WHEAT. 269 



wheat, that it may have sufficient time to decay and be in condition to stimulate the growth 

 of the crop. Lime has long been regarded as an important aid in the growth of wheat, and 

 in preventing rust, also in obviating an undue growth of straw and assisting in filling out the 

 grain. 



For some very old lands which show a tendency to exhaustion, lime and salt are often 

 used with good effect. Mr. J. B. Lawes of Rothamsted, England, recommends Peruvian 

 guano as the best manure for the wheat crop in English soil, to be sown broadcast and har 

 rowed in before sowing the seed ; he also mentions that if mixed with twice its weight of 

 common salt or ashes, a more equal distribution through the soil is attained. Whatever the 

 fertilizer used, the soil should be made very rich, and the material for making it so should 

 be put near the surface, for if buried too deep in the soil, it will be beyond the reach of the 

 delicate roots of the wheat-plant, and hence of no material aid in its sustenance. It is a com 

 mon complaint with farmers in many sections, that the lands that formerly produced large 

 crops of wheat now yield only about half that quantity. This is due to the exhaustion of 

 soil, attending constant cropping without the use of fertilizers to return to the lands, thus 

 drained of their fertility, an equivalent; hence, their former fertility cannot be restored with 

 out the application of an abundance of plant- food. 



In England, the problem of wheat production seems to have approached a very satisfac 

 tory solution, the average product of this grain sixty years ago having been only sixteen 

 bushels per acre; now the average is thirty bushels, and many farmers harvest regularly an 

 average of from forty-eight to sixty bushels per acre. 



Mr. George Cowan of England states, that when on a visit to Mr. Mackenzie s noted 

 farm in Manitoba, that gentleman informed him that his average yield of wheat the previous 

 year was forty-one bushels per acre, and, the year preceding, thirty-six bushels, and that his 

 oat crop the previous year yielded an average of eighty-eight bushels per acre. When the 

 farmers of the United States can attain an equal average in the production of these grains, 

 the pursuit of agriculture will be attended with more satisfaction and profit than at present- 

 We believe this can be accomplished by proper tillage, and a liberal supply of the right kind 

 of fertilizing element. 



Mr. Fust of Quebec says, in relation to this subject: &quot;It is my firm belief that the real 

 reason why our wheat crops only yield half as much as the English crops is that in England 

 they utilize sheep as grain-growers, while we only consider them as wool and mutton makers.&quot; 



The great value of sheep as fertilizers is elsewhere treated in this work, and therefore 

 does not require repetition here, but we fully concur in the above-expressed opinion, and 

 believe, if our farmers would utilize sheep for enriching the soil, they would realize a decided 

 increase in their yearly crops of wheat. 



In the experiments of Lawes and Gilbert, of England, a repeated cropping of the same 

 lands yearly, for thirty years, gave an average of 1 6f bushels of wheat per acre, with mineral 

 manures alone, while the unmanured gave 14 bushels per acre during that time. The addi 

 tion of sulphate of ammonia, with the same repeated cropping of the same land, brought the 

 average up to 36 bushels per acre. With the leguminous crops it was the reverse, the exper 

 iments proving them to be most benefited by mineral manures. They also found, by repeated 

 experiments, that cereals were most helped by nitrogen, next by phosphates, and very little 

 by potash. 



For wheat, we would advocate the use of artificial fertilizers, in preference to farm 

 manure, for the reason that farm manure is rarely applied in a mechanical condition to be 

 readily assimilated by the wheat-plant, while the former responds very quickly, and is in a 

 condition to be readily taken up by the growing plants. This will, of course, involve some 

 outlay, but the increase of the crop will well repay for the expenditure, experiments 

 frequently proving that the judicious application of ten dollars worth of the proper fertilizers 



