WHEAT.
This is the most highly esteemed of all grains, and has more enemies, and is more affected in its growth by the weather, than any other. It has engaged more attention in the study and writings of agriculturists than all other cereals. The outlines only of the results of the vast field of investigation and experiment on wheat-growing can be presented here. There are doubts respecting the origin of wheat. The more general and probable theory is, that it is the product of the cultivation, for a series of years, of a species of grass called Ægilops. This is indigenous on the shores of the Mediterranean, in those countries which, from time immemorial, have been the sources of our wheat. No one has ever found wild wheat in any country; it would be as strange as a wild cabbage or turnip. But the practical question is, How can wheat be most surely and profitably grown? The first requisite is a suitable soil. A clay or limestone soil is usually considered best, as there is much lime in wheat-bran. Such soil is better than light sand, or some of the poorer loams. But the large yields of wheat on the Western prairies, and on the rich alluvial soils of California river-bottoms, shows that the best of wheat may grow on other than clay lands. The truth of the matter respecting soils for wheat, is, that any soil good for corn, potatoes, or a garden, may, with proper tillage, produce the best of wheat. Experience in England, and in all the old countries on the continent of Europe, shows us that old land may be made to yield as large crops of wheat as the virgin soil of the New World. The production of wheat at suitable intervals, for a century, on the same land, need not lessen its power to produce good wheat in large quantities. Wheat is a plant demanding a rich soil, worked deep, and not too wet: these three things will produce a good crop on any land. We say to all farmers, raise wheat on any land that you can afford to prepare. First, if your land has not a dry subsoil, underdrain it thoroughly: water standing in the soil, and becoming cold or stagnant, is very injurious to wheat. Drainage is hardly more essential to any other crop than this. Next, plow deep. Subsoiling, on most lands, is very important to wheat. Manure highly, and put the manure between the soil and the subsoil: this attracts the roots deep into the soil, which is the greatest protection against winter-killing, and the effects of excessive drought. Render the surface of the soil as fine as possible. A finely-pulverized soil is as essential for wheat as for onions. Coarse lumpy soils are so open to the action of the atmosphere as to render the growth unequal, and cause the roots of the plant to grow too near the surface, for dry weather or the cold of winter. Always apply lime to wheat-lands, unless it be a limestone soil—not too much at once, but a few bushels to the acre annually. On no other crop do wood-ashes and dissolved potash, applied in the coarse manures, pay so well as on wheat. Sowing the seed is next in importance. The three questions in sowing are the manner, the depth, and the quantity. Shall it be drilled or sowed broadcast? Broadcast sowing requires more seed, and is liable to be less evenly covered; hence, we should prefer drilling. The depth of the seed is to be determined by the texture of the soil. Careful experiments have shown, that on clay land there is no perceptible difference in the growth of the plants, at any of the stages, in seed sown at any depth, from a slight covering to three or four inches. At a greater depth, it comes up less regularly, and in every way is in a worse condition. But on a light soil, it is, no doubt, best to plant it from four to six inches deep. On very loose soils, as muck land and alluvial soils, the roots of the plants grow too near the surface, and are exposed to being thrown out by winter frosts, and destroyed. The remedy is deep sowing and thorough rolling. The quantity of seed now more generally sown is from five pecks to two bushels per acre. Rich land will not bear so much seed as the poorer. It will grow so thick as to render the straw tender, and expose it to lodge and ruin the crop. Wheat tillers, or thickens up at the bottom, making many stalks from a single seed, quite as much as any other grain; hence, we believe that if it be sown at a proper time on very rich land, three pecks to the acre would be better than more. Such sowing would make more vigorous plants, with much stronger roots, which would withstand cold and unfavorable weather better than any other. We should still more strongly recommend another form of sowing, practised by some European cultivators with great success: it is, to drill in wheat, in rows two feet apart, and give it a spring cultivation; this gives great strength to the plants, destroys the weeds, promotes rapid growth by stirring the soil, and favors tillering, so that the rows will meet, and give a great growth. We doubt not this will yet be extensively adopted in this country. All wheat-land had better be rolled after sowing, and light lands, with a very heavy roller. Light sandy land, having a little clay mixed in as recommended under soils, well manured, the seed planted six inches deep, and the whole rolled with a heavy roller, will bear great crops of wheat.
