This statement is defective in several very important respects. First, we have no precise description of the soil or preceding crops; Second, we have no account of the season-neither winter or spring; Third, the weight of the grains gathered would have been much more satisfactory than the number of heads. Yet, notwithstanding the imperfection of the statement, it is very evident that the greatest number of stalks mature and the greatest number of heads are produced when the seed is sown from one half to two inches deep.

A case was brought before the Knox County District Court, in which the proper depth of planting wheat was involved, and we present the following account of it, as published in the Ohio Farmer :

DEPTH FOR COVERING WHEAT.-A case has been on trial in the Court of Common Pleas held in Mt. Vernon, Knox county, involving questions quite interesting to farmers, and I will send you for publication the substance of the most important facts elicited.

The suit was upon a contract made between the parties in 1860, by which the plaintiff claimed that the defendant had agreed to put in for him about fifty acres of wheat with a drill, and to do it in a proper manner. A portion of the ground had been in oats-had been plowed very deep, and was sowed in the early part of September; the residue was corn ground —was harrowed and drilled in without plowing, in the latter part of the month; this came up well and made a good crop. The oats ground, equally good soil, made a very poor crop, hardly worth cutting; but a very small portion of it came up.

The witnesses for the plaintiff stated that, upon examination, it was found that the seed had been deposited to the depth of from six to eight inches, and that while much of the seed germinated, very little came through the surface. Around stumps, and in stony places where the drill could not run deep, they said the crop was good.

For the plaintiff it was claimed that wheat should not be sown deeper than three inches. One witness testified-" Where I have had wheat put in deeper than that, after it came up and formed a stool of roots at the surface of the ground, the plant between that and the seed would perish, and the power of the grain is thus exhausted and the plant would show much less vigor. I have examined and experimented until I am satisfied that this is the universal result, &c."

Another witness" Eight years ago I made an experiment to ascertain the proper depth of sowing wheat-deposited 50 seeds at the depth of 8 inches, a like number at 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 inches, and 50 grains I raked in on the surface. Of the seed deposited at 8 inches, two came up, but formed no heads. Of those deposited at 7 inches, about one-fourth came through the ground, but formed no heads. Ten of the fifty seeds planted at 5 inches made defective heads. I had a few perfect heads in the row planted 4 inches deep, but most were defective. I think all planted at 3 inches came up, but the row deposited at 2 inches was the best, and came up sooner than any of the rest." This witness did not state whether the ground was dry at the time he planted his seed, but I infer it must have been, or certainly the seed planted at one inch and raked in on the surface would have been the first to come up.

Another witness-"I should prefer to deposit the seed at the depth of one inch-certainly not deeper than two inches. It is a mistake to suppose that deep seeding is any security from winter-killing. The roots of the plants form at the surface, whatever may be the depth of the seed. But, from frequent examinations, I am satisfied that wheat planted not deeper than two inches will stool out better than that deposited at a greater depth-that is, will produce more plants to a grain."

Wheat.. Bye Oats. Barley

Peas..

Beans.

Buckwheat.

Vetches

For the defendant it was claimed that no contract had been made to put in the grain in a proper manner, but only as well as he knew how. It was also insisted that the wheat was not put in too deep, and most of the witnesses claimed that wheat would produce good crops at 4 inches, or even 5 or 6 inches. It was further claimed that the reason of the difference between the corn ground and that upon which the crops had failed, was to be attributed to the fact that directly after the latter was sowed a heavy shower of rain had formed a crust upon the land so hard that the wheat could not make its way through it!

The soil was described as a dry, loamy, limestone soil, of very good quality for wheat, and yet nearly all the witnesses for the defendant insisted that this crust was the cause of the failure of the crop.

