FAEMEKS' INSTITUTES. 183 



of food, and is everywhere regarded as a production of great importance. It 

 can be successfully cultivated in countries that present a great diversity of soil 

 and climate, which is not so much to be wondered at, as there are at least 150 

 varieties, some of which are much more hardy tlian others. 



Our own State seems admirably adapted to its production, as the flour manu- 

 factured from Michigan wheat has won a high reputation not only in our own 

 eastern cities, but it is also favorably kuowu in the European markets, and we 

 have come to feel a just pride in the (juality of Michigan wheat. 



Our State Lagislature of 1875 must have recognized this when it passed an 

 act to regulate the sale of wheat and to prevent the sale or offering for sale of 

 wheat not grown in Michigan as Micliigau wheat, and to prevent the mixing of 

 foreign wheat with the Michigan product, fixing the penalty for the violation of 

 the act at not more than SI, 000, and not less than $200, or by imprisonment 

 in the county jail for six motiths or by both fine and imprisonment. 



There are few topics of greater importance to the Michigan farmer than that 

 of wheat raising, and iialf the ideas it suggests cannot be presented in one brief 

 essay. It is my design to give only a few practical hints on the subject, leaving 

 a chance for a theoretical essay to those who can produce a fine display of wheat 

 on paper by some plausible theory, but can raise only half a crop on the best of 

 soil. Althougli it is invaluable to understand the constituent elements that 

 enter into the growth of the plant, yet as all do not and cannot analyze the soil 

 it seems more necessary to speak of the duties and neglects common to putting 

 in a field of wheat. 



Wheat requires a rather dry soil, as it must receive all the heavy fall rains 

 and remain in the ground during the frost and snow of winter, the thaws and 

 freezings, and the rains and melting snow of spring. Heavy clay lands are 

 usually expected to bring good wheat, yet our light sandy soils also produce 

 an excellent yield. Kew land generally gives better returns of wheat than old 

 land, yet if many of our old exhausted fields received the enriching they ought, 

 the average yield per acre in this State would be doubled. There has been 

 much experimenting on the best kind of fertilizers for wheat. Much valuable 

 material is wasted on many farms every year that should be carefully thrown 

 on the fields, and there is much more that might be procured at a trifling 

 expense. I have used ashes mixed with plaster as a fertilizer, and know they 

 are much more valuable than the sparing way in wliich they are used seems to 

 indicate. They are, however, gaining favor with those who have made liberal 

 use of them upon their wheat fields, yet often when the properties of a fertilizer 

 are understood it is improperly applied. Sometimes too great a quantity of a 

 certain pi'operty is supplied the plant, thereby stimulating too large a growth 

 of stem and leaves. The materials for both stalk and grain should alike be 

 taken into consideration. 



Farmers, do not sell your straw and cheat your fields of the necessary mate- 

 rial for the growth of the straw of your next crop of grain. It is worth more 

 to you on the farm manufactured into manure. There are some farmers who 

 cut all the straw they use for the bedding of stock in the same manner as for 

 cut feed, claiming it absorbs the liquid of the stables to greater advantage and 

 is a valuable ingredient in the compost drawn from the barnyard. It would be 

 commendable in every tiller of the soil to experiment with the various means 

 at his command for enriching liis land. Ashes, plaster, bone dust, salt, lime, 

 and grain, as well as the barnyard contents, should be resorted to even by those 

 possessing farms of the best of land, for heavy crops are the only ones that are 



