AGRICULTURE. 



ished in amount, and eventually so far ar- 



that, practically speaking, a limit to 



improvement in the desired Quality is reached. 



7. l>y still continuing to select, the improve- 

 ment is maintained, and practically a fixed 

 ty|n- is the result. 



Kut there are two other conditions necessary 

 to the highest success in these experiments, 

 viz., that the grains should be sown sparingly, 

 in order to give ample room for tillering or 

 >JT. .ulinir; and uniformly, that there may be 

 no alternation of crowded and thin patches; 

 and that it should be sown early, that it may 

 have the advantage of the autumnal growth, 

 and spread out its stools ready for early growth 

 in the spring. 



The yield of wheat per acre in England, in 

 favorable seasons, is much greater than with 

 us, averaging, Major Hallett says, 34 bushels ; 

 and he has taken the pains to count the aver- 

 age number of heads on ears per acre, which 

 he states to vary very slightly from 1,000,000. 

 Of ordinary No. 1 wheat there are 700,000 

 grains to the bushel. Of the " pedigree " 

 wheat there are, in consequence of its superior 

 size, but 460,000 grains to the bushel. The 

 usual practice, in England has been to sow 

 from a bushel to two bushels of wheat to the 

 acre. Major Hallett asserts, from many years' 

 experience and careful counting and manuring, 

 that five pints of his pedigree wheat, drilled in 

 by single grains 12 by 12 inches apart, to the 

 acre, will produce more than 1,000,000 heads 

 or ears to the acre ; and that from these ears, 

 in consequence of their great yield and size, 

 the product will be not less than 70 bushels to 

 the acre of the very best wheat, and more 

 than this quantity if the wheat is sown the 

 last of August or the first of September, and 

 is hoed or cultivated when it first comes up, to 

 prevent its being smothered by weeds. Major 

 Hallett states that in average seasons (in Eng- 

 land) wheat sown by or before September 1st 

 comes up in 7 days; on or about October 1st, 

 in 14 days ; on or about November 1st, in 21 

 days; and on or about December 1st, in not 

 less than 28 days. The earlier the sowing the 

 smaller the quantity of seed required, the more 

 perfect and extensive the tillering, the better 

 the resistance to the winter, and the earlier 

 and larger the crop. From five pints to six or 

 eight quarts are ample seed if sown on the 

 last of August or the first of September ; from 

 the middle to the end of September three or 

 four quarts should be added for each week's 

 delay. He claims that by his method there 

 will be a great saving of seed, amounting, if it 

 were carried out in England, to 8,000,000 

 bushels of wheat, or one-eighth of the largest 

 amount ever imported from this country; a 

 great increase of production, amounting to a 

 doubling of their present crop, which would 

 effectually prevent any necessity for importa- 

 tion of grain ; the quality of the wheat would 

 be improved; the power to withstand frosts 

 and injurious insects would be greatly in- 



creased; the farm-work would be materially 

 forwarded ; the crop would never be " winter- 

 proud ; " the harvest would be from two to 

 three weeks earlier, and would bo far less lia- 

 ble to be affected by unfavorable seasons in its 

 ripening. Of course, comparatively few of our 

 farmers can afford the time or trouble to ob- 

 tain their seed-wheat, barley, or oats, on the 

 " pedigree-plan," but in every wheat-growing 

 district there are one or two who will be will- 

 ing to raise seed- wheat or other grains on this 

 principle, and who will in four or five years 

 have a supply, not only for themselves but for 

 their neighbors ; and meanwhile, the Agri- 

 cultural Department is procuring a small sup- 

 ply to test it ; but the early sowing and the 

 use of the drill, planting the single grains far 

 enough apart to permit them to tiller well, 

 and also the hoeing or cultivating, is possible 

 for every wheat-grower. The same principle 

 of selection, too, may be tried here, as it has 

 been in England, with root-crops, hops, straw- 

 berries, cotton, rice, etc. 



We are sometimes mot with the objection 

 from the farmer, that it is of no use to increase 

 the production of grains, corn, cotton, etc., 

 because that the market being glutted, the 

 price falls so low that production is unprofit- 

 able, and the farmer is the poorer for his great 

 crop. There is some truth in this view, but 

 not in the inference those who take it would 

 draw from it. In favorable years, cotton, 

 wheat, Indian-corn, and perhaps some other 

 articles, are produced beyond the demand for 

 exportation, or perhaps the existing home de- 

 mand ; but the remedies for this condition do 

 not lie in restricting the production, but in en- 

 larging the market; not in half-tilling 200 

 acres to get twelve or fifteen bushels of wheat 

 or 125 pounds of cotton to the acre, but in such 

 thorough and careful cultivation of forty or 

 fifty acres as shall bring from fifty to seventy 

 bushels of wheat or 500 pounds of cotton to 

 the acre, and devoting the rest of the land to 

 other and needed crops; not selling cotton 

 at whatever price it will