All the manure derived from sheep is husbanded with extreme care by the farmers who are gradually enriching their lands.  On a deep, rich, arable soil, 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
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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 doubtless owing to this circumstance, that a comparatively small quantity of guano and other highly concentrated fertilizers are able to produce crops five, ten, and fifty times greater than their own weight.  Azote, or nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, or nitric acid, (aqua fortis), and the incombustible part of plants are the elements which least abound in soils, and should be husbanded with the greatest care.

The Hon. C.P.  Holcomb, of Delaware, furnishes some interesting remarks on the wheat crop of the United States:—­