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land" with which I have been famihar. Our surface soil, within the ordinary 

 depth of our prairie ploughs, is an intensely black, carbonated, semi-peaty, spongy 

 mixture of sand and organized matter, with less than three 2)er cent of alumina, 

 or the pure element of clay — which I need not tell you is an essential ingredient 

 in a wheat soil, especially in a climate and exposure like ours, and with a subsoil 

 that holds water nearly as well as an earthen cistern. 



Our prairies are as naked in winter as the deserts of Arabia, so far as efficient 

 protection to the wheat plant is concerned; and in December, or before the 

 middle of January, we are pretty sure of a dry west wind, bringing from 40 

 to 50 degrees of frost; and if this does not kill the wheat outright, we have — at 

 least three years in four — the most sudden and extreme alternations of temper- 

 ature. And, towards spring, the ground is almost always saturated with water, 

 and the repeated fi-eezing and thawing process, on such a soil, so full of water, is 

 sure to draw out every wheat plant not accidentally protected. 



Now, here is the failure of our wheat crop sufBciently accounted for; and 1 will 

 but glance at some of the more obvious means of preventing these causes from 

 operating to so disastrous an extent, should we determine not to abandon wheat 

 growing entirely. 



The first preventive is thorough drainage ; the second trench ploughing — 

 one plough behind another, in the same furrow — by which a portion of the clay 

 subsoil is mixed with the surface, altering its texture, and rendering it capable of 

 retaining the roots of plants, aided by the deep culture, and eflicient drainage, in 

 which the ordinary subsoil plough might act its part, where there should chance 

 to be clay enough at the surface. The third requisite is drill planting; the 

 fourth and last, artificial protection. This may be effected in various ways — 

 by spreading straw, &c., on the surface, if not too diflScult and extensive; but 

 principally by dense living fences. Hedges of Osage Orange, or other more 

 hardy plants, and large orchards and young timber plantations — converting the 

 bleak and naked prairie farms into mild and sheltered woodland homes. In 

 short, making, or at least modifying, a climate as well as a soil to suit the object 

 in view. 



And all this preparation will be worth just as much for other crops, and for all 

 farm products; and, in fact, I am not certain that we can ever make wheat pay 

 here as well as nearly every other product for which we have a more certain 

 market. There can be but one hope in the future for the Northern Illinois wheat- 

 grower — the hope that he may have to feed all the manufacturers necessary to 

 produce the fabrics he consumes — and be enabled to exchange food for clothing, 

 implements, &c., at his own door. 



But, even here, the man who produces the raw material used in manufactures, 

 will have the advantage of the grain grower — for if he eau make money now, 



