321 
. WESTERN WHEAT CULTURE RUINOUS. 
Tn a tour to the northwest, undertaken for the purpose of increasing and im- 
proving facilities for the collection of agricultural statistics, and for conference 
with professional or other intelligent agriculturists relative to department co-op- 
eration in aid of the interests and supply of the wants of that great section, the 
editor of this report was struck particularly with the ruinous tendency of the 
current system (or want of system) of wheat culture. A few suggestions on 
this point will be hazarded. 
In what respect ruinous? In impoverishment of the soil, in deterioration of 
seed, in overrunning the country with weeds, in promoting a false and wasting 
system of political economy. ‘These are serious charges, but they are made in 
good faith, can be easily substantiated, and will be acknowledged just by thou- 
sands of western wheat growers. 
The prevalent mode of operating involves first a partial breaking of the soil, 
rendering sowing irregular in position and depth, and drilling difficult and im- 
perfect, giving weeds quite as good a chance as the wheat. ‘The next year a 
superficial, hasty ploughing partially covers the stubble, and very slightly the 
tangle of weeds, and wheat is again put in. Year. after year wheat follows 
wheat and weeds increase, while the yield of grain diminishes, partially from 
loss of certain elements of the soil and partly because weeds have usurped a 
large area of the fields. In the mean time, as if to increase the loss from the 
wheat necessarily carried away, the straw by millions of tons, worth almost as 
much per ton for feeding as the marsh or prairie hay of the country, is burned 
nightly in harvest time till the sky is bright with a continued holocaust of green- 
backs in straw; and the excuse for thus dissipating in thin air, not only ele- 
ments of nutrition, but valuable elements of fertilization, is that the way may 
be clear for the plough to scratch over again the maltreated soil. This picture 
may not be verified in every wheat field of the west, but who will deny its 
striking likeness in most cases 4 
Is proof of impoverishment wanted? One witness only is needed—the soil 
itself. First, thirty bushels per acre is the boast of the farmer; then the yield 
drops to twenty-five, to twenty, to fifteen, and finally to ten and eight. Min- 
nesota claimed twenty-two bushels average a few years ago, (some of her enthu- 
siastic friends made it twenty-seven,) but she will scarcely average this year 
twelve, and will never again make twenty-two under her present mode of farm- 
ing. To be sure, there are excuses, ‘he seasons do not suit as formerly, blight 
or rust comes, or the fly invades, but all these things are evidences of exhaus- 
tion, and prey upon the soil in proportion to its deterioration. Yet in compara- 
tively new soils the depreciation is caused by excess of weeds through careless 
culture more than by actual loss of fertility. 
The same causes that deplete the soil produce degeneracy in the seed, which 
perpetuates weakness and imperfection, reducing the yield so rapidly that new 
seed must be obtained at once or all profit must be foregone. A careful selec- 
tion of seed should every year be practiced, and new seed used after successful 
test. It is as easy to improve seed by special care as it is to injure it by this 
special neglect, and he who will undertake such improvement wisely as a busi- 
ness, will make a fortune and prove a public benefactor. 
.. .The weed nuisance is stupendous, destroying annually tens of millions of 
bushels of wheat. They have obtained a strong foothold. The evil is a radical 
one, and can only be cured by being torn up by the roots, which can never be 
done without a more thorough and careful system of culture. The average yield 
of wheat in England is stated at twenty-eight bushels per acre, never less than 
twenty-six, unless in a year of unusually bad harvests. ‘The average in this 
country is less than half of the lowest of these figures. Why is it? Certainly 
not because our soil is poorer than theirs, neither because our climate is so much 
