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based. From 1850 until 1870, oats and spring wheat ■were injured but little by fungous 

 diseases or insects, and it was but seldom that they did not produce good crops ; but, 

 from the latter date until now they have been unreliable and unprofitable. The 

 average yield of oats in Iowa for the last ten years has been 33 bushels per acre and 

 the average price has not exceeded 20 cents per bushel, which would give the farm- 

 ers $6.60 for the product of each acre. But the general rule in all parts of the State 

 has been for renters to give one third of the oats after being threshed for the use of 

 land, which would leave only $4.40 per acre for plowing, seed oats, seeding, harvest- 

 ing, stacking, and threshing. As spring wheat has not paid any better than oats, it 

 is not remarkable that many farms are mortgaged and that many farmers ai'e com- 

 plaining of hard times. 



The decline in the yield of oats and wheat iu Iowa is attributed to the 

 destriictioD of the wild prairie grasses, which formerl}' shaded the soil 

 and kept it moist. 



By breaking up the prairies and stirring the soil frequently, we destroyed the in- 

 numerable little clods, grass roots, and root spaces, which formed a sufficient number 

 of channels for the free admission of waler and air. Instead of being shaded by a 

 thick growth of grass, as it was formerly, .i very large share of tbe State consists now 

 of bare, hard pastures, which are constantly absorbing the heat of the sun, during the 

 day-time, to drive out the limited supplies of moisture which they do contain. 



When rains do come it is difficult for them to penetrate such soils, and the result 

 is that a large part of the water runs off over the surface of the ground to the creeks 

 and is lost. * * * It is useless for us to talk about planting forests to increase the 

 rain-fall, but if a majority of the farmers of Iowa and the adjoining States would sow 

 clover on a large scale and plant belts of forest-trees to break the force of the winds, 

 we would grow much better crops of wheat, oats, barley, etc., than we have grown 

 during the last twenty years. We should not forget, that wheat, oats, barley, etc., 

 are never injured by rust where there are no great extremes of summer temperature 

 and no severe spells of drought. Clover should be sown not only for what it would 

 do for our climate, and other crops, but because there is more money in it than in any 

 other crop which can be grown successfully in Iowa, except corn. Why not make 

 clover one of our principal crops, instead of oats, which have failed oftener than 

 they have proved profitable, on account of unfavorable climatic conditions? And 

 why not substitute Maushury barley for oats? It is comparatively free from lust 

 and blight in Iowa. It is very productive, has good, strong straw, yields more dollars' 

 worth of digestible nutrients per acre in all kinds of seasons than oats, and as a nurse 

 crop for clover it is much better than oats or spring wheat. 



Calculations based on the amounts of digestible nutrients in diflerent 

 Crops, and the average yields of these crops in Iowa, are given, to show 

 the relatively high value of clover and barley. 



The article concludes with the following summary : 



From the frequent partial failures of our oat crops on account of rust, and the rapid 

 deterioration of good varieties Avhich we have imported from the best oat countries 

 we can draw no other conclusion than that Iowa is not a good oat State. Tbe results 

 of our experiments have proved conclusively — 



(1) That if we shall continue to grow oats, they should be sown as early in the 

 spring as it is possible to cover them with cultivators, harrows, or seed drills; that 

 the seed bed should be comparatively hard or compact (except 1 or 2 inches of soil 

 on its surface), and that only such varieties as the Everett or the Improved American 

 should be used for seed. 



(2) That no other kind of barley is as valuable as tbe Manshury ; that it should 

 be sown very early, also ; and that it is much more reliable and profitable than any 

 variety of oats. 



