Winter wheat

“ The well-known division of wheats into spring and winter wheats has reference to their resistance to cold, but also to ability to mature their seed in a single, short growing season. The grasses from which the cereals are derived are perennials while the cultivated cereals are, on the whole, annuals. The ideal climate for wheat is one with a mild winter, a cool and moist spring conducive to abundant development of the vegetative part of the plant, followed by a warm, dry summer for rapid ripening of the grain. ”

“ The common varieties of hard _spring wheats _are grown principally in districts where winter wheats have not as yet been successful; that is, in the Dakotas, northwestern Nebraska, and other localities with long winters and periods of alternate thawing and severe freezing. The superior value of winter wheat has been so clearly demonstrated that attempts are being made to develop in every locality winter wheats that can endure the prevailing climatic conditions. Spring wheats are also grown in a scattering way and in small quantities over the whole dry-farm territory. ”

“ In some of the drier sections of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, where the annual rainfall is around 15 inches, hard red winter wheat is well adapted also and successfully competes with several other classes of wheat. The hard winter wheats also are quite important in Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana and are practically the only winter wheats which will survive the extreme winter temperatures. ”

“ Wheats which in their proper latitudes withstand the low temperature of winter without injury are known as winter wheats. True winter wheats are "winter annuals" only and will not ripen seed when sown in the spring. They are sown in the fall, and germinate and form roots before the onset of cold weather. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is little if any difference in the nutriment or value of spring and winter wheat. Some prefer the one and some the other. Southern raised wheat is apt to be drier than northern and will better stand the effects of warm climates. ”

“ Starting in the spring with a partly developed root system they make a vigorous, early growth. They ordinarily show a higher yield, are more likely to escape rust, and mature their grain earlier than the spring sown wheats. The spring wheats are more tender varieties that complete their growth in one season and in spite of a later start mature their grains. In northern latitudes only spring wheats can be grown. In mild climates both spring and winter wheats may be grown from fall sowing. ”

“ Winter wheat, you are aware, in the freezing and thawing season, is apt to heave out. It is desirable to bury the seed a uniform and proper depth and to throw over the young plant such an amount of soil that it shall not heave with the freezing and thawing. ”

“ Spring wheat has a thinner and more tender bran, makes more middlings because it is harder, and for the same reason the flour is more inclined to be coarse and granular. In milling with winter wheat, especially the better varieties, there will be more break flour made, the middlings will be finer with fewer bran specks, and the bran more easily cleaned, because it will stand harsher treatment. ”

“ It is quite clear that these wheats will soon displace the older winter wheats formerly grown on dry-farms. Turkey wheat promises to become the leading dry-farm wheat. The semisoft winter wheats are grown chiefly in the intermountain country. They are represented by a very large number of varieties, all tending toward softness and starchiness. This may in part be due to climatic, soil, and irrigation conditions, but is more likely a result of inherent qualities in the varieties used. They are rapidly being displaced by hard varieties. ”

“ But as Wheat requires to have the Earth lie harder on and about it, in the Winter; so it also requires more Dung (or somewhat else) to dissolve the Earth about its Roots, after the cold Winter is past, than Rye doth, whose Roots never were so much confined.
’Tis another general Rule, that all Sorts of Vegetables thrive best, when sown on fresh till’d Ground, immediately after ’tis plow’d. ”

“ Taking the winter-wheat territory as a whole, winter killing has occurred to an extent very much greater than usual. This, obviously, if not compensated for in some way, will mean a material reduction in the supplies of our most important bread cereal. Where winter wheat has been damaged sufficiently to justify the abandonment of fields, it should by all means be replaced by spring-planted food crops, preferably small grains or corn. ”

“ Turkey Wheat, originally from South Russia, the Crimea, etc., is now the leading hard winter wheat of the United States and endures well the low winter temperature of the Northwestern States, except where the climate is very severe, as in North Dakota. ”

“ It must be remarked that the grains of the East could not withstand the severe winters in a large part of the Northwest, so the Department of Agriculture sent men all over the world to find drought-and-cold-resisting grains. They found a hard winter wheat, the most nutritious in existence, which is now growing all the way from the Dakotas to the Pacific Ocean, producing crops far above the yield of the eastern states. 50,000,000 bushels of this wheat was raised in 1907. ”

“ Nothing in the way of weather will kill wheat, except continuous heavy rain in winter, where the land is undrained, and stagnant water collects. I have seen it in May lying flat on the ground after a severe spring frost, but in a day or two it would pick up again as if nothing had happened. And I have seen beans, 2 feet high, cut down and doubled up, revive and rear up their heads quite happily, though at harvest the exact spot in every stalk could be seen where the wound had taken place. ”

“ It is cheering in late autumn and early winter when no other young growth is to be seen on the farm, suddenly to find the field covered with the fresh shoots of the wheat in regular lines, and to notice how, after its first appearance, it makes little further upright growth for a time, but spreads laterally over the ground as the roots extend downwards. ”

“ Wheat should be sown as soon as may be after the end of September, so that the young plant may come up and establish itself, while the soil is yet warm from the summer sun, and before the winter frosts set in. The wheat spends the winter in root development, and does not make much show above ground until the spring. ”

“ Shelter is a great Benefit to Wheat; but yet Nourishment is more: for in the Winter I see the Wheat-plants upon the most exposed Part of the Ridge flourish, when single Plants in the Bottom of the Furrow are in a very poor languishing Condition, without any Annoyance of Water, they being upon a Chalk Bottom.
[119] Frost, if it does not kill the Wheat, is of great Benefit to it; Water or Moisture, when it is frozen in the Earth, takes up more Room than in its natural State; this Swelling of the Ice (which is Water congealed) must move and break the Earth wherewith it is mixt ”

