LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 449 



Mr. Osborn : A plant growing by itself is always slower in maturing, but 

 I think if ground were well covered we might cultivate without making it 

 too late. The English average wheat yield is 28 bushels per acre. 



A few years ago Mr. Vandeventer of Sturgis got 60 bushels per acre by 

 cultivating. 



Dr. Beal : Some years ago a man in Oakland county invented a wheat cul- 

 tivator, but I don't know whether it is now used. 



Mr. Sharp : My family eat about seven bushels of wheat per head, and five 

 to six bushels per head is about the average, and the increase of population 

 will probably make market enough for our wheat. 



Mr. Dougherty : We export only about ten per cent of our product. 



Mr. Osborn : When you look at the fact that our yield per head has risen 

 400 per cent in recent years (30) and that the wheat fields of the west and of 

 the Argentine Republic, and other contries, are just developing, it seems 

 inevitable that the price of wheat is yet bound to go lower. 



Dr. Beal : If we can lower the price of wheat the consumption per head 

 will increase. 



Mr. Osborn: Bread is cheap, but money is high. Of course, if every one 

 is going to eat more it will raise the price. 



POTATO CULTURE. 



BY L. A. ASPINWALL. 



Read at the Centreville Institute, February 19, 1889. 

 THE SOIL 



best adapted to produce a fine quality of potatoes is undoubtedly the sandy 

 or gravelly kind, having good drainage. Light land is sought by all expe- 

 rienced growers. The potato partakes largely of the nature of the soil upon 

 which it is grown ; those from heavy land being heavy and sticky in their 

 texture, especially in wet seasons. 



THE PREPARATION OF THE SOIL 



is a matter of vast importance if large returns are expected. Many farmers 

 do not fully comprehend this. It is far more profitable to concentrate the 

 energy of plowing, manuring, planting, cultivating and digging five acres 

 to one-half that amount, say two or three, from which an equally large yield 

 can be obtained. To plow land and pulverize it in the most perfect manner 

 without the application of something to increase the fertility of the soil can 

 be of little or no profit. Most people expect too much for a given outlay, 

 hence the great hordes who expect to make a lucky hit on the fluctuations 

 of the stock market. Nature does not give something for nothing. The 

 more we feed the land the more we receive in return. 



Natural vegetable decay is undoubtedly conducive to the finest and health- 

 iest growth — sod land or green clover plowed under is the most natural and 

 best method of manuring, but should be supplemented by manure from the 

 farm-yard or stables, together with manufactured fertilizers. In the 

 vicinity of large cities, where land is cropped continually, a liberal dressing 



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