1854. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
341 
Extracts from our Exchanges. 
EXPERIMENTS IN WHEAT CULTURE. 
Cuthbert W. Johnson, a well known English ag¬ 
ricultural writer, in an article on the “ Wheat Crop,” 
in the Sept. No. of the Farmer's Magazine, says : 
Now there are one or two facts which have been pro¬ 
duced within the last two or three years, which are 
well worthy of the farmer’s attention—not as offering 
certain rules for our imitation on all soils and in every 
situation, but as affording valuable suggestions for new 
experimental courses of inquiry. It is pretty certain 
that the best state to which the soil should be brought 
for the reception of the seed-wheat, is not in all cases 
well determined. At the July gathering at Mr. Mechi’s 
farm, some fine specimens of wheat ears were produ¬ 
ced by Mr. Piper, of Colne Engaine, grown on land 
which had not been plowed for several years, and yet 
had, with the aid of top-dressings of soot and other 
artificial manures, produced good crops of wheat every 
year: here was the result from an undisturbed soil. 
On the other hand, we have the equally successful, yet 
opposite practice of Mr. Smith, of Lois Weedon, who 
fallows for wheat every other year—still growing wheat 
and wheat only, year after year. His practice he 
briefly describes as follows:—“I divide my field 
into lands 5 feet wide. In the center of each land I 
drop or drill my seed in triple rows, 1 foot apart, thus 
leaving a fallow interval of three feet between each 
triple row. When the plant is up, I trench the inter¬ 
vals with the fork easity, taking my spits about 3 inches 
from the wheat; and at spring and during summer I 
clean them with the blades of the sharp-cutting horse- 
hoe, and keep them open with the tines of the scuffler. 
Every year, in short, I trench and cultivate 2| feet 
out of the 5 for the succeeding crop, and leave the 
other 21 for that which is growing. One moiety of 
each acre is thus in wheat, and the other moiety fal¬ 
low ; and the average yield of that half acre is 34 
bushels, surpassing the average yield of a whole acre 
on the common plan.’’ Why wheat should be thus 
grown for a series of years on the same land with suc¬ 
cess in Essex and in Northamptonshire, and in one place 
by constantly stirring the soil, and in the other locality 
by never plowing, but by merely hoeing the seed in, 
and hoeing it afterwards for the removal of weeds, 
certainly seems to be phenomena worthy of our care¬ 
ful study, when we are considering the state of the 
soil the best adapted for the growth of wheat. 
THOROUGH TILLAGE. 
Prof. Nash, editor of the Conn. Valley Farmer, in 
his Sept. No. gives a variety of notes gathered from 
farmers whom he had recently visited. We copy one of 
them: 
Our first gleanings are from a farmer in Worcester 
county, who showed us a three acre lot, once intolera¬ 
bly stony, now cleared of stones and trenched to a 
depth of sixteen or eighteen inches, and the soil to that 
depth made like a rich garden mould, by working and 
manuring. This lot is set to apple trees, now seven 
years from the seed, and already bearing considerably, 
many trees having something like a bushel of the 
choicest varieties of apples. Two acres of the lot are 
now into onions. The other acre has given a crop of 
barley, and is to give another of turnips. The onions 
are in drills, 12 or 14 inches apart, and if we are any 
judge of such matters, they must yield over a thou¬ 
sand bushels from the two acres, and we should not 
think it strange if the yield should be nearer two thou¬ 
sand. We have grown them on small patches at the 
rate of very nearly a thousand bushels to the acre, but 
we have never seen a heavier growth than this whole 
field seems likely to reach. Tho owner declares that 
he is managing this field with a view to test the ques¬ 
tion, whether three acres cultivated in the best man¬ 
ner, cannot bo ?*»nde to give a raaon over all ex¬ 
penses of cultivation equal t *nhe average profit on 
farms of a hundred acres, in that county, cultivated in 
the ordinary way. His views at first struck us as ex¬ 
travagant, but on learning what Oops'he had taken 
from that field and seeing his prC^Of ^s for large quan¬ 
tities of choice fruit in coming years, we were con¬ 
strained to admit that he probably wjll obtain a greater 
net profit from those three a^/ert, /or a succession of 
years than is derived from sorita/farms of a hundred 
acres. His way is. to, charge the field interest on its 
original value, to charge it for all the manure and la¬ 
bor, and to credit it by the selling price of whatever is 
sold from it and a fair market price for such produce 
as may be consumed at home. This farmer would be 
the last to speak irreverently towards Him, who gives 
and withholds the rains at his pleasure ; b.ut yet he be¬ 
lieves deep and rich cultivation to be all;*but an abso¬ 
lute guaranty against harm from cx^ce^or deficiency of 
rain—is about as fearless of.dr'jqth as LJe resolute school 
boy, clad in wools and firs, wotald be of cold in skating 
time. With some traits of his farming we were exceed¬ 
ingly delighted, and we hope to revert to them at some 
future time. --- 
CHEAP ICE-HOUSE. 
The following plan of a,, cheap and convenient ice¬ 
house—one which every farmer can afford to have— 
was furnished to the Rural New-Yorker, by Mr. E. 
Marks of Onondago county. 
Make a box eight feet square, by nailing hemlock 
planks which are two inches thick, on to hemlock 
scantling. Let one side of the box be sevc\n feet high, 
and the side directly opposite ten feet high, gives 
a roof eight feet long, with a slant of thre set. It 
is w'ell to have the roof boards extend ove. tue sides 
of the box. Double boarding with hemlock makes a 
sufficient roof. Set this box on the top of the ground, 
in a dry and shady place, where surface water will not 
accumulate. No planks are needed on the bottom of 
the box, but sawdust must be placed on the ground in¬ 
side the box to the depth of one foot, and over this 
place loose boards for the ice to lie Upon. Cut the 
cakes of ice two feet square, and build a tower of ice 
six feet square in the center of your box, (or ice-house, 
we will now call it,) by laying the cakes compactly 
together, and filling all crevices with sawdust .as you 
proceed. We have now*a six feet cubic of ice, with a 
space of one foot all around between the ice and 
planks. Fill this space with sawdu&t, and cover the 
top of the ice with the same eighteen inches deep, and 
you have ice enough secured to last a family through 
the season. The upper three feet of the side which is 
ten feet high, should not be boarded up, but left for 
ventilation, and a place of access to the ice, and this 
aperture may be enlarged as convenience may require 
while using the ice, and for more conveniently filling 
in. About 800 feet of lumber will be required, and 
the merest tyro in the use of tools, can make it. Fresh 
sawdust is best, but it may be used a second winter. 
The dust can easily be washed from the ice at the time 
of using. - 
LARGE OR SMALL SEED POTATOES. 
By an experiment carefully conducted at the North 
American Phalanx, the following results were obtain¬ 
ed : 
1. Large whole seed, 29 lb.. 14 oz., produced 174 lb. 
2. Large potatoes cut in halves, 15 lb., 15 oz.,produced 124. 
3. Large potatoes cut in quarters, 7 lb., produced 98 lb. 
4. Medium potatoes, whole, 19 lb., 3 oz , produced 146 lb. 
5. Medium potatoes cut in halves, 9 lb.6 oz., produced 88J lb. 
6. Medium potatoes cut in quarters, 4 lb., produced 67 lb. 
7. Small potatoes whole, 9£ lb. produced 117 lb. 
8. Small potatoes cut in halves, 6 lb., produced 81 lb. 
The percentage of small potatoes to the seed used, 
was greatest in the quartered large potatoes. 
Repetitions of the experiment have all been in fa¬ 
vor of large uncut potatoes for seed.— N. Y. Trib. 
