Agriculture for Beginners Part 19

The proper time for harvesting is not easily fixed; one becomes skillful in this work only through experience in the field. Briefly, we may say that tobacco is ready to be cut when the leaves on being held up to the sun show a light or golden color, when they are sticky to the touch, and when they break easily on being bent. Plants that are overripe are inferior to those that are cut early.

The operations included in cutting, housing, drying, shipping, sweating, and packing require skill and practice.

SECTION x.x.xVII. WHEAT

Wheat has been cultivated from earliest times. It was a chief crop in Egypt and Palestine, and still holds its importance in the temperate portions of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 192. A HAND]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 193. WHEAT HEADS]

This crop ranks third in value in the United States. It grows in cool, in temperate, and in warm climates, and in many kinds of soil. It does best in clay loam, and worst in sandy soils. Clogged and water-soaked land will not grow wheat with profit to the farmer; for this reason, where good wheat-production is desired the soil must be well drained and in good physical condition--that is, the soil must be open, crumbly, and mellow.

Clay soils that are hard and lifeless can be made valuable for wheat-production by covering the surface with manure, by good tillage, and by a thorough system of crop-rotation. Cowpeas and other legumes make a most valuable crop to precede wheat, for in growing they add atmospheric nitrogen to the soil, and their roots loosen the root-bed, thereby admitting a free circulation of air and adding humus to the soil. Moreover, the legumes leave the soil with its grains fairly close packed, and this is a help in wheat growing.

One may secure a good seed-bed after cotton and corn as well as after cowpeas and other legumes. They are summer-cultivated crops, and the clean culture that has been given them renders the surface soil mellow and the undersoil firm and compact. They are not so good, however, as cowpeas, since they add no atmospheric nitrogen to the soil, as all leguminous crops do.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 194. ROOTS OF A SINGLE WHEAT PLANT]

From one to two inches is the most satisfactory depth for planting wheat. The largest number of seeds comes up when planted at this depth.

A mellow soil is very helpful to good coming up and provides a most comfortable home for the roots of the plant. A compact soil below makes a moist undersoil; and this is desirable, for the soil water is needed to dissolve plant food and to carry it up through the plant, where it is used in building tissue.

There are a great many varieties of wheat: some are bearded, others are smooth; some are winter and others are spring varieties. The smooth-headed varieties are most agreeable to handle during harvest and at threshing-time. Some of the bearded varieties, however, do so well in some soils and climates that it is desirable to continue growing them, though they are less agreeable to handle. No matter what variety you are accustomed to raise, it may be improved by careful seed-selection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 195. SELECTING WHEAT SEED]

The seed-drill is the best implement for planting wheat. It distributes the grains evenly over the whole field and leaves the mellow soil in a condition to catch what snow may fall and secure what protection it affords.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 196. ADJOINING WHEAT FIELDS The yield of the lower field, forty-five bushels per acre, is due to intelligent farming]

In many parts of the country, because not enough live stock is raised, there is often too little manure to apply to the wheat land. Where this is the case commercial fertilizers must be used. Since soils differ greatly, it is impossible to suggest a fertilizer adapted to all soils.

The elements usually lacking in wheat soils are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. The land may be lacking in one of these plant foods or in all; in either case a maximum crop cannot possibly be raised. The section on manuring the soil will be helpful to the wheat-grower.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 197. A BOUNTIFUL CROP OF WHEAT]

It should be remembered always in buying fertilizers for wheat that whenever wheat follows cowpeas or clover or other legumes there is seldom need of using nitrogen in the fertilizer; the tubercles on the pea or clover roots will furnish that. Hence, as a rule, only potash and phosphoric acid will have to be purchased as plant food.

The farmer is a.s.sisted always by a study of his crop and by a knowledge of how it grows. If he find the straw inferior and short, it means that the soil is deficient in nitrogen; but on the other hand, if the straw be luxuriant and the heads small and poorly filled, he may be sure that his soil contains too little phosphoric acid and potash.

=EXERCISE=

Let the pupils secure several heads of wheat and thresh each separately by hand. The grains should then be counted and their plumpness and size observed. The practical importance of this is obvious, for the larger the heads and the greater the number of grains, the larger the yield per acre. Let them plant some of the large and some of the small grains. A single test of this kind will show the importance of careful seed-selection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 198 A WIDELY GROWN CROP]

SECTION x.x.xVIII. CORN

When the white man came to this country he found the Indians using corn; for this reason, in addition to its name _maize_, it is called _Indian corn_. Before that time the civilized world did not know that there was such a crop. The increase in the yield and the extension of the acres planted in this strictly American crop have kept pace with the rapid and wonderful growth of our country. Corn is king of the cereals and the most important crop of American agriculture. It grows in almost every section of America. There is hardly any limit to the uses to which its grain and its stalks are now put. Animals of many kinds are fed on rations into which it enters. Its grains in some form furnish food to more people than does any other crop except possibly rice. Its stalk and its cob are manufactured into many different and useful articles.

A soil rich in either decaying animal or vegetable matter, loose, warm, and moist but not wet, will produce a better crop of corn than any other. Corn soil should always be well tilled and cultivated.

The proper time to begin the cultivation of corn is before it is planted. Plow well. A shallow, worn-out soil should not be used for corn, but for cowpeas or rye. After thorough plowing, the harrow--either the disk or spring-tooth--should be used to destroy all clods and leave the surface mellow and fine. The best results will be obtained by turning under a clover sod that has been manured from the savings of the barnyard.

When manure is not available, commercial fertilizers will often prove profitable on poor lands. Careful trials will best determine how much fertilizer to an acre is necessary, and what kinds are to be used. A little study and experimenting on the farmer's part will soon enable him to find out both the kind and the amount of fertilizer that is best suited to his land.

The seed for this crop should be selected according to the plan suggested in Section XIX.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 199. CORN SHOCKED FOR THE SHREDDER]

The most economical method of planting is by means of the horse planter, which, according to its adjustment, plants regularly in hills or in drills. A few days after planting, the cornfield should be harrowed with a fine-tooth harrow to loosen the top soil and to kill the gra.s.s and the weed seeds that are germinating at the surface. When the corn plants are from a half inch to an inch high, the harrow may again be used. A little work before the weeds sprout will save many days of labor during the rest of the season, and increase the yield.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 200. THE DIFFERENCE IS DUE TO TILLAGE]

Corn is a crop that needs constant cultivation, and during the growing season the soil should be stirred at least four times. This cultivation is for three reasons:

1. To destroy weeds that would take plant food and water.

2. To provide a mulch of dry soil so as to prevent the evaporation of moisture. The action of this mulch has already been explained.

3. Because "tillage is manure." Constant stirring of the soil allows the air to circulate in it, provides a more effective mulch, and helps to change unavailable plant food into the form that plants use.

Deep culture of corn is not advisable. The roots in their early stages of growth are shallow feeders and spread widely only a few inches below the surface. The cultivation that destroys or disturbs the roots injures the plants and lessens the yield. We cultivate because of the three reasons given above, and not to stir the soil about the roots or to loosen it there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 201.]

In many parts of the country the cornstalks are left standing in the fields or are burned. This is a great mistake, for the stalks are worth a good deal for feeding horses, cattle, and sheep. These stalks may always be saved by the use of the husker and shredder. Corn after being matured and cut can be put in shocks and left thus until dry enough to run through the husker and shredder. This machine separates the corn from the stalk and husks it. At the same time it shreds tops, leaves, and b.u.t.ts into a food that is both nutritious and palatable to stock.

For the amount that animals will eat, almost as much feeding value is obtained from corn stover treated in this way as from timothy hay. The practice of not using the stalks is wasteful and is fast being abandoned. The only reason that so much good food is being left to decay in the field is because so many people have not fully learned the feeding value of the stover.

=EXERCISE=

To show the effect of cultivation on the yield of corn, let the pupils lay off five plats in some convenient field. Each plat need consist of only two rows about twenty feet long. Treat each plat as follows:

Plat 1. No cultivation: let weeds grow.

Plat 2. Mulch with straw.

Plat 3. Shallow cultivation: not deeper than two inches and at least five times during the growing season.

Plat 4. Deep cultivation: at least four inches deep, so as to injure and tear out some of the roots (this is a common method).

Plat 5. Root-pruning: ten inches from the stalk and six inches deep, prune the roots with a long knife. Cultivate five times during the season.

Observe plats during the summer, and at husking-time note results.