FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 161 



would become valuable property and make homos for thousands of families. 



All the crop I harvested this season was an acre of oats and rye, a patch of water- 

 melons and bagas. all of which were on a par with my neighbors' on clay soils; and 

 when we take into account tliat my farm is on wliat is termed jack-pine plains and 

 ■considered the lowest type of farming land by the public generally, it would seem 

 that the production of fair crops without the use of capital and using only such 

 means as cluster around every farmer, the matter was worthy of note. The rapid 

 growth of my crop in the fore part of the season, notwithstanding that June was 

 vei'y dry and hot, has been a strong contirmation that deep planting is necessary 

 to a crop_on these lands. 



HOW SETTI.E THE LANDS? 



Now the great question that confronts us is what can we do with these lands to 

 get them into the hands of those who will develop them and make them a factor 

 in working out the destiny of our county and State. In the township of 18 N., R. 

 2 E.. there are 13,040 acres, all of which except 4.000 acres, have reverted back to 

 the State and are known as State tax lands. The uncertainty and vexation tliat 

 enshroud a tax title practically debar the public from settling on these lands, 

 but if the State Land Ottice would act promptly and open these lands to home- 

 stead they would settle up rapidly and soon be on the tax roll and be a live member 

 of the county rather than deadbeat. 



These lands must be put Avithin the reach of those of little or no means, and it 

 is possible that a little substantial encouragement in a prudent way might work 

 wonders in the development of these dead lands. 



The writer has had ten years' experience on what is considered by many a 

 worthless farm, and has come to the conclusion that stock raising, both sheep and 

 cattle, will pay, and rye, wheat, some kinds of oats, turnips and grass will yield 

 paying crops by good workmanlike farming. 



WHEAT. 



CHAa A, VANDEVENTER, Ithaca, at GRATIOT COUNTY Institute, Alma. 



Of all the cereals, there is none raised so extensively in all parts of the civilized 

 world as wheat. The mention of , wheat in the Old Testament and its culture by 



the ancient Egyptians are proofs of its antiquity, and Chinese history declares 

 that it was introduced into China about 2700 B. C. 



Like other cereals, wheat is not certainly known in the wild state, and its origin 

 has been the subject of much speculation. Some suppose it to be a plant now ex- 

 tinct in the wild state, others that it is the cultivated form of what are now re- 

 garded as distinct wild species. 



The limit to the successful cultivation of wlieat is not determined so much by 



the cold of winter as by the temperatvu'e of summer. 



Wheat is largely cultivated in mo.st European countries; some of these a few 



years ago were exi)orters, but do not now raise enough for their own consumption. 



In the United States, wlieat growing has rapidly extended westward. In some of 

 the older states an improvident course of agriculture exhausted the land until re- 

 munerative crops could DO longer be raised. Through the lack of a system of 

 rotation the soil became stocked Avith the seeds of weeds and the increase of 

 destructive insects added to the difficulties which made it necessary to seek new 

 land. But where better farming prevailed, the crop is still profitably grown. The 

 new prairie soil of- the western states allows the crop to be raised without the ex- 

 pense of fertilizer, to which the eastern farmer is subject, though this is in great 



measure offset by transporting western wheat to market. 



Nothing in the history of agriculture is more striking than the remarkable in- 

 crease of wheat growing. On the Pacific coast, especially in California, where the 

 <-rop in 1850 was only 17,200 bushels, while in 187.3 it was over 21,504,000 bushels, 

 both soil and climate are most favorable to its culture. The climate is so rainless 

 In summer that bags of grain may be stacked up in the open field for weeks 

 without fear of injury. 



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