1910 . 
WHEAT GROWING IN MARYLAND. 
F. H. R., Williamsburg, Md .—Will you 
toll me how to raise heavy crops of wheat, 
sa y so to 40 bushels per acre, without hav¬ 
ing the crop run all to straw? We follow 
a five-year rotation, corn, wheat, clover, 
wheat, and clover again. I do not want to 
change the rotation as the land is improv¬ 
ing. The manure is hauled on sod for corn 
with no other fertilizer. We use 400 pounds 
per acre of a fertilizer containing 12 per 
cent phosphoric acid and five per cent pot¬ 
ash on the wheat. Corn average 40 to 50 
bushels per acre, wheat 20 to 25, clover two 
Ions. Land has been limed. Wheat stands 
shoulder high favorable seasons, falls down 
in bottoms and headlands, and only yields 
25 bushels per acre. We do as well as others 
in upper Dorchester County, but that does 
not satisfy. IIow to get a large crop of 
wheat and have it stand up is what I wish 
to know. I sow it iy 2 bushel per acre. 
About 10 years ago a variety of wheat was 
brought here called Russian Red, a smooth 
head wheat. A lot of two acres on this 
farm, (I did not own it then; yielded 100 
bushels. It had been planted to truck and 
heavily manured previously. At that time 
the straw of that variety was short and 
thick. I got an average of 30 bushels per 
acre on 50 acres several years after that, 
but now the straw has increased in length 
and it does not fill as well. Last year those 
who sowed that kind only got screenings. 
All other smooth head wheats have not 
done well for several years. We grow the 
bearded varieties now, as Fuleaster, Red 
Wonder, etc. They have a large plump 
grain, but not many grains in the heads, 
also, grow such heavy straw. We very often 
have a hot sultry spell of weather when the 
wheat is in the milk; it seems to injure 
smooth head wheat worse than bearded. 
Do we need fresh seed wheat from a cooler 
climate? Should we sow it thinner to have 
the straw stouter? The soil is medium light, 
red clay subsoil. Does not corn in the South 
planted thick like you say they do when 
they get those heavy yields fire in a dry 
season? It does here when planted closer 
than four feet each way. 
Ans.— In sowing wheat after corn I 
think that the general error in your 
section is in replowing the land. Your 
soil is rather lighter than in the best 
wheat-growing sections of Talbot and 
Kent counties, and needs more com¬ 
pacting. After a thoroughly deep and 
good plowing for the corn crop, the 
lower soil should be left settled. Then, 
after cutting and shocking the corn, disk 
the land lightly and not over three 
inches deep, and go over and over to 
make the surface soil as fine as prac¬ 
ticable, and do not sow till there has 
been a slight frost, so as to have a 
better chance to avoid the fly. One of 
the best wheat growers in Talbot, W. 
Oscar Collier, does replow his corn 
stubble, but he then used a soil packer 
like the dry land farmers in the West 
use, and packs his soil down as firmly 
as he can. and then makes the sur¬ 
face very fine. Mr. Collier is the clean¬ 
est corn cultivator I have ever known. 
He keeps the cultivator going shal¬ 
lowly in his cornfield as long as he 
can get through it, and in his cornfield 
last Fall I did not see on 30 acres 
grass enough to feed a goose. Then 
he had the best conditions to prepare 
for the wheat crop and he generally 
makes over 40 bushels per acre, though 
last Summer hardly anyone there made 
a heavy crop owing to the blighting of 
the bloom by heavy rains in early Sum¬ 
mer. Then as to seed. The bearded 
varieties are certainly more safe than 
the bald-headed ones. But in getting- 
seed wheat always go south and not 
north to get earlier crops. In Spring- 
planted crops it may be wise to go 
north, but for wheat that is sown in 
the Fall go south. The reason is evi¬ 
dent. Wheat is sown later there and 
ripens earlier, and hence grows in a- 
shorter season. When I was a boy in 
1 albot Co. it was common then, when 
the old Blue Stem white wheat was the 
popular variety, to send to North Caro¬ 
lina for seed, and it was always found 
that a change of seed wheat from the 
South was an advantage. I have no 
objection to your rotation, and your 
fertilization of the wheat is just what 
I would make. I assume that the main 
difficulty is in the looseness of your soil, 
and I believe that if you will pay special 
attention to the fining of the surface 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
and the packing of the soil you will 
avoid much of the lodging. I have 
been out of wheat growing so long 
that I am not now prepared to discuss 
varieties. But if. I was going to sow 
wheat I would sow some one of the 
red-straw bearded sorts of the Mediter¬ 
ranean group. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
Destroying Wild Radish. 