As it respects fall or spring wheat, no positive directions can be given, adapted to all climates. In many localities it is of little use to sow winter wheat, as it is very uncertain. In other localities winter wheat almost always succeeds best. This question then must be determined by circumstances. The time of sowing winter wheat varies in different climates, according as it may be exposed to depredations of worms and insects in the fall. Farmers are not liable to mistake in this matter. Spring wheat, in all climates, should be sowed very early. It is hardly possible in all the Middle and Northern states to prepare the ground in spring, and get in wheat in suitable season.
The yield of a crop of spring wheat, depends materially upon the growth in the cool and moist weather of spring, when it spreads and its roots get a strong hold before the hot weather, that hurries up the stalks and ears to maturity. Hence plow in the fall, and harrow in the wheat, as early as possible, in the spring.
The varieties of wheat are numerous and uncertain. In the state of Maine, an intelligent cultivator, in 1856, recommended Java wheat as having a very stiff straw, and producing a very heavy yield. The Mediterranean wheat is also a favorite variety. Club wheat has also had a great run, and is now very popular at the West. But of varieties no one can be confident. We notice in the discussions of the best agriculturists of England and Scotland, that they have doubts of the proper names of some of the best varieties. In a certain rich part of Illinois we know an unusually popular wheat, sold at high prices for seed, under the name of mud club, as being much better than the ordinary club. We happened to learn that it was nothing but common club wheat, sown on rather low ground, where it happened to grow very fair that season. It is only occasionally that such tricks are successfully played, but it is true that many varieties are the result of extra good or chance cultivation. The celebrated Chidham wheat, named from a place where it was successfully grown, was also called Hedge wheat, because a head found growing in a hedge was supposed to be the origin of it. Now it is not probable that that head was the only one of the kind in all the country, and it would by no means be identified in all localities. And as all wheat is the result of the cultivation of the Ægilops or some other wild grass, it shows us that varieties may be produced by cultivation. Great importance is therefore to be attached to frequently changing seed; especially bringing it from colder into warmer climates, and changing from one soil to a very different one. Thus seed raised on hard hills is highly valuable for alluvial soils. Thus the efforts to introduce so many new varieties from the dominions of the sultan, will prove of vast advantage to wheat culture in America. So let us be constantly importing the best from Great Britain and the British provinces and from California, and all the extremes of our own country. Such wheats are worth more for seeds than others, but any extravagant prices for seed wheat, under the idea of almost miraculous powers of production, are unwise.
It would be useless to go into a more extended notice of varieties, as some do best in certain localities, and all are rapidly spread through the dealers, and by the influence of agricultural periodicals. The best time to harvest wheat is when the straw below the head has turned yellow, and the grain is so far out of the milk as not to be easily mashed between the fingers, but before it has become hard. The grain is heavier and of better quality, and wastes far less in harvesting, than when allowed to ripen and dry standing in the field. Drying in good shocks is far better than drying before cut. Some have gone to extremes in early cutting, and harvested their wheat while in the milk, and suffered serious loss in its weight. We sometimes have rain in harvest, which causes all the wheat in a large region to grow before getting it dry enough to house. A remedy is, to go right on and cut your wheat, rain or shine, and put it up, without binding, in large cocks of from three to five bushels, packing together as close as possible, however wet, and cover the centre with a bundle of wheat to shed rain. It will dry out without growing; and, although the straw will be somewhat mouldy, the grain will be perfectly good, even when it has been so wet as to make the top of the shocks perfectly green with grown wheat. This process is of great value in a wet season. To prepare seed-wheat for sowing, soak it for a day or two in very strong brine; skim off all that rises; remove the grain from the brine, and while wet, sift on fresh-slaked lime until it slightly coats the whole grain; put on a little plaster to render the sowing more pleasant to the hand. Wheat will lie in this condition for days without injury. So prepared, it will exhibit a marked superiority in the growing crop.
