THE CULTIVATOR. 
35 
bushels annually to the acre, would not be attended with the evil 
consequences above apprehended. Marl, so far as it contains car 
bonate of lime, affords all the advantages of mild or effete lime. 
The lime of sowing. —It is said that strong lands should be sown 
earlier than light lands ; and that late sown wheats are most apt 
to become mildewed. The particular time must vary so much, in 
the different states where the Cultivator circulates, that any di 
rections of ours upon this subject would have but a local applica 
tion. 
“ The grain may he sown to the depth of two or three inches upon 
a clay soil; and upon land which is more dry and porous, even at 
four; for it will thus obtain a firmer hold of the earth, and will be 
more out of the reach of that extreme drought to which those soils 
are frequently exposed. It may, therefore, on such land, be safely 
put in upon a superficial ploughing, when not sown upon a clover 
ley. These are, however, the extreme depths. On every soil, the 
nature of the land, as well as its condition, should also be well un 
derstood, before the depth can be properly determined ; for if it be 
a heavy wet clay, the seed should be sown proportionately nearer 
to the surface, than if it consists of a friable loam ; and if it has 
been brought into complete order by the operation of a summer 
fallow, it will necessarily be in a state of openness which will al¬ 
low of the seed being placed deeper.”— British Husbandry*. 
The spring tillage of winter wheat is effected by the harrow and 
roller. When the crop is root-fallen the roller is alone employed; 
to close the fissures, and press the earth to the plants. But on 
strong adhesive clays, which become hide-bound after a wet win¬ 
ter, the harrow, of a weight adapted to the soil, is employed, 
Though the practice is not general in Great Britain, and is but sel¬ 
dom resorted to here, it is universal in many parts of Germany and 
Poland. “ There,” says the writer of British Husbandry, who ma- 
nanaged a farm three years in Germany, “ on the first return of fine 
weather, the harrows are immediately passed freely over the wheat; 
so freely, indeed, that the whole field wears the appearance of 
having been newly sown, for the plants appear buried under the 
soil thus freshly stirred,and an ample top-dressing is thereby given 
to the crop. The Crust formed upon the surface of the soil is thus 
broken, and the ground is rendered more pervious to the coronal 
root of the plants, which in a week or ten days spread and tiller 
with great strength. The operation is performed upon every kind 
of soil, but of course with harrows of a weight proportioned to the 
tenacity of the land, and not heavy enough to tear up many of the 
roots, though if a large quantity be not destroyed it is considered 
immaterial; and any farmer who omits harrowing is thought un- 
pardonably negligent. It should be executed when the crop be¬ 
gins to re-vegetate, which necessarily depends on the climate and 
the state of the season. Attention is requisite to this ; for if the 
work be done while the plants are in an inactive state, they may 
be rotted, and if when too forward, their growth might be checked.” 
When the ground is to be stocked with clover, this affords. a fur¬ 
ther inducement to use the harrow, as without it the grass seeds 
are very liable to fail. When the'early spring growth is very luxu¬ 
riant, from the richness of the soil, and the warmth of the season, 
the straw is liable to become weak and mildewed, and the grain to 
lodge. To prevent this, it is not uncommon to have it eaten down 
by sheep. It is also sometimes mown ; in which case the work is 
carefully performed, at such a distance from the surface of the land 
as not to touch the heait of the plants 
Succession of crops. —“ Universal experience has proved, that to 
sow wheat a second time upon the same land, without an interme¬ 
diate crop, is exhausting the soil, and, if pursued for any length 
of time, eventually unprofitable to the farmer.” “ Clover has been 
called the ‘ mother^of wheat,’ and the ley is justly a favorite pre¬ 
paration of the crop; but it ought not to be repeated more than 
once in eight years, and it should only be sown when the ground is 
in such a state of cleanness, and so well manured [upon a previous 
crop] as to ensure the production of an abundant sward of grass ; 
for, if this be not obtained, the wheat will invariably be found pro- 
portionably deficient. On good lands, which do not require a se¬ 
cond year in grass, it will also be found most advisable to break it 
up after the first years’ crops have been taken off; in which case 
the wheat may be sown, as we have already observed, upon a sin¬ 
gle ploughing, and thus a very considerable expense will be saved 
in the tillage of the ground.”— Br. Hus.. The tilled crops which 
ought to precede, wheat, and which should receive the long ma¬ 
nure, are Indian corn, peas, potatoes, and all ether root crops, and, 
upon a manured old grass ley, it may follow oats, or oats and peas. 
