FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 47 



yegetable matter, and such soils jaeld very slowly to drouth. We may 

 lay it down, then, as a settled fact that for the wheat crop, more than 

 for many others, it is essential that there should be plenty of humus 

 in the soil, for in this case it serves a double purpose. 



We have thus far touched upon two of the three elements that 

 were mentioned as prime factors in contributing to the success of such 

 fields of wheat as produced a reasonable croj) the past season; but 

 by far the greatest and most essential of these is fertility, proper 

 available plant food. It is the alpha and omega of the whole subject. 

 Though we have all else and have not fertility, it shall profit us noth- 

 ing. It is a panacea for all the ills of plant life, and the wheat plant 

 is far from being an exception. It is the best offset to the ravages 

 of the Hessian fly, because it makes vigorous plants that keep throw- 

 ing up new shoots as the others are destroyed. It likewise prevents 

 winter killing by making a strong plant with plenty of root in the fall ; 

 and, best of all, it makes a wheat crop at the other end of the season. 



Now, fellow farmers, while it may have been possible, in the early 

 days of the State, to put half the farm into wheat each year and get 

 -a crop, yet that day is passed and you must raise less acres and more 

 bushels on them. Some of you who live on light, sandy land must 

 stop raising wheat entirely. You can't afford to continue doing so 

 on that kind of soil. Many farmers on such land have brought their 

 entire crop to market this year in a single load, and that a small one. 

 If the raising of wheat is to continue in Michigan, it must be confined 

 to the more fertile lands and there carried on intensively. I know from 

 my own experience that you can not expand your acreage beyond a 

 certain point without correspondingly diminishing the yield. For a 

 considerable number of years I maintained an average yield of better 

 than 25 bushels per acre, but on increasing the number of acres my 

 average dropped off materially, reaching the lowest point it has ever 

 been at this last season, viz., 15 bushels per acre. My own experience 

 the past year also emphasizes the value of clover sod for wheat, r. 

 gardless of other conditions. Twenty acres of the poorest land I have 

 was in clover in '98. The crop was cut and then the fieid put to wheat. 

 This year there was a bountiful growth of straw and a fair yield, which 

 would have been much larger had it not been for the rust. 



I have said nothing concerning varieties, nor do I think it worth 

 while to discuss this point. There are always enough valuable sorts 

 to fit the requirements of the different soils and each person must 

 make his own selection. Few kinds will do well on a really poor soil 

 and few will fail on a good one, yet there are some leading varieties 

 that merit popular favor, such as the Fultz, Lancaster, Nigger, Golden 

 Chaff and Clawson, both red and white. 



There has been so much damage done to wheat of late by the Hessian 

 fly that I want to say just a word about it. I have been asked several 

 times during the progress of these Institutes if there were not some 

 practical remedy or preventive measure to be taken against the ravages 

 of this insect, and I havje been obliged to say that my experience indi- 

 cated that there was no direct means of prevention, and that I had 

 never heard of any that was effectual. I have no faith in the common 

 notion that this pest can be avoided by late sowing. This very fall 

 the first piece of wheat that I sowed was free from "fly,"' long after 

 many others that were sowed much later were badly infested. When the 



