22 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
constitute the source ot political power. They are the main earn¬ 
ing, paying, and, when nece^-sary, fighting class. If the fountain 
is impure, the stream will be impure also. The high responsibili 
ties, and important duties, which devolve upon the farmer, demand, 
that he should b ■ well informed. 
_cmiK KSPoaiaxaaicM._ 
Communications read before the Stale Agricultural Society, by H. 
Hickock, Esq. 
THE CULTIVATION OF WHEAT. 
There are two causes whicn, when our winters are open, operate 
injuriously on wheat crops. One is, the hign a id dry winds, which 
prevail in March; these blow off the soil in many situations, and, 
by leaving the roots of wheat exposed, occasion their destruction. 
Another cause is the heaving of the soil, occasioned by the altera¬ 
tions ot cold and warm weather. The water in the soil, in the act 
of freezing, expands and raises up the earth, and also the roots ot 
the wheat-plants which the earth embraces ; when a thaw succeeds, 
the earth being heaviest, falls down first and leaves the roots of 
wheat a little elevated, and by repeated changes of the weather, 
the roots are so far thrown out as to perish. 
Fanners when convenient, usually sow their winter grain early 
in September, upon a supposition which guides their common prac 
tice, that grain thus early sown withstands best the action of unfa¬ 
vorable seasons. This supposition is founded upon the very plau 
sible theory, that as the oldest roots will be longer and more nume¬ 
rous and take a firm- r hold of the soil than those which are younger, 
they will be the least exposed to be thrown above it, and at the 
same tune, from their greater strength, be more tenacious of life. 
But experience informs us, that wheat, sown as late as the first or 
even the second week in October, very often survives with less in¬ 
jury than that which is sown in the early part of September. Indeed 
farmers very generally admit, as the result of their experience, that 
rye, whose laws of vegetation must be nearly the same as those ot 
wheat, sown so late in the season as barely to come up, is most 
likely to withstand an unfavorable winter. Still the very plausible 
theory which has been mentioned very generally induces them to 
sow rye early as well as wheat, in direct opposition to conclusions 
which have been drawn from actual observation. 
An experiment was made last autumn for the purpose of collect¬ 
ing some further information on this subject. On the first day of 
September last I excavated a spot of ground six feet square. On 
the one side, the excavation was about six inches deep, on the op¬ 
posite side, its depth did not exceed one inch. Seed wheat was 
placed over the bottom, so that the kernels were about four inches 
distant from each other, the excavation was then filled up. The 
was a suitable mixture of grav-J, sand and clay, for wheat, and of 
ordinary fertility. This was the latter part of t he extreme drought 
which prevailed last summer, and the soil was dry, warm and finely 
pulverized before it was thrown on the wheat. These circumstan¬ 
ces, except the extreme dryness of the soil, were highly favorable 
to the vegetation of seed at. the greatest depth in the earth. On 
the fourth of the month there was a heavy shower which not onlv 
wet the soil, but beat it down close and hard. On the ninth of the 
month the plants began to show themselves; but none came up 
from a greater depth than about three and one half inches. Two 
or three days after the second leaf had displayed itself, some of the 
roots were taken up and examined. It now appeared that nearly 
an inch below the surface of the ground, a new joint was found 
which was the basis of the second leaf, and also of a new system of 
roots. There were now two tiers of roots; the seed or knot ad¬ 
joining it, had generated the lower tier, arid the new joint the up¬ 
per one. These two tiers or systems of roots were connected to¬ 
gether by a root resembling a cord or thread, and, in one instance, 
I cut off this connecting thread and transplanted the upper part. 
