528 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



from this cause has been prevented in some regions by 

 mixing about one bushel of lime with one hundred bush- 

 els of wheat in the barn, which has to be winnowed out 

 before grinding. Unless some discovery is soon made to 

 obviate the difficulty of the weevil, the cultivation of 

 wheat in the southern parts of Indiana and Illinois, and 

 in all States south of that, must be abandoned. 



The most abundant crop of all that we are informed 

 of, during the present year, is that of peaches in the 

 State of Delaware. So great has the crop been that we 

 hear of one individual chartering a large steamboat to 

 take the fruit of his own and son's farms to market. 



The production of wheat the past year, generally 

 speaking, has been over an average crop, and of excel- 

 lent quality. 



The crop of corn in the great corn region of the West 

 seems to be very abundant. 



We also have evidence before us that tends to show 

 that the culture of silk is now beginning to be adopted in 

 families, where we think it may be profitably confined, 

 while it is abandoned as unprofitable by joint-stock com- 

 panies. 



We are pleased to learn that wool-growing is found 

 to be profitable in all parts of the United States, and that 

 there is an immense field open for the extension of wool- 

 growing upon the great prairies of the West, and that 

 the business would be more profitable even than that of 

 cotton in the Southern States. 



But, notwithstanding all the bountiful productions of 

 some crops, there is evidently a general depression of 

 the agricultural class pervading the whole country. 



It is one of the objects of this Convention to seek out 

 a way by which the condition and character of the cul- 

 tivators of the American soil can be elevated and im- 

 proved; for this purpose we recommend the formation 

 of Farmers' Clubs and largely increased reading of agri- 

 cultural papers and other valuable publications, which 

 have of late years been so extensively multiplied for 



