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312 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
should, according to the usual custom, be broken three or four 
inches deep, and then be left undisturbed until spring, when in 
order to level its surface, it should be dragged before sowing. 
Some farmers cross-plow such land again in the fall, or in the 
spring, which is always useless and always detrimental, for the 
furrows being cut up into square pieces, the harrow can do 
nothing with, but tumble them about; besides that, wild or un¬ 
cultivated sward, from natural or acquired richness, requires 
but scanty tillage the first year, and even with that, is apt to 
produce too luxuriant crops. However, should cross-plowing 
be adopted, the tame sod ought to have it in preference to the 
wild; for prairie grass is more easily subdued than timothy. 
Ground that has been sown to oats, or planted to corn, if not 
too much exhausted by previous crops, is excellent for wheat; 
the first should be plowed in the fall and the last in the spring, 
as the corn-stalk roots, from the action of frost, will turn over 
better then. As a general rule, wheat ground should be mostly 
prepared in the fall, in order that the crop be put in early in 
the spring, as it has been clearly proved by past experience, 
that early sowing is one of the chief essentials in the growth 
of the wheat crop ; that, beside, prairie land being naturally 
too loose, is not benefitted by spring plowing. 
Seed. —The farmer should be as careful in the selection of 
seed-wheat, as in the preparation of the ground to receive it, 
for the great point is to make them both mutually adapted to 
each other. The seed should be clear, and perfectly free from 
chess and other foreign matter; the same kind should not be 
sown on the same farm for more than four or five years, nor on 
the some field for more than one or two ; however, the same 
kind will last longer and flourish better, if frequently changed, 
and from a more northerly latitude. The Club will yet last an 
indefinite number of years if we could often renew it by a fresh 
supply from Canada; and if so, would it not be sound policy 
for the State Aricultural Society to take this matter in hand, 
and devise some means for accomplishing this important object? 
It is advisable that two or three different varieties be sown, 
