it is adapted than rye, provided it 
escapes injury from insects. On such soils the yield is 
equal, if not greater than that of rye. In some neigh¬ 
borhoods where wheat has been injured by the midge 
for a year or two past, rye is considered a pretty certain 
crop, and we find many farmers in this vicinity are in • 
tending to discontinue, for the present, the sowing of 
wheat, (on account of the insect here mentioned,) and 
substitute rye in its place. This course would seem to 
be a very judicious one, to be followed at least as long as 
danger is to be apprehended from the insect. 
Sheep Racks.— The following is from a letter of Mr. 
Henry Weston, Jasper Co., Indiana:—“If the subject 
has not been brought to your notice, I would recommend 
a very cheap and convenient sheep rack, which is made 
by placing at an angle of 30 or 40 degrees from the per¬ 
pendicular of a rail fence, two flat stakes or pieces of 
boards for each panel, and bracing them with short 
sticks, then laying on edge, one upon another, three or 
four boards, according to width, so that the lowermos* 
shall slide close against the bottom rail. The sheep, be 
ing on the opposite side of the fence, feed between the 
rails. The hay thrown between the boards and the fence, 
will of course slide down as consumed below. The spa 
ces between the rails must not be so wide as to waste too 
much, nor so narrow as to prevent feeding.” 
