Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1891 — REAL RURAL READING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

REAL RURAL READING

WILL BE FOUND IN THIS DEPARTMENT. Wheat Is a Money Crop If Bandied Properly—A Swinging Farm Gate About Sheep and (logs-The Dairy and Poultry Yard—A Cold Box In a Well—Domestic Hints, Etc. Winter Wheat as a Money Crop.

WHEAT is a money | crop, writes Isaac j E. Squire to the j Practical Farmer, j from Lorainl V County, Ohi o. j \ Good §eod is uec- \ essary in order i \to have a paying J >lOll crop. It must be good both in kind L / andquality; must it have still straws so as to stand up well and should be a kind which sis free from attacks from weevil. We should be careful to have ••"J it clean from

chess, rye and cockle. If wo should be i so unfortunate as to sow foul seed, I tind it the best way to go through the field and pull up the rye and cockle, which is much better than to leave it in the wheat to ripen. We can get rid of it very easy in this way. by going through the field every six or eight weeks. I think it a very good plan to tako the bulletins put out by the State Experimental Stations as a guide in choosing seed wheat, and select the kind that does the best by them for a number of years and give it a thorough test. As regards selecting and fitting ground for the seed, I almost always sow after oats, instead of summer fallow, for the reason that two crops pay better than one: or take a clover sod or sow after corn. But sowing after' corn makes it rather late; yet sometimes we get a very good crop in this way, I plow the land as soon as I can get the oats off, or if clover, as soon as second crop is largo enough for best results, so as to lot the land get well packed down before sowing. I find that land plowed early, say last of July or first of August, is In better condition for wheat than that plowed just before sowing. Land plowed early needs to be thoroughly harrowed, so as to get a good, mellow seed-bed; but not toodeep, twoor three inches is deep enough. My wheat does the best where it follows oats, which In their turn followed corn, which had been well covered with stable manure before planting. I like to sow wheat here in Northern Ohio, from the Bth to the 15th of September, when everything is favorable. From two to three hundred pounds of phosphate should be used. I would use the same amount even if sown after clover, unless I had barn-yard manure to cover the land, for I do not depend on the clover to insure a first-class crop. I sowed a piece of land to wheat as an experiment, sowing one and one-half bushels to the acre one way and then cross sowing with the same amount the other way, putting on 200 pounds of phosphate to the acre each way. It did the best of any wheat that I ever raised. It yielded at the rate of forty-four bushels to the acre. I let my wheat got middling ripo before harvesting, so as to be able to draw It into the barn soon after cutting, and not run the risk of “catching” weather. I do not like to stack wheat, on account of the risk one runs of getting it injured by wet weather, but rather put the wheat in the barn and leave the hay out in stacks until after threshing. After the grain is threshed then hay may be drawu in. Wheat should not be threshed until after it sweats in the mow, so as not to sweat in the bin and leave the grain musty. We should bo very careful to get the fields well drained, cither by surface or underdrainage, for we cannot expect to raise any wheat where the ground is saturated with water.

Swinging: Farm Crate. The accompanying sketch represents a swing gate, made of boards six inches wide and of whatever length is desired. The cross pieces on back end are 2x6ineb stuff. Two of th"m, with the side

boards, form a kind of square tube arouud the post, closed at the upper end by a piece of 2-inch plank, six inches squaie. This rests and turns upon the slightly rounded end of nosL The box in back is for ballast. The latch can be worked with spring, or in any other convenient way.—[Practical Farmer.