AGRICULTURE. 



rated by long cultivation. The experiments 

 made by Mr. J. I. Carter, the Superintendent 

 of the Eastern Experimental Farms in Chester 

 County, Pennsylvania, are very interesting on 

 this point. He experimented with sixty-nine 

 varieties of wheat under as nearly as possible 

 the same circumstances of soil, fertilization, 

 temperature, and cultivation, and in the an- 

 nexed table are given the time of cutting, 

 weight of straw, and yield of grain per acre, 

 of each variety. 



It will be seen that, contrary to the gen- 

 eral impression, neither the White Touzelle, 

 nor the Diehl, nor the Tappahannock, the three 

 most vaunted varieties, was among the most 

 prolific in its production, the former ranking 

 fifteenth in the amount of its yield of grain, 

 and tenth in its production of straw, and the 

 two latter ranking thirty-sixth and thirty- 

 seventh in their yield of grain, while, in the 

 straw-product, the Diehl ranked fortieth, and 

 the Tappahannock twenty-seventh. The most 

 remarkably-productive varieties were : the Old 

 White Chaff Mediterranean, a bearded variety 

 which yielded 37.86 bushels to the acre with 

 4,704: pounds of straw, a total yield of 3 tons 

 to the acre ; Rogers X a smooth variety, yield- 

 ing 37.80 bushels of grain, but only 3,844 

 pounds of straw, or a total of not quite three 

 tons to the acre; the Witter, having both 

 smooth and bearded heads, and yielding 36.53 

 bushels of grain and 3,792 pounds of straw; 

 the White Chaff Mediterranean, a recent im- 

 portation, bearded, with 36.13 bushels of grain 

 and 4,536 pounds of straw. From these high 

 figures there was a regular gradation from 

 34-.66 bushels down to 4.80, a variety from 

 the Cape of Good Hope. These experiments 

 seam to have been made under such cir- 

 cumstances as to vary very little from the 

 ordinary conditions of wheat-raising, and are 

 on this account the more valuable. Very little 

 dependence can be placed on the relation of 

 those experiments, which, from the product 

 of a small quantity of wheat on a square rod 

 of ground carefully prepared for the crop, 

 assure us of a yield of fifty or seventy-five 

 bushels to the acre ; these results will not be 

 realized in ordinary grain-growing, and they 

 only delude the purchaser. The "Fultz" 

 wheat, not among those tested by Mr. Carter, 

 is a variety originating in Pennsylvania, which 

 seems to give promise of being more than 

 usually prolific, and the grain is of excellent 

 quality. On the reclaimed tule-lands in the 

 islands of the Sacramento River, the first crops 

 of wheat and barley have been enormous, and 

 subsequent crops, though not quite so large, 

 were yet far beyond those produced elsewhere. 

 We have authentic records of first crops of 

 wheat on these islands, extending over many 

 acres, with an average yield of from sixty- 

 nine to seventy-three bushels to the acre, and 

 of subsequent crops of from fifty-eight to sixty 

 bushels. 



The new varieties of oats, some twelve or 



fifteen in number, have also been experimented 

 upon with the result that the Excelsior and 

 Schonen varieties seem to give the largest yield. 



NOTE. S., smooth ; B., bearded ; S. B., short beards ; S. 

 and B., both smooth and bearded heads. 



The Cotton crop it was thought in Septem- 

 ber and October would prove to be very small, 