From the facts elicited in this interesting investigation it appears that farmers have no established custom in regard to the proper depth of sowing wheat. Under the old system of broad-cast sowing it was the custom to put on two or two and a half bushels to the acre, which was, if plowed in, deposited at all depths from 1 inch or less to 6 or 7-if only half came up there was still enough for a fair crop. But as the drill puts in all the seed at a uniform depth, it becomes a very important matter that we should hit on a proper depth, as a mistake may lose us the whole crop. It is, perhaps, not common for the ground to be so loose as to allow the drill, whether properly adjusted or not, to run deep; and for this reason, I think farmers seldom pay much attention to the depth at which the drill is running.

At one of the agricultural schools in Germany a series of experiments were instituted and continued for a series of years, and depths stated in the table were found to be the most productive ones for the several kinds of plants and seasons.

Acorns..

It must be evident to every one that crops put in at a uniform depth will grow and ripen more evenly than if put in at irregular depths; hence there is every reason, of a theoretical kind, at least, why wheat crops drilled in should always be better than those put in broad-cast; and yet the contrary, no doubt, is sometimes true in practice, for the following reason, viz: One-half of the wheat in broad-cast sowing falls too deep to germinate, and leaves all the plant food to the germinating half, which latter then, having the normal amount of food, light and heat, matures in perfection, although unevenly. Hence we find many instances of farmers

abandoning drills and returning to broad-cast sowing. The fault is not in drilling, but because they put in too much seed.

If the seeds sown are perfect in every respect, are sown not too thickly, and at a proper depth, on a well-prepared soil, which has been underdrained, or has surface drainage furrows sufficiently close to each other to admit of complete surface drainage of all superabundant water, and sown in good season, the plants then will be healthy and vigorous, and one will be surprised to see the resistance they will be able to make against insects, vegetable parasites, the effects of inclement weather, or, in other words, against "winter-killing."

Thousands of bushels of seed are undoubtedly annually sown which might have been sold in market, but will not germinate, or if they do germinate, produce sickly plants.

The fields selected for wheat should have an exposure ranging from east to south; those fields having a west or north exposure, everything else being equal, do not yield as satisfactory crops as those having an eastern or southern exposure. Fields having a northern or western exposure are more liable to remain wet, freeze harder and deeper; the snow lies longer on them, and throughout the year are cooler and wetter than others. The best time for seeding wheat in Ohio is, as a general thing, from the first to the twentieth of September. Should the autumn prove favorable, and there be a large growth of foliage on the wheat plant, it will be a great benefit, instead of an injury, to turn a flock of sheep on such a field. Care should be taken to keep the sheep in constant motion, and not permit them to eat the plants off at the crown or where the root commences to form. A luxurious growth of leaves in the autumn indicates vigorous, healthy and active roots, and if the leaves are eaten off by sheep (whose bodies are light and their weight does not pack the soil) then tillering or stooling will commence earlier, the entire crop will be thriftier, and ripen more evenly in harvest. Besides, the droppings from the sheep are the best manure for wheat at the farmers' command. In many parts of Europe a harrow is passed over the growing wheat in spring time, and always with marked benefit; but it seems to us that if the wheat is drilled in, and then in spring time some implement narrower than the usual corn cultivator tooth passed between the drills would be much more efficacious than the use of the harrow.

The great point to be secured is ample drainage, both of the surface and under-drains. We have, in Ohio, an average rain fall of about forty inches; of this we have about twelve inches in the spring and nine during the summer months. Ample drainage is required to remove the surplus water in the spring, and, alternating with this amount of rain, are severe droughts,

