Winter Wheat

There are two ways even in the most exposed country of saving yonng wheat froni the worst injury by the weather, according to American Cultivator. One is to make the soil rich, the other is like to ifr. and that is to so manage the preparation of a seed bed that most of this fertility will be near the surface, thus insulina a spreading habit of growth both of roots and top. It is often said that wheat needs to get a large top to protect itself rturing the winter. But the character of the top is more important than its size. If wheat is sown during hot woather and spires up without spreading. :s it will in such cases, ifc wil] kill out in winter worse than wheat sown so late that it scarcely had any top. The latter had more root than top. Tlie'iirst had inore top than root. Some of the worst faihires of winter wheat have resulted in pieces that to the inexperienced eyelooked besttlip f all before. Practical grovrers agree thai i!ie land for' seeding with wlieat should be well compacted, with a seed bed made moist and mellow near the snrface. As most wheat is now grown on stnbble ground of spring grain there are only a few weeks possible in which to prepare the seed bed. What can be done to briny such land under the most favorable conditions for seeding? First, plowing should follow the harvesting of the grain as soon as possible. Keep a drag and roller in the field as the stnbblp is tornea under. uu] each day toward night drag and roll down all 1 hal bas been plowed tliat (Jay. There is generally some moisture iu newly turned furrows. If you wait until the whole field is plowed before dragging and rolling down, inost of this moisture has dried out of the upturned furrow. Ouce out there may not come rain enough before the proper seeding time to germinate the grain. There is always some green herbage- weeds if not clover - in grain stubble when it is plowed under. If soil is compacted aboiit this green herbage it rots at oncej not only giving out all the fertility it contains, bnt enabling the soil to be much better compacted than it would otherwise be. Moisture is all important for compacting soil. It presses closer together the particles of earth, but without preventing progress of the roots through them, but rather aiding it. Care should be taken not to work heavy land while very wet, as this may make it .floddy. The authority quoted iu the foregoing says on the subject of fertilizing: "Making the surface soil rich is best done by mineral manures. Their effect is also to harden the soil, as some part of the mineral soon unites with its sand and thus becomes a silicate. It is, however, soluble in the carbonic acid gas which is always present in land where recent showers have brought moisture down. All know how soft newly fallen rainwater is, and how easily it removes dirt from the person. This is due to the carbonic acid gas it contains, which it has absorbed in, passing through the air. This carbonic acid gas is of Tlie greates iniportanee in niaking any kind of seed start vigorously. The sprouting seed fnrnishes some carbonic acid gas, trat every farmer knows that a succession of light rains, enough to wet down one or two inches deep, is of the greatest importance not only to newly sown wheat, butto newly planted seeds of any kind."