70 THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 



one acre as -fifteen, with the same cultivation and the 

 same fertilization. When wheat is in the path of 

 degeneracy, the best soil in the country, the most favor- 

 able season, and the most thorough and intelligent culti- 

 vation, will fail to produce a remunerative crop. 



Intelligent breeders of swine select their seed animals 

 with an especial reference to the prolificacy of the dam 

 that will raise twelve or fourteen pigs. In some in- 

 stances we see this principle neglected or entirely 

 ignored. And what is the consequence? Why, instead 

 of twelve or fourteen sleek, plump, and thrifty pigs, the 

 sow drops only two or three at a litter. On the same 

 principle, we often see short heads of wheat only half 

 lilled with small kernels of grain, when, if the seed had 

 only been selected with a reference to its prolificacy, 

 the yield would have been twice the amount realized. 



It is not possible for any one to compute the pecuniary 

 advantage that would accrue to our nation, were all the 

 farmers of the country to make a proper selection of his 

 seed wheat for only a few successive years. There is a 

 broad and inviting field open on this subject, for every 

 ambitious farmer to exercise his skill in improving the 

 productiveness of our wheat-growing fields by produc- 

 ing new varieties of wheat which will yield large heads 

 and plump kernels of choice grain, ^^prolificacy of 

 wheat may be improved to a wonderful extent by proper 

 management ; and if a prolific variety of wheat can be 

 brought out, that will yield only a few bushels more per 

 acre than the ordinary varieties, the advantage in the 

 aggregate would be a consideration of no small magni- 

 tude. Dr. Voelcker, in a recent letter, before the Royal 

 Institution, London, stated that in the County of Norfolk 

 the average produce of wheat was, in 1773, fifteen 



