196 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
June. 
part of his crop in this way last fall ; the drilled 
portion looked much the best at the setting in of 
winter. Saw two fields of wheat last year, adjoin¬ 
ing each other, on one of which the seed was drilled 
in, and on the other sown broadcast; the drilled 
yielded much the best. Drilled wheat stands the 
winter best; the small ridges between the rows are 
constantly working down, and keep the roots of the 
wheat covered. 
Mr. B. spoke of the Etrurian wheat, which had 
lately been introduced, and had so far done well—it 
weighed 64 pounds to the bushel. 
Mr. Lawrence, of Yates county, differed from 
the preceding speaker in regard to the proper depth 
of plowing. The remarks in favor of shallow plow¬ 
ing, seemed strange to his ear. The farmers of 
Yates improve their land by deep plowing. The 
farm which he occupied had been rented for many 
years previously to its coming into his possession, 
and had been plowed about four inches deep, and 
produced 12 to 15 bushels of wheat per acre. He 
at once plowed it six to seven inches deep, and rais¬ 
ed the first seasen 30 bushels of wheat to the acre. 
It was the general expression, in his county, that 
deep tillage was the best for all crops. 
He had tried subsoiling; first plowed with a com¬ 
mon plow, seven inches, then run the subsoil plow the 
same depth—cross plowed before sowing wheat—has 
invariably had the best crops where he lias subsoiled 
—has sometimes subsoiled a portion of a field and 
left the remainder plowed only in the ordinary way, 
and the yield is always in favor of the subsoiled 
part. His is a strong lime-stone soil, and he intends 
to subsoil his whole farm, being satisfied that it 
will pay. He makes great use of clover as a ferti¬ 
lizer, and uses plaster to benefit the clover. Never 
could perceive that plaster benefitted the wheat 
much, but it greatly increases the growth of clover. 
He attributes the improvement of the soil by clo¬ 
ver mostly to the roots; they penetrate the earth to 
the depth of two to two and a-half feet, and raise 
the soluble substances on which the plant feeds, to 
the surface, where, by decomposition, they supply 
food to the wheat crop. 
Mr. L. said wheat was formerly raised in Yates 
county chiefly on fallows; but latterly, the more 
common course is to take first corn, then barley, 
then wheat—the corn generally manured—but it 
must be remembered that this cannot be done on a 
poor soil. He had tried wheat after various kinds 
of grain, but it does best after barley. The system 
of drilling wheat is beginning to be practiced in 
Yates county, and Mr. L. concurred with what had 
been before said in regard to the advantages of this 
mode of sowing. Palmer’s is the kind of drill most 
in use in his neighborhood, and it gives good satis¬ 
faction. The quantity of seed sown can be regula¬ 
ted to a quart to the acre. It covers the seed one 
and a-half to two inches deep. The rows are nine 
inches apart. The cost of the machine is $55. 
The best varieties of wheat in Yates county, are 
the Hutchinson, Soule’s and Flint. Many preferred 
the Hutchinson on account of its earliness and free¬ 
dom from rust. It would ripen two weeks earlier 
than the red chaff. Mr. L. thought they raised as 
good crops of wheat in Yates as in any county in 
the State. He had himself raised forty-four bushels 
per acre on sixteen acres, in 1846. 
Lieut. Gov. Patterson said his experience was 
in favor of deep plowing. The wheat lands in the 
Genesee valley, when new, produced about fifteen 
bushels of wheat per acre. They were plowed 
shallow—the. farmers generally had not then suffi¬ 
cient strength of team to plow deep; now they plow 
much deeper than formerly, and obtain from twenty 
five to thirty bushels per acre. In Livingston coun¬ 
ty, thirty-five bushels per acre were obtained on 
some farms. Some farmers there, now plow ten 
inches deep. Deep tillage has many advantages; 
an important one is, that it enables crops to stand 
drouth. As to varieties of wheat, the old red chaff 
bald had done best with him, and he had tried ma¬ 
ny kinds. The Soule’s variety had done better than 
the flint; but two crops of the red chaff are better 
than three of the flint. The blue-stem is being in¬ 
troduced, and meets with favor. The proper time 
to sow wheat in the Genesee valley, is from the 15th 
to 25th of September. If sown earlier than this, it 
is very liable to be injured by the Hessian fly. As 
to the quantity of seed per acre, he thought a bush¬ 
el and a-half. if thrashed with a flail or trodden out 
by horses, was about right; if the seed was thrash¬ 
ed with a machine, two bushels per acre were neces¬ 
sary. The difference was owing to the wheat be¬ 
ing broken in passing through a machine, so that 
many of the grains would not germinate. In re¬ 
gard to summer fallowing, he had had better success 
with wheat on ground so prepared than in any other 
way, and thought he could raise wheat in that way 
cheaper than he could raise corn or oats. As a 
crop to precede wheat, he considers peas preferable 
to any kind of grain, or any crop, except flax. The 
cheapest manure for wheat is clover, though he 
would use all the manure from the barn-yard; consi¬ 
ders a good crop of clover equal to twenty loads of 
ordinary yard manure per acre. His practice is to 
sow six to eight pounds of clover seed per acre— 
seed costs about ten cents per pound—in spring 
sows 100 pounds of plaster per acre—pastures the 
clover till latter part of May and plows it under in 
June—could never see that plaster benefitted the 
the wheat, but it makes the clover, and the clover 
makes the wheat. He is much in favor of the sys¬ 
tem of drilling wheat. Wheat put in by this me¬ 
thod is less likely to be winter killed. The roots 
of grain that is sown broadcast, are often injured 
by the earth being blown off from them; by the 
drill system, this is prevented—the earth which 
forms the ridges between the rows being blowm over 
the wheat, keeping the roots covered. His wheat 
crops have sometimes been forty bushels per acre— 
has raised 30 bushels per acre on sixty acres. 
Mr. Cowles, of Onondaga county, said there was 
great variety of soil in that county—that on which 
oak and chestnut constituted the chief timber growth, 
was best for wheat; but 30 years ago this kind of 
land was generally thought good for nothing. When 
it was first tilled, it was plowed about four inches 
deep, and it did not produce very well; now it is 
plowed from seven to ten inches deep, and the crops 
are good and the land is growing better. On this 
kind of land, plaster benefits all crops; but on some 
other soils plaster has no apparent effect. On the 
chestnut and oak lands, the best crops of wheat are 
obtained by sowing about the first of September. 
He had noticed the effect of different crops on wheat. 
A field was sown as follows:—one-third with peas, 
one-third with barley, one-third with oats; the next 
crop was wheat; it was best after the peas, next 
best after barley, and poorest after oats. So far as 
his observation had gone, wheat was generally poor¬ 
er after oats than after any other crop. On his 
land wheat was generally best after a summer fal¬ 
low. As to varieties, the old fashioned flint was 
best—the. Canada flint next best. He related an 
experiment: a neighbor of his took some winter 
wheat—a white variety—put it into tubs, wet it, 
and left it to freeze—it being in the winter season. 