Enemies of wheat are numerous, and various remedies are proposed. The wire-worm is sometimes very destructive. Wheat planted with a drill, with a heavy cast-iron roller behind each tooth, will not suffer by them; they will only work in the mellow ground between the drills. Drive over a field of wheat exposed to injury from wire-worms with a common ox-cart, and you will notice a marked difference; wherever the cartwheel passed over, the wheat remains unharmed by the wire-worm, while on either side much of it will be destroyed. But the wheat-midge, or weevil, is the great enemy, rendering the cultivation of wheat in some localities useless. One precaution is, to get the wheat forward so early and fast as to have it out of the way before they destroy it. This is often done by early sowing, high fertilization, and warm land. Sometimes wheat is too late for them, and then a good crop is secured. But this can only be relied on in cool, moist climates. Our hot, dry seasons are not suitable for wheat, late enough to be out of the way of the weevil. The great remedy for this enemy is his destruction. Burning the chaff at thrashing is useless for this purpose. The worm has entered the ground to remain for the winter, before the wheat is harvested. We know of but one way to kill the weevil, and that is, by insect lamps or torches in the field in the evening. The flies are inactive until evening, when, from dusk till eight or nine o'clock, they deposite their eggs in the blossoms and chaff of the wheat. Now, it is ascertained that this fly, like many other insects, will fly several rods to a light. Twenty-five torches at equal distances, in a ten-acre lot of wheat, would be near enough. Nearly all the flies in a field would fly to them in half an hour. These need be lighted only on pleasant evenings, as weevils will not work in wind or rain, and they only commit their depredations during the time the wheat is in blossom. Let twenty-five racks, or holders of some kind, be put up on ten acres of wheat, and have pitch-pine put in them and ignited, after the manner of night fishermen, and let this be done a few nights, during the blossoming season of wheat, and the fly will be destroyed and the crop saved, in the worst weevil-season that ever occurred. In the absence of pitch-pine, some other light can be devised—as, balls of rags dipped in turpentine and sulphur, as in a torchlight procession. Something can be devised that will burn brilliantly for an hour: this will not cost fifty cents an acre, during the weevil-season, and will prove almost a perfect remedy.
Rust in wheat is only avoided by getting your wheat to maturity before the rust strikes it. If it is nearly mature, and the rust strikes it, cut it and shock it up in the shortest time possible.
Wheat is a great subject in agriculture, on which many volumes have been written, and on which it is customary to write long articles. We trust the recapitulation of what we have said, in the following brief rules, is more valuable to the practical wheat-culturist than any large volume could be. Analyses of wheat-bran and straw, the philosophy of rust in wheat, the length, size, and color of the weevil, and the great diversity of opinions on wheat-growing, are not what practical men regard. The one question is, How can I grow wheat surely and profitably? The following rules answer this important question, rendering failure unnecessary:—
1. Make your soil very rich, putting the manure as deep as convenient. Apply lime, wood-ashes, and potash, the latter dissolved and applied to your coarse manure.
2. Under-drain thoroughly all wheat-land, except that on a dry subsoil.
3. Plow deep and subsoil all wheat-lands, except those on a gravelly or sandy bottom.
4. Plant wheat from two to six inches deep, according to the texture of the soil—deepest on the lightest soil. Roll after sowing, and roll light lands with a heavy roller.
5. Always get your wheat in early, and in a finely-pulverized soil, and be careful not to seed too heavy.
6. Sow seed that has not long been grown in your vicinity, and steep it two days, before sowing, in a brine, with as much salt as the water will dissolve, sifting fine, fresh lime over the wet grain, after removing it from the brine; put on, also, plaster-of-Paris or wood-ashes.
7. Harvest wheat before the straw becomes dry, or the grain hard.
8. Destroy weevil by lights in the field, on the pleasant evenings during the blossoming season.