extending not unfrequently over a period of forty to sixty days. If the grounds are well and deeply plowed the plants suffer comparatively little from drought, and if well drained they suffer very little from the excessive moisture. In periods of either drought or moisture they do not suffer only in vigor and healthy growth, but are more liable to be attacked by fungoid or parasitic growths, which are a species of cellular plants low in the scale of organization, which fix themselves upon other plants and upon their sap or juices. The recent extensive introduction of the microscope among scientific men devoted to agricultural investigations have within a few years brought to light the nature of many of these parasites. On page 450 of this volume will be found a very able article on this subject, relative to the apple, peach and pear blight, by Prof. J. H. Salisbury. Vegetable physiologists are everywhere engaged in these and similar investigations, and their researches and labors throw much light on plant life, by which the intelligent agriculturist may be much benefitted. These investigations have resulted in ascertaining the cause of the potato disease, the disease of the vine, and the silk worm. The task of discovering the cause and remedy of these plant diseases was at first assigned to chemistry; but chemistry was devoting its attention to the ultimate constituents of organic bodies, and not to the vital functions of plants, and, as a matter of course, failed in discovering anything other than the change which had taken place in the organic bodies. But the microscopists were investigating cell struc tures, "primordial utricles," and embryotic forms, and by these means discovered the causes of those diseases.

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Rust, blight, bunt, smut and ergot, or "spurred rye," are specimens of these parasitic fungi, and seldom attack vigorous and healthy plants, any more than lice attack healthy and well-fed cattle. That farmer's cattle which are well fed, well housed, and in perfect health, seldom are "lousy,' while those that are left to shift for themselves, are ill-fed or half-starved, and not sheltered, are almost sure to be "lousy." Just so with plants; those grown in a properly prepared soil, sown in good season, and from choice seed, will seldom be attacked by disease; whilst those, on the other hand, sown in a wet, stiff, or improperly drained soil, sown late in the season, and of indifferent or defective seed, will be just as sure, sooner or later, to be attacked by the fungi, as that an ill-cared for calf will get lousy or an ill-fed and managed colt will get mangy. It is, therefore, much better to allow a field to lie fallow than endeaver to force it to bear a crop for which it is unsuited, both in its position or lay, and structure and character of soil. That farmer will always be successful, other things being equal, who carefully selects his fields and cultivates them properly in such crops as they are best adapted to grow.

We have alluded to the importance of fully understanding the produc tion of varieties, and in order to present this matter more fully and clearly a few pages will be devoted to

THE HYBRIDIZATION OF PLANTS AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN AGRICULTURE.

Few processes in the organic world are as interesting to the attentive observer as the impregnation of plants by which they are enabled to mul tiply in the natural way. A knowledge of this physiological process must be of the greatest importance to the intelligent farmer, because he will obtain, by a repetition of this process, seeds endowed with full power of reproduction.

That impregnation is one of the chief processes in the household of plants was known before the days of Linnæus, and this great physiologist himself based his artificial sexual system upon the impregnating and sexual organs of plants. In his work, "Sponsalia Plantarum," the first were thorough researches and facts, by which he proves the existence of the sexes of plants, are fully stated, and he delineates a theory of impregnation; but the botanists of more recent times reject the existence of a male and female sex as imaginary, and assert that the sexes in plants have, at most, a very slight semblance to those in animal life. After Linnæus, all prominent botanists have entered upon this field of investigation, and more especially in our own times we owe many interesting revelations to the researches of that eminent physiologist, Schleiden.

Before proceeding with the subject of hybridization, it may be necessary briefly to explain to the reader the organs of propagation and the process of impregnation among plants, this not being the proper place for giving a complete organology of plants.

The flower, bloom or blossom of any plant is a combination of the impregnating organs, and their capsules.

The capsules consist of the calyx and the coralla, and are a part of the blossom not essentially necessary for impregnation; but they seem only to be destined to protect the proper fructifying organs.

The impregnating organs consist of:

a, the anther; b, the pistil or style, as support of the stigma; and C, receptacle.

the

The stamen is again divided into three parts: 1, the stamen, as support of the (2) anther, which contains (3) the pollen. (See Report for 1861, page 224.)

The stamen is generally of a cylindrical shape, bears at its upper extremity the anther, which is generally divided into two receptacles, which bursts at the maturity of the pollen and strews it upon the pistil. The pollen consist of very small corpuscles, generally of a round form, which contain,