378 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



farmintr must be jjivon iij) for tliat wliidi is iutt'iisive, a s.vslcni wlilch, 

 on tlu' whok', teuds to euiicli (lir land vcar by year and also {^row 

 profitable crops. 



While it is not universally true that the farms of this State cannot 

 fjrow crops any lon<rer at a ])rofit, yet there are se<tions in some of 

 the oldest counties where this is true. Laud that once i)roduced good 

 corn and wheat is now too poor to grow grass. It is not only true of 

 Michigan, but of every other state in the Union where farming has been 

 carried on as long as it has here. Before the average ])i'ice of wiieat 

 drojtped so much below ^1 there was a great deal of mone}' in the bus. 

 ness and farmers generally grew all they could of it. When the western 

 states began to grow so much wheat, thus, with other things, depressing 

 the price, some people began to change their methods, and instead of 

 depending largely on the one cu'op, diversified their farming and thus 

 continued to be fairly successful. Others continued in the same old 

 beaten ])ath, did not modify their rotation of croi)S, but kept on growing 

 wheat after wheat, until toda,y we can find many an impoverished farm, 

 with its owner on the verge of ruin. After Inning harvested two ex- 

 ceedingly poor crops, w'e find many ready now to quit the business 

 altogether, with the idea in view of turning their attention to some 

 other line of farming. 



We believe that it is unwise for Michigan farmers to make any radi- 

 cal change in their business. It is evident to us that wheat will con- 

 tinue to be for many years to come one of the great money crops in 

 this State, and there is plenty of evidence to demonstrate that it can 

 be grown profitably on high-priced land in any ordinary year. We have 

 in mind at the present time a section of country where the crop of 1900 

 must have averaged at least twenty bushels per acre, since many fields 

 yielded as high as thirty bushels per acre. lA^t it be understood, 

 though, that the farmers in the i^lace referred to did not make a specialty 

 of growing wheat. They were principally engaged in producing milk 

 and butter, and, instead of selling hay and oats, these articles were fed 

 to the cows, and in the course of time fully 95 per cent of the elements 

 of fertility taken out of the soil by these crops were returned to the 

 land again. Clover is grown in abundance because it furnishes pasture 

 for the cows, the best hay for milk, and on the whole the one crop that 

 yields bountifully and still leaves the ground richer than before it was 

 sown. On such farms, and there are many of them throughout the 

 State, wheat in nearly every instance finds a place in the rotation. One 

 reason is because it is the best crop with which to sow^ clover for new 

 seeding. It furnishes straw for feed and for an absorbent in the 

 stables. It is often sown on the corn fields after the crop has been cut 

 and put in the silo. This makes the expense of sowing very light and 

 also, the seed bed is just in the condition desired. 



We also have in mind another neighborhood on one of the most beau- 

 tiful prairies in southern Michigan, where for the last fifty years wheat 

 has been the main crop. For a time, with a great reserve of plant food 

 in the soil, good crops were grown. Clover was grown there, too, but 

 eventually the clover root borer destroyed the crop for several years 

 in succession, and in consequence of W'hich the soil lost materially in 

 fertility. This made it more difficult to get a seeding of clover started, 

 and all the while wheat after wheat was being sown, hoping that the 

 next time they would succeed in getting a catch of clover. As a result of 



