258 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
covered. This fact is here mentioned, so that the reader 
will readily comprehend what is meant, when allusion is 
made to systems of agriculture that are pursued on dif¬ 
ferent soils, being indicated by the character and quality 
of the timber which prevail in the region of country un¬ 
der consideration. 
System of Culture practiced on thin Oak-land.— 
The cultivation of clover as a preparative crop for wheat, 
is more generally practiced on the oak lands, such as 
abound in Richland, Ashland, Wayne and Stark coun¬ 
ties, than in any other portion of Ohio. In these and 
a few adjoining counties, the system of making naked 
summer fallows prevails very generally; and indeed but 
very little wheat is sown in any other way, by those who 
make it a point to make their wheat crop their main de- 
pendance. The summer fallow is usually made on a two 
year old clover sod. It is rarely broken up before the 
1st of July, and after which it is allowed to remain 
almost untouched until the first week of September, 
when it is again plowed, usually lengthwise of the first 
furrow, to be sown for wheat. The seed is then covered 
either with a harrow, cultivator, or shovel plow, and in 
some rare casesjrith a drilling machine, which completes 
the whole process. The white varieties of wheat are the 
most popular, and hence the farmers in this region ob¬ 
tain higher prices for their wheat than those who sow 
the thick and dark bran varieties. The quality of the 
wheat for flouring purposes, grown in the most celebra¬ 
ted wheat counties, is equal to that produced in the 
country bordering the Genesee valley. Nothing in fact 
can excel it; but unfortunately for the character of this 
wheat, it becomes mixed in too many cases by either 
careless or interested purchasers, which detracts from 
its value by the time it gets into the eastern market, 
from 10 to 12£ cents per bushel. A common practice 
among the Buffalo jobbers, who deal largely in western 
wheat, is to take Ohio white wheat, weighing from 60 to 
66 lbs. per bushel, and mix it in nearly equal proportions 
with Illinois or other northwestern spring wheat; the 
whole of which is sold to the miller at an advanced price 
on the value of the spring wheat, but in reality the real 
worth and character of the superior article are very con¬ 
siderably deteriorated. This practice is often done by 
the local purchaser in order to reduce the cash value of 
the white wheat down to the same standard that is paid 
for the common coarse varieties. By this practice the 
grower sustains a loss of some 10 cents per bushel, be¬ 
sides the general character of both the wheat and flour 
of the country is damaged in the eyes of the eastern ex¬ 
port merchants. 
In some cases, the whole of the manure made on the 
farm is spread upon the clover sod just before it is broken 
up; and where the soil is naturally thin in vegetable 
matter, this practice, in connection with turning under a 
heavy growth of clover, is found to increase the quantity 
of straw and the yield of wheat, to an extent that rich¬ 
ly repays for the labor and expense attendant upon that 
course. The growth of clover appears so natural to the 
soil, that as yet but little attention has been paid to the 
application of artificial manures to the young clover 
crops; but in seasons of extreme drouth especially, an 
expenditure of a few shillings per acre, in the purchase 
of gypsum for this crop, would be instrumental in giving 
Aug. 
a uniform heavy growth, where without such agency, 
only a stunted and unprofitable product would be real- 
ized. This is being understood by a few enlightened 
farmers; and occasionally instances may be met with, 
where the advantage resulting from the use of gypsum 
is acknowledged and appreciated; but strange as it may 
appear to those who have seen the wonderful results pro¬ 
duced by the extensive use of this powerful fertilizer in 
central New-York and elsewhere, only now and then a 
farmer in Ohio seems to have any correct notion of its 
properties, and the powerful fertilizing influences effect¬ 
ed on all broad leaved plants. 
Within the past three or four years the very rational 
opinion has gained ground, that under a careful system 
of rotation of crops, the plan of making naked fallows 
may be dispensed with altogether. This system how¬ 
ever is only adapted for certain descriptions of soils, and 
it is questionable whether it is susceptible of universal 
adoption, even under the most careful mode of manage¬ 
ment. The course at present pursued, and the one al¬ 
luded to, consists of plowing under a pretty heavy growth 
of clover, about the middle of August. It is then al¬ 
lowed to remain undisturbed until about the 10th or 15th 
of September, when the seed is sown and covered, either 
with a steel tooth cultivator or shovel plow. The opin¬ 
ion is fast gaining ground by farmers who have fully 
tested the system on a large scale, that a much larger 
yield of wheat per acre may be had from a single fur¬ 
row, than if the land had been plowed two or more 
times, and brought to the highest possible state of tilth 
by an expensive process of frequent plowing. It is very 
obvious that if the land be in a high state of cultivation 
when seeded down with clover, and only one crop of 
clover hay, or a season’s pasturage be taken from it, be¬ 
fore it be broken up, that the soil must be improved in 
tilth, rather than otherwise by being seeded with clover. 
Clover, like all broad-leaved plants, obtains a large pro¬ 
portion of its food from the atmosphere; and being a 
smothering crop to a much greater extent than any other 
field crop, the inert vegetable ingredients in the soil, as 
well as its inorganic properties undergo a mechanical 
change which eminently prepares it for the succeeding 
crops, especially those of cereal plants. These considera¬ 
tions in connection with the salutary influence that the 
millions of large tap-roots have in percolating the ground 
so as to admit the air into the heart of the active soil 
by which the floating gases in the atmosphere, produced 
from decayed vegetable and animal substances, increase 
the fertilizing properties of the soil, which in connec¬ 
tion with the large amount of vegetable manure of a 
suitable character for the wheat plants that is produced 
from the roots of the clover, are conclusive evidences, 
to the mind of any scientific farmer who will take the 
trouble to investigate the subject, in favor of the system 
of plowing only one furrow for wheat, where the soil and 
its previous preparation are of the description here al¬ 
luded to. To what extent this cheap plan of growing 
wheat may be extended is difficult as yet to determine, 
but it is quite certain that extraordinary yields are pro¬ 
duced by this method throughout many portions of the 
best wheat growing counties in Ohio, and when the value 
of the clover crop for hay or pasturage is taken into ac¬ 
count, it brings the cost of producing wheat to a mere 
