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Perhaps there is not a farming country on this continent, where the time, the 

 attention, the skill and the industry of the agriculturist, can be legitimately 

 employed, on his farm, in attending to so great a diversity of remunerating 

 employments, as in Wisconsin. I will enumerate some of the most prominent: 



Wheat. — This grain is said to have been first found on the central table land 

 of Thibet, in Asia, where its representative still exists as a grass, with small mealy 

 seeds. Although the wheat crop is becoming more and more precarious, and 

 our farmers are resorting to other products, which hitherto received but little 

 attention, yet it is still the principal crop of our country. According to the 

 census returns for 1850, it would seem that the aggregate of wheat grown in 

 Racine county that year, was something over 300,000 bushels. And it appears 

 from authentic data, that the quantity of wheat shipped from the port of Racine, 

 in 1851, was 284,678 bushels — besides 114,885 bushels, in the shape of 22,977 

 barrels of flour. 



About twenty varieties of winter, and eight or ten of spring wheat, are most 

 commonly in use throughout the United States. Latitude and locality usually 

 determine the favor or disfavor in which these varieties are respectively held in 

 diflereut regions of the Union. In this county, the red-beard or Mediterranean, 

 the white tlint, the bald white, the Etrurian, the Soules, the red-chatT bald, and 

 the blue stem, are the kinds that most attract the attention of our farmers, or 

 have done so for a year or two past. Which of these is best adapted to this par- 

 ticular region, is a mooted point with our most astute farmers. Perhaps the best 

 sample of winter wheat that has been sold in this market, of the last year's crop, 

 was of the Soules kind, from Walworth county; and it was the same kind that 

 took the premium at the Racine County Agricultural Fair, in October — no other 

 sample was exhibited to compete with it. Mr. Nicholas Le Prevost, and some 

 of his neighbors, living near this city, have been raising the Etrurian winter 

 wheat for a year or two past, and have succeeded well with it. With deep ]")lough- 

 ing, it is seldom winter killed, and rarely affected by the rust. It yields them 

 from 22 to 25 bushels to the acre, the berry being bright and plump. Mr. Le 

 Prevost sold most of his crop for seed, at one dollar per bushel. 



Spring Wheats — " Hedge-Row." — This species of spring wheat became a 

 great favorite among our farmers six or seven years ago, and had noaily sup- 

 planted all other kinds in this county. It yielded from thirty to forty, and in 

 some instances, fifty bushels to the acre, of sound plump grain, which at one time 

 sold for nearly as much as winter wheat. Even careless tillage would bring 

 thirty bushels to the acre ; and the crop was considered as sure as oats. But it 

 had its day ; and, to use a common phrase, has now nearly " run out." Its cul- 

 ture is gradually being abandoned by our farmers, and other kinds substituted in 

 its place. 



