102 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



At the conclusion of the reading of the above able paper the following dis- 

 cussion ensued: 



Mr. Jno. Fischer: I would like to ask if it would not be more profitable to 

 raise one half the number of acres of wheat that we now do and plant it in 

 drills one foot or more apart far enough to admit of horse cultivation. I think 

 five acres would give as great a yield as ten by the old method. All other crops 

 except cereals we expect to cultivate, and reap correspondingly better results 

 by so doing. 



Dr. Kedzie: Has Mr. Fischer tried this? 



Mr. Fischer: No, I shall try it this fall. 



Mr. :I think Mr. Fischer's suggestion, while good, is not entirely new, 



but has been long practised in the Netherlands, where they get such enormous 

 crops. 



President Willits: In England they not only cultivate wheat but they hoe it 

 and manure very heavily. The question is whether such culture would pay here 

 with our cheaper soils and cheaper wheat. I think it has been tried at the 

 Agricultural College, but cannot report definitely. At St. Louis some one 

 stated that one experiment at the Agricultural College had been of more benefit 

 to the State than the entire cost of the institution, viz.. Dr. Kedzie's experi- 

 ments relative to Clawson wheat, whereby the adverse reports of the millers 

 were controverted, and the value of the wheat established. 



Dr. Kedzie: Wlien the discussion about Clawsou wheat came up it was 

 analyzed at the University, and on the strength of that analysis graded by the 

 millers as No. 3 red — a mere point better than chess. I was called upon, and 

 secured two bushels of each of the leading varieties, had them ground myself 

 and baked by bakers who were ignorant of the varieties, and had the bread 

 tested by leading citizens of Lansing, with results all in favor of the Clawson. 

 I also tested content and character of gluten in Clawson and other yvheats, and 

 then ])resented the results at the Tecumseh Institute, where the secretary of 

 the Millers' Association was present, prepared to haul me over the coals, but 

 after hearing me he had nothing to say. As to hand culture of 

 wheat, this is the universal practice in the old world, and not only that 

 but they dibble in the seed and care for the crop as for an onion bed, 

 beciuse labor is cheap and land is high. But though they thus get <0 bushels 

 per acre when we get 20, yet our cheaper lands and cheajDcr transportation 

 enables us even with our costly labor to whip them out. 



Mr. Fischer : As to cost, we can plant with drill by removing every alternate 

 spout and cultivate by cheap horse labor. 



Mr. Geddes : Mr. Travis of Oakland county has grown wheat in this way, in 

 drills 14 inches apart, for the last ? years. 



Mr. Robt. Ure : In England they get the poor-house occupants to hoe their 

 wheat, but all labor is getting so high that even their big crops hardly pay. 



Mr. Dennis Bow : I have raised 40 bushels per acre (last year 42^), and when 

 we have such crops it is often not able to hold itself up. In order to pay the 

 extra cost of the method suggested by Mr Fischer, we should get 60 bushel per 

 acre, and I don't see how the straw could hold up any such crop. I have tried 

 salt on a light soil and could see no result. 



Mr. Geddes: I have found harrowing in spring and subsequent rolling very 

 useful. As to salt, I had a piece of barlsy, part of which was turning yellow 

 (sandy loatn soil, clay subsoil, with plenty of manure and well cultivated) from 

 insects or something of that kind, and I sowed 3^ bushels of salt per acre and 



