il, quite a number of sheep may be kept per acre, if
highly cultivated; and their manure prepares the land for producing
generous crops of wheat at a small expense. Of all business men,
farmers should be the closest calculators of _profit_ and _loss_.

Great care should be taken to sow good and clean seed on clean land.
Previous to putting the seed in the ground (drilling is preferable
to sowing broadcast), wheat should be soaked five or six hours--not
longer--in strong brine. After this, add a peck or more of recently
slaked lime to each bushel, and shovel it over well, that the lime
may cover each seed. It is now ready to commit to the earth. Most
good farmers roll the earth after seeding: some before.

In the Southern States, planters are in the habit of permitting
their wheat to remain too long in the field after it is cradled, and
in small shocks. Good barns are too scarce in all the planting
States, and in some others.

_Summer fallowing_ is generally abandoned, except in cases where old
pastures and meadows, new prairie, or bushy bad fields are to be
subdued. As a general rule, friable soils need not be ploughed long
before the intended crop is expected to begin to grow. Among
fertilizers, wood ashes, salt, bones, lime, guano, and poudrette
have been used in wheat culture with decided advantage. In Great
Britain, manure derived from the consumption of turnips and other
root crops by sheep and neat cattle, is much used in preparing land
for wheat. Sheep, clover and peas, corn and hogs, rotate well to
insure the economical production of this staple. Manure is usually
applied to the crop preceding wheat.

It may be interesting to some readers to see in this place the mean
result of several organic analyses of wheat made by M. Boussingault.
Wheat, dried at 230 deg. _in vacuo_, was found to contain:

Carbon 46.1
Oxygen 43.4
Hydrogen 5.8
Nitrogen 2.3
Ash 2.4
-----
Total 100.0

Charcoal may be regarded as a fair representative of carbon, and
water as the representative of both oxygen and hydrogen. It will be
seen by the above figures, that over 95 per cent. of wheat is made
up of elements which greatly abound in nature in an available
condition; and the same is true of all other plants. It is doubt