A year ago I moved on this farm and 
found it covered with wild radish. Could 
you give me the host way to get rid of it? 
Would spraying do it? The field is sown 
to rye and wheat. c. k. 
Sodus, N. Y. 
Spraying with sulphate of iron has not 
been found as effective for wild radish as 
with wild mustard. In Canada the advice is 
to harrow the grain stubble' after harvest 
and cultivate the weed out, or turn in sheep 
to feed it off. 
Millet for Low Land. 
L. R. A., Vernon, Vt .—What would you 
advise in regard to sowing “Billion Dollar 
grass” seed on land which is most too damp 
for ordinary crop? This grass is a great 
success in the West, on damp ground, such 
as that where corn or grain has drowned 
out in the Spring. It makes a quick rank 
growth of very palatable hay, there. 
Ans.— We think “Billion Dollar 
grass” is much the same as a coarse 
millet like Japanese barnyard millet. 
This variety does quite well on damp 
soil if you can get it started. It ought 
to give you a heavy crop of coarse 
forage. We like it better for green feed¬ 
ing than for hay. It is fair cattle feed, 
but not so good for horses. 
227 
seed or the manure, but they must be intro¬ 
duced in some way before the Alfalfa will 
grow permanently. In sowing Alfalfa on 
Eastern farms we think it is much safer to 
inoculate in some way. 
Wood Ashes on Snow. 
Would it be proper to top-dress with wood 
ashes on snow on a clover field? c. m. 
Shawn, Conn. 
We would wait until the snow melts and 
sow the ashes right on the clover. You will 
gain nothing by earlier sowing, and may lose 
part of the ashes in case of a sudden thaw 
or flood. 
Alfalfa Without Inoculation. 
If land is filled with sufficient amount of 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, other 
conditions being right, will not Alfalfa 
thrive without inoculation? w. h. u. 
No. Adams, Mass. 
No, not fully. Alfalfa will not “thrive” 
unless the tiny bacteria work upon its 
roots and obtain nitrogen from the air, and 
they can only come through inoculation of 
some kind. They may be in the soil, tho 
Peach buds are all right here at this time 
January 24, but I am fearful just now, as 
we are having a warm spell, and it is what 
has killed them of late years. Other fruit 
promises well now, but it is a long time to 
Spring. w. n. 
Columbia Co., N, Y. 
It might interest you to know that up in 
this county, the greatest potato county in 
the United States, we have a pretty good 
tax rate. In my town last year the rate 
was 29 mills on a dollar, but the county is 
prosperous. This year, owing to an exces¬ 
sively wet Summer, potatoes rotted badly, 
and the average farmer is making no money. 
There will be a large acreage planted next 
season, as it takes more than one poor year 
to discourage an Aroostook farmer, or put 
him out of business. We have had a fine 
Winter here, no severe weather and no bad 
storms. The mercury often gets down around 
20 degrees below zero, and 30 degrees is 
not rare, while along the rivers in an ex¬ 
ceptionally cold spell. 50 degrees below has 
been recorded. This Winter there have been 
but few drops when the mercury got much 
below zero. o. n. a. 
Caribou, Me. 
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