“ Now it is obvious that spring corn is free from the frosts of winter, and much more so from those of spring than the corn which is sown in autumn. Wheat is a very hardy plant, but it suffers probably more severely from the vernal than the winter frosts. If the season is mild the vessels of the young wheat begin to fill with fluids as early as the latter end of February or beginning of March ”

“ A very effectual Means to prevent the failing of a Crop of Wheat, is to plow the pulveriz’d Earth for Seed early, and when ’tis dry. The early Season also is more likely to be dry than the latter Season is.
1. The Advocate for the old Method is commonly late in his sowing; because he can’t fallow his Ground early, for fear of killing the Couch, and other Grass that maintains his folding Sheep, which are so necessary to his Husbandry: 2. And when ’tis sow’d late, it must not be sow’d dry, for then the Winter might kill the young Wheat. ”

“ The defect is owing, not to the rigor of the winter, still less to the depth of snow, which, on the contrary, is found to protect and cherish vegetable growth, but is ascribed to severe frosts, violent and chilling rains, occurring after the snow has left the ground, and the plants have made some progress. An opinion is entertained that, with good management, autumn wheat might be raised with success. The British American Land Company have decidedly adopted this idea, and some successful experiments have been made. ”

“ Sometimes, when escaping the winter, the high winds of spring blow this light soil from the roots, exposing them to such an extent, that, in a dry time in particular, the wheat often perishes. When breaking up fresh prairies, there was much encouragement and promise of hope, but which, I believe, has not been, nor is likely to be, realized by their husbandmen, in the degree that early experiments induced them to look for. ”

“ Wheat is much easier thrashed here than in England, owing to the dryness of the {284} climate. I saw some thrashed without untying the sheaves, and the straw was quite clean. I was informed a man could thrash fifteen bushels of that wheat a-day; it appeared to yield well. Wheat and other grain damage much sooner, in wet weather, in this country, than in England, from the greater heat of the climate. Indian corn, on the contrary, will remain out the greater part of the winter, and sustain but little damage from the weather. ”

“ Those that are tender called spring wheats, sown in spring, and the winter sorts that are sown in autumn, remain on the ground through the winter and are harvested the subsequent summer. The winter wheats are the more valuable and bring a higher price than the spring varieties. Some wheats have long awns to the flowers, and are termed bearded, while other sorts are nearly or entirely awnless, and are sometimes styled bald. There is a great variation in the size and color of the grain. ”

“ November may be considered as the commencement of our winter: the season now grows cold and rainy, and the wheat which at that time remains in a heavy, strong and undrained soil, or which just peeps through the surface, has many sad vicissitudes of weather to encounter in its first feeble state, and lies a long time exposed to the depredations of hungry birds. ”

“ As the weather cools the rainy season ceases, the air becomes dry, hardening the grain and giving it a colour and hardness which accounts for the splendid quality of Canadian wheat. Even the frost of winter exerts a beneficial influence, as it pulverizes the ground and puts it in ideal condition for the rains of the following season. ”

“ But though Dung in fermenting may have a little Warmth, yet it may sometimes, by letting more Water enter its Hollowness, be in a Frost much colder than undung’d pulverized Earth; for I have seen Wheat-plants in the Winter die in the very Spits of Dung, when undung’d drill’d Wheat, adjoining to it, planted at the same Time, has flourish’d all the same Winter ”

“ The snows, which fall regularly at their proper season in winter, insure a plentiful harvest of the fall grain, wheat and rye, with tolerable husbandry seldom yielding less than twenty bushels per acre. The length of the summer is well adapted to Indian corn, flax, oats, spring barley, summer wheat, tobacco, and vegetables of all kinds. Buckwheat is often sowed with success in the same summer on the ground from whence wheat, rye, or winter barley had been reaped. Perhaps, so far as respects seasons, the interests of husbandry are nowhere better secured than in Pennsylvania. ”

“ They only need to be gradually accustomed to the change, by sowing the autumn wheat a little later, spring wheat a little earlier, year by year.” The fact is that among the immense number of varieties there are some which feel the cold of the winter more than others, and it has become the custom to sow them in the spring.1778 We need take no note of this distinction in studying the question of origin, especially as the greater number of the varieties thus obtained date from a remote period. ”

“ In wheat it far exceeds in yield any part of the United States. The crop never fails by winter killing, by blight or by insects, and produces from ten to more than fifty bushels to the acre of the best wheat I ever saw. ”

“ All their corn is summer-corn; for as the cold in winter destroys the corn which lies in the ground, they never sow in autumn. I found white wheat most commonly in the fields. They have likewise large fields with pease, oats, in some places summer-rye, and now and then barley. Near almost every farm I met with cabbages, pumpions, and melons. The fields are not always sown, but ly fallow every two years. The fallow-fields are not ploughed in summer, so the weeds grow without restraint in them, and the cattle are allowed to go on them all summer53. ”

“ The wheat will not come up until late in the autumn—the plants will be weak and thin on the ground; and if they escape the winter they will not get a fair hold of the ground until April or May. You know the result. The straw is full of sap, and is almost sure to rust; the grain shrinks up, and we harvest the crop, not because it is worth the labor, but because we cannot cut the wheat with a machine on the better parts of the field without cutting these poor spots also. An acre or two of poor spots pull down the average yield of the field below the average of Mr. ”