eleven and fourteen feet. The wheat drill is made in three drills, (2) disk drills, and (3) drills The drill with runners also usually general forms: (1) hoe with runners or shoes. has a wheel behind each runner which is designed to press the earth firmly about the seed. Wheels are also sometimes used on disk drills. Where these wheels are used they are known as press drills. The broadcast grain seeder. The first form of drill is made with shovels, called hoes, which open the ground and permit the seed to be introduced in a stream into the soil behind each hoe. The hoe drills will operate under a larger number of conditions, but are heavy of draft and are liable to clog when the soil contains much rubbish. The disk drills draw easier, and are not so liable to be clogged with rubbish, but are not so well adapted to stony or hilly land and will not work so well in wet soil. The drills with runners have not been extensively Grain drill. Three methods employed in opening employed. The hoes are the soil for the introduction of the seed are shown below. made so as to run either or eight inches seven apart. When the hoes are seven inches apart, nine, ten and eleven hoes, and when eight inches apart, six and eight hoes, are standard sizes. There is no evidence to show that one width of seeding is better than another. Eight-inch drills are less liable to clog with rubbish than seven-inch, although the zigzag arrangement on both sizes lessens the importance of this difference. Wheat drills may be purchased with and without grass seeder attached, and with and without fertilizer drill. The grass seeder scatters the seed broadcast either in front or behind the drills as preferred, while the fertilizer is conveyed into the ground by the same channel as the grain. There are a number of different methods of conveying the grain and the fertilizers from their respective hoppers, most of which are satisfactory. Those forms which vary the amount sown by means of variation in the sizes of cog wheels used are probably the best. These drills are usually intended to sow the seeds of all ordinary field crops. The hand seeder. 136. Cultivation.-The cultivation of wheat much as we cultivate maize in this country was formerly vigorously advocated and somewhat practiced in England. This practice has never been common in the United States, and only one station (Alabama) out of seven which have reported trials has found it beneficial as compared with the usual method. In most cases it has been found decidedly detrimental. A number of stations have reported in favor of harrowing wheat drilled in the ordinary manner one or two weeks after seeding. The Ohio Station reports that harrowing winter wheat in the spring did no harm. 137. Rolling.-Winter wheat may be rolled in the spring, when there is much heaving of soil, in order to pack the soil about the roots. The cost of thus smoothing the surface may often be repaid by the increased facility with which the crop can be harvested. When grass seed is sown with the grain, rolling should never be neglected. VI. WHEAT. I. WEEDS, FUNGOUS DISEASES AND INSECT ENEMIES. 138. Weeds. A great variety of weeds occur in the wheat field which may reduce the yield or injuriously affect the quality of the grain. In general they are to be avoided by those conditions which best promote the growth of wheat, and by sowing wheat that is free from foreign seeds. There are a few species of plants that are so associated with the raising of wheat as to deserve special mention. The presence of a considerable quantity of any of these weeds in a wheat field must, of course, somewhat reduce the yield of wheat. But the principal injury, perhaps, is in the reduction in the quality of the grain, due to the presence of the weed seeds. (1) Chess or cheat (Bromus secalinus L.) (2) Darnel (Lolium temulentum L.) (3) Cockle (Agrostemma githago L.) (4) Wild garlic (Allium vineale L.) (5) Wheat-thief (Lithospermum arvense L.) 139. CHESS.-Chess belongs to a different tribe (Festuceae) of the grass family from that of wheat (Hordeae), which includes, also, some of our best known pasture and meadow grasses. It is an annual and so closely resembles wheat while young as not to be distinguished from it by the ordinary observer. It will stand more cold than the wheat plant, is not attacked by insects especially injurious to wheat, is a less vigorous grower than the wheat plant, but is much more prolific than wheat when its development is not prevented by the growth of the more vigorous wheat plant. The author sowed one pound of chess on one-twentieth of an acre and reaped ninety-nine pounds of seed. A single plant has been known to produce 3,000 seeds. The seeds which adhere to the paleae are so small that a pound of chess may contain as many seeds as a bushel of wheat. Experiment has shown that chess seed will grow when sown, and that the young plants can be distinguished from wheat plants. It has also been shown that when wheat only is sown in clean ground only wheat is obtained; that when wheat and chess are sown both wheat and chess are obtained, and when chess only is sown only chess is obtained. It has been shown further that in order to obtain seed from chess, chess must be sown the pre ceding fall. When sown in the spring it does not produce seed for the same reason that winter ye and winter wheat do not. It is not found, therefore, in any but fall sown crops, and is less abundant in rye than wheat, because of the greater hardiness of rye as compared with wheat. The above habits are sufficient to explain the abundant development of this plant in wheat which has been injured by winter killing or by the Hessian fly when the sowing of clean seed has not been continuously practiced. The introduc tion of chess seed in the grain seriously injures its market value, as the chess must be removed before the wheat is ground. The machinery for this purpose in large milling establishments has reached great perfection. Hackel says that flour containing an admixture of chess will be dark colored, remain moist and Chess can be removed rather readily from the seed wheat by the ordinary fanning mills. When wheat is treated for smut, if the grains are stirred in the solu tion, any remaining chess seeds will come to the surface and can be skimmed off. Chess. (One-fourth natural size.) is narcotic. 140. DARNEL.-Darnel belongs to the same tribe of grasses as wheat, to the same genus as perennial and Italian rye grass. Unlike these grasses, however, it is an annual. It occurs in grain crops of Europe and is also reported occurring in wheat fields of California, where it is known as chess. This plant is supposed to be the "tares" spoken of in the Bible. Like chess it is said to contain a narcotic principle which causes eruptions, tremb Cockle. (One-fourth natural size) ling and confusion of sight in man, and in flesh-eating animals, and very strongly in rabbits, but does not affect swine, horned cattle or ducks.2 Darnel may be removed from wheat intended for seed by the same method as chess. 1 The True Grasses, p. 168. 2 Ibid, p. 173 141. COCKLE.--Cockle is a widely and anciently distributed weed of the wheat field, belonging to the pink family (Caryophyllaceae). It grows from one to two feet high and is readily distinguished by its large pink blossom. Its seeds are black, angular, kidney-shaped, one-half to one-eighth of an inch across, marked with spiny reticulations arranged in rows around the curved side of the seeds. They are quite injurious to flour, and as they are readily seen in the grain, reduce the commercial value of the wheat. They are so near the size and weight of wheat grains as to be removed with difficulty. They may remain in the ground several years without germinating. As the plant is rather conspicuous and its number usually not relatively large, they may be pulled from the growing wheat. 142. WILD GARLIC.-This weed is sometimes found in the wheat fields of eastern United States. It grows one to three feet high and bears a cluster of bulblets in place of seed. When these bulb Wild garlic. (One-fourth natural size.) lets are ground with the wheat the flour is spoiled. Careful screening will remove the bulblets from the wheat. If the land is badly infested, it should be put into cultivated crops for at least two years. 143. WHEAT-THIEF.-This winter annual is also known as bastard alkanet, corn gromwell, redroot, pigeonweed. It grows six to twelve inches high and has narrow rough hairy leaves. It bears a large number of inconspicuous whitish flowers in a leaf cluster in March and April. The seeds are hard and stony, dark. one-tenth of an inch long, roughened, conical with a narrow base, and borne in fours in the axils of the leaves. The plant is very hard to destroy, without destroying the wheat crop, which may in some cases be advisable. It is probably less of a pest to the wheat than it is to the subsequent meadows Badly infested (After Selby.) fields should be put into cultivated crops. Wheat-thief. B, seed enlarged. 144. WILD MUSTARD.-There are two mustards, black mustard (Brassica nigra, (L.) Koch) and wild mustard or charlock (B. sinapistrum L.) found growing in spring |