259 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
1851. 
nominal standard when compared with the expensive 
process of making a naked summer fallow as is usually 
done in New-York and Pennsylvania. Those farmers 
who have adopted the system alluded to, find no diffi¬ 
culty in getting an average crop of 30 bushels of market¬ 
able wheat per acre; and the crop is less liable to rust 
than by any other system yet practiced. Besides all this, 
it enables the grower to sell at a remunerative profit, 
when to others the price of wheat in the markets might 
be ruinously low. Before closing this branch of the 
subject it is proper to remark, that the farmers in Ohio 
are not troubled with wild mustard, Canada thistle, nor 
wire grass, or in fact any other difficult class of weeds, 
that so much perplex eastern farmers; and on this ac¬ 
count one plowing does the land as much good in pre¬ 
paring it for crops, as two plowings would do in any of 
the eastern states of the Union, and hence it is only in 
suitable cases that so cheap a plan could be successfully 
adopted in the growth of wheat. 
In some-instances wheat is made to follow the oat crop, 
in which case the latter succeeds a crop of corn, which 
if well cultivated leaves the ground in a good condition 
for oats. Where this plan finds favor, only one plowing 
is given for the wheat crop, and if the land be tolerably 
rich, the average product generally equals about twenty- 
five bushels per acre in favorable seasons. Whilst the 
land is new and rich, this barbarous system might with 
some excuse be perpetrated, but, although it may af¬ 
ford a greater immediate return, than those in which 
green crops are made to alternate with yellow crops, 
yet in the end it will positively exhaust the soil of its 
fertilizing properties, and lessen its value quite equal, 
if not to a greater extent, than if a more rational system 
of culture had been practiced. A still worse practice 
than this is adopted by some, who fancy they have some 
claim to the appellation of scientific farmers. Allusion 
is now made of sowing wheat after wheat, for a succes¬ 
sion of years, by simply allowing occasionally a crop of 
corn to intervene. The past season thousands of acres 
were sown in this way, and at the present time, (the 1st 
of June) a finer prospect for a full average crop could 
not be desired. On the 1st of July last whilst passing 
through the wheat belt of Ohio, the farmers were busily 
occupied in harvesting the finest crop of wheat, that 
was ever produced in any portion of the Union, a very 
large portion of . which averaged from 25 to 40 bushels 
per acre; and now whilst passing over the same ground 
the same broad acres in many cases are covered with the 
same description of grain, which to all appearance will 
be equally productive. If such favorable results are 
obtained by a small outlay of labor and skill, why not 
continue the practice? In reply, we argue that in rare 
cases it may be done with impunity for a series of years, 
but in the main it is carrying out the principle laid down 
in one of iEsop’s fables, in which to satiate avarice, the 
goose was killed that laid the golden egg. The vege¬ 
table is like the animal kingdom, governed by certain 
unerring laws, and when those are violated, disappoint¬ 
ment and suffering must necessarily follow. All vege¬ 
table plants require certain organic and inorganic ingre¬ 
dients, to promote and perfect their growth. If the 
soil contain a very large supply of the requisite food for 
certain plants, provided it be kept in a proper tilth for 
those plants, there is no good reason why precisely the 
same description of crops should not be made to succeed 
each other for a succession of years, on the same soil. 
This however is a nice point to ascertain, and as a gener¬ 
al thing it is dangerous to adopt it, and in fact we would 
not encourage its practice under any circumstance, be¬ 
lieving that in the end it would be better to pursue a 
regular course of rotation of crops, allowing wheat, even 
on the very best wheat soils, to grow on the same land 
only once in three or four years. 
The foregoing is the practice in the counties mentioned, 
as well as in favorable sections for wheat in other por¬ 
tions of the state. In the southern, central and western 
range of counties, the almost universal practice is to 
sow wheat after the corn crop, or with it before it is har¬ 
vested. Naked fallows are rarely if ever made in the 
corn and grazing regions of Ohio. On this account a 
much more slovenly practice of managing the wheat 
crop prevails where corn and grass are the main de- 
pendance of the farmer, than where wheat forms the 
principal staple. Honorable exceptions, however, are 
made to this rule in every county and neighborhood of 
the state, and on the whole it may in fairness to the 
Ohio farmers be added, that as a class they are anxious 
to adopt the most approved system of culture, when 
their merits are fairly brought under their notice. 
The past harvest, throughout the whole of the corn 
growing counties of Ohio, the samples of wheat, wheth¬ 
er sown early or late, in good condition or bad, were 
uniformly heavy and fair; and in many cases the yield 
was abundant, even when sown after corn, oats and all 
the other varieties of grain, as late as the last week in 
November. On the whole, however, those who took 
pains in preparing the land for the crop, obtained a much 
larger product than their more slovenly neighbors; and 
besides it was in better condition for succeeding crops 
than if a small amount of labor had been expended in 
preparing the soil for the preceding one. But it is evi¬ 
dent, that so long as the fertility of the soil is such, as 
to secure a heavy crop, with a small expenditure of la¬ 
bor, that only a few can be pursuaded that it will pay 
cost to adopt more expensive systems of culture. These 
influences and others of a like character, prevent to a 
great extent, the adoption of systems of farm manage¬ 
ment, that in other counties would be considered essen¬ 
tial to success. This fact is here mentioned to show that 
a superficial observer from other counties, passing 
through Ohio, might err materially in judgment, whilst 
condemning much of the farming he saw practiced. 
Much, that at first sight appears objectionable, upon a 
close examination, is the best that could have been adopt¬ 
ed. But nevertheless in many important particulars 
their is room for improvement, and owing to the mixed 
character of her people, and the great inducements that 
are held out for the adoption of every real improvement 
in the cultivation of the soil, the inference may be fairly 
made that the Buck-Eye state will not lag behind her 
sister states in any particular, in engrafting upon her 
systems of agriculture the improvements of other coun¬ 
tries, that would be found applicable for her soil and 
climate. 
It should have been mentioned that in sowing wheat 
among corn, a practice is obtaining favor, which on level 