This grew with little apparent check from its curtailment; but the 
under part died, although the soil above it was opened so as to af¬ 
ford it the advantages of air and solar heat. On the 20th day of 
September, I examined another plant, which had its two regular 
formations as expected, and, what was not expected, a blade was 
discovered about an inch long, which had started from the lower 
system of roots, and would doubtless have found its way to the sur¬ 
face, had it not have been disturbed. It is to be remarked, that this 
plant sprung from seed placed under cover of nearly four inches of 
soil, which was about an inch deeper than any of the other plants 
examined, and that some of the tops of the wheat plants had been 
-aten off and trodden down by accidental intrusion ; a fact unre¬ 
garded at the time. On the 26th day of September 1 examined ano¬ 
ther root, expecting to see the blade from below more perfectly de¬ 
veloped, none however was discovered ; but a third Her of roots 
was found at the surf ce of the ground, which proceeded from the 
-econd as that had from the first system of roots. On the 16th 
day of October I place i some seed wheat about two inches in the 
ground; their delay in coming up induced me to suppose that they 
Mad perished from cold and wetness ; but at the expiration of ‘3 weeks 
hey made their appearance, and although the ground remained open 
several weeks longer, no second leaf appeared, of course no joint 
or second system of roots had been formed. The very different 
formations in the roots of wheat, which this experiment has dis¬ 
closed, proceeded from causes appropriate and capable of being as¬ 
certain- d, but to distinguish them with certainty, other trials must 
>e made and conducted with greater accuracy than the one of 
which an account has been given. 
From these experiments, though inaccurate, some conclusions 
may perhaps be drawn of practical use. All plants, which live 
over winter, possess an apparatus, by which they supply themselves, 
m autumn, with food for their sustenance in spring. This food 
consists mostlv of saccharine matter which is enclosed in a proper 
receptacle. When this receptacle is formed near the surface of the 
earth, the fermentation of its contents is excited by frequent chang- 
--S of weather, the sacharine matter is decomposed and the plant 
perishes from the want of food, and perhaps also from the rupture 
of its vessels. 
All wheat, shallow sowed, must have its reservoirs of food but 
slightly covered with soil, and of course they are fully exposed. 
When wheat is sown early at any depth, a second and, sometimes, 
at least, a third system of roots is formed within an inch of the sur¬ 
face. In these many stems originate, each of which has its recep¬ 
tacle of nourishment as its base, and it is quite certain that in most 
instances, the food which was contained in the seed and the adjoin¬ 
ing knot is entirely exhausted by the supplies of nour-shment it af¬ 
fords the upper portions of the plant. The life of early sowed 
wheat n list then, like that which is shallow sowed, depend up- 
on the preservation of the resorvoirs of saccharine matter which 
are placed at or near the surface of the ground, and of course ex¬ 
posed to the unfavorable action of variable weather during winter. 
Wheat, which is late sowed, generates no second blade or new 
-ystem of roots, and of course the nourishment tor spring’s use is 
retained in the receptacle which adjoins the seed. If then we sow 
sufficiently late in autumn, and place the seed deep in the soil, we 
shall provide every security against the hazards of bad weather 
which the nature of the case admits of. 
In the ordinary course of husbandry, some of the wheat is neces¬ 
sarily deposited at considerable depth in the soil, and a hen this 
takes place sufficiently late in the season, the receptacle of food 
will be protected by its covering of earth, and a partial crop will 
often be realized, although there may be, when the spring opens, 
no signs of life on the surface of the field. In such cases as the 
destruction of tile hlade, which issues from the seed-roots in autumn, 
can be of little importance, one wnu'd suppose that the surviving 
plants would grow the more vigorously, from their being less in 
number, and, by tillering, produce many stems with large well filled 
ears; such however is not the fact; usually the stems are single 
and the heads are not large. To account for this, it must, be re¬ 
collected that, after the ground has thawed in spring, the earth set¬ 
tles and often becomes soex'remely hard that doubtless many plants 
die, in their struggle to overcome the opposing resistance, and the 
surprise is, that any should possess vigor enough to protrude even 
a single stem through the hard earth that covers it. 
From this view of the subject, the practice may he recommend¬ 
ed, of effectually harrowing the field in the spring after the ground 
has settled, in order to supply the plant with fresh ai>- and give a 
free passage to its upward growth. After the harrow has been 
used, the roller ought to be employed to reset, such roots as have 
been displaced and diminish the evaporation of moisture. 
In England a wheat plant was taken up, seperated into eighteen 
parts and replanted, and by successive divisions and replantations, 
a crop of three and one-third pecks of wheat was obtained in less 
than 18 months from the time t e seed was sown. If the roots of 
wheat can be so minutely divided and successfully replanted, there 
is little danger than the freest use of the harrow can be injurious, 
