390 STATE BOAKD OF AGlilCULTUEE. 



Plowins; once - - - $ L 50 



Harrowine: and rolling _ - ... - 50 



Drilling . T - - - 31 



Seed, — two bushels 2 50 



Harvcstina' 2 00 



Threshing 2 50 



'o • 



Total --- $9 31 



Twenty bushels @ $1.25 $25 00 



Straw - - - 2 00 



Total - $27 00 



Deduct cost 9 31 



Net profit $17 09 



At present prices this net profit would be much greater. The wheat crop is 

 more liable to uncertainties than corn and oats when all are accompanied with 

 good management ; yet with these uncertainties the best farmers obtain as an 

 average at least $25 net profit yearly in payment for interest on land, taxeSj and 

 for superintendence." 



You will pardon me for quoting this at length, but the idea is carried that 

 farmers may make these amounts net without very much outlay and trouble, 

 especially if they are good farmers, and who would want to acknowledge that 

 he was a poor farmer? 



Would he not rather attribute his want of success to almost anything else 

 beside his being a poor farmer? The poor soil, bad luck, the inclement season, 

 the insects, all will receive a share of the blame. AYhy? because many agricul- 

 tural writers tell us there is no trouble, or at least very little, in raising remun- 

 erative crops of winter wheat if Ave follow the right course — if we are only good 

 farmers. 



The time Avas in this State, and I have no doubt some present may remember 

 it, Avhcn Avinter Avheat Avas about as sure a crop as could be sown or raised. In 

 the earlier history of our State thirty to forty bushels per acre for the first five 

 or six years, and sometimes ten after the field was cleared Avas no uncommon 

 yield. Go to the men occupying those same farms to-day and ask them how it 

 is. You may find the farms occupied by better farmers than the pioneers. The 

 result will be answers ranging from fifteen to twenty-five bushels. 



The truth is about this : the first fertility of the soil has been cropped away 

 by too great a succession of grain crops. Then there comes in the greater scA'er- 

 ity of our Avinters, Avhicli affects some localities, and is constantly growing 

 worse. The insect enemies, too, come in for their share. All these and many 

 other considerations are constantly Avorking toward the diminution of the amount 

 per acre. In looking at the statistics of wheat culture in our own State, I find 

 the following facts: Taking the amount raised per acre as per Department of 

 Agriculture report since its establishment in 1862, I find the greatest amount 

 eighteen bushels per acre average in Michigan. This was in 18G2. The small- 

 est yield per acre twelve bushels in 18G4, This Avas the memorable year when 

 the ice killed Avheat so extensively in some localities; and also in 1872 we have 

 the fame yield. If Ave group this period of thirteen years into four shorter 