It should be preceded by no other small grain. 
The culture of spring wheat is extending very much among us.— 
Although it gives ordinarily a less product than winter varieties, 
and though the grain be somewhat inferior, yet the crop is more 
certain. In the northern section of this state, in Vermont, Lower 
Canada, &c. it has almost superseded winter wheat, upon fresh 
cleared lands. Several new varieties have been introduced from 
Italy, the Black Sea, &c. which are highly spoken of, but of which 
we cannot speak from personal knowledge. More seed is requir¬ 
ed, of spring wheat, than of wheat sown in autumn. It was the 
opinion of Sir Joseph Banks, that bread made of the flour of spring 
wheat is more nutrititious than that from winter wheat, because 
spring wheat contains a larger quantity of gluten, or half-animal- 
ized matter; and also, that its intrinsic value, by weight, does 
not fall short of the value of winter wheat more than two per 
cent. 
The straw Of wheat is reckoned at double the weight of the 
grain ; an acre producing 24 bushels of grain, of 60 lbs. may there¬ 
fore be presumed to yield about 26 cwt. 
The flour of wheat which is cut before it is quite ripe, is whiter 
thar. that which is allowed to come to maturity, and bears a higher 
price in the markets. The grain intended for the miller should 
therefore be reaped before it has reached its perfect growth ; but 
that which is intended for seed should be allowed to stand until the 
last moment when it can be cut with safety—the corn is ground into 
meal of various degrees of fineness ; and a bushel of 60 lbs. weight 
generally yields, when dressed, about the following quantities, 
namely, 
Fine flour, 25£ lbs. 
Household, do 22| 
Pollards, 8 
Bran, 3 
Of the diseases of wheat, we will now only speak of smut, 
which, we have no doubt is infectious, and that a sure means of 
destroying the infectious matter, and saving the crop from smut, 
is to soak the seed in brine, and then coat it with powdered caus¬ 
tic lime. The brine should be so strong as to buoy up an egg, should 
so cover the seed as to permit the light grain to float and be taken 
off. The seed may be left in the pickle six hours, then taken out, 
spread upon the barn floor, and the lime spread upon it, as much as 
will adhere to the kernels. Some consider it of service to apply 
the lime-before it has cooled from the slaking process. After 
steeping, the seed should be sown within 24 hours. Some farmers 
substitute as a steep, stale urine for brine, in which case the seed 
should not be left in it more than three hours. Messrs. Culley, in 
Northumberland, G. Britain, grew yearly 400 to 600 acres of wheat, 
had only one instance of smut in a practice of forty years, and that 
was when the seed was not steeped. Upon Lord Chesterfield’s 
farm, one half of a peck of very smutty wheat was sown without 
steeping, while the other half was steeped two hours in strong 
brine, and dashed with lime. Two thirds of the crop from the seed 
not steeped was smut, while that from the seed steeped and limed 
had not a smutty ear. Another experiment: A quart of very fine 
wheat free from smut, was thrice washed, and then put into a bag 
for two days in which there had been smutty grain, and a large 
proportion ot this was smutty in the crop; but of twenty acres 
sown with the same grain, not inoculated, not one head was smut¬ 
ty. These proofs might be greatly multiplied, were it deemed ne¬ 
cessary. ___ 
CORRESPONDENCE—CONDENSED. 
The favors of correspondents have so multiplied upon our hands, that we 
find ourselves obliged to resort to this mode of abridging a portion of 
them, in order to give to our readers the usual variety of matter. 
“ Shrewsbury, JY. J . 2mo. 1837. 
«* I have noticed With satisfaction; and solicitude for thy success, the 
earnest endeavoi-s thou hast made, and thy friends, to establish an agricul¬ 
tural and manual labor school, but now fear, that for lack of enlarged 
views, and corresponding zeal in thy fellow-citizens, one will notbejorgan- 
ized in time to place my son in it seasonably.” R. W. 
“ Marcellas, Feb. 14, 1837. 
“ J. Burr,, Esq.—It is matter of astonishment, that the Cultivator and 
other kindred publications are so little appreciated by our farming commu¬ 
nity, and that so many should still content themselves to place the stone in 
one end of the bag to balance the wheat in the other, and congratulate them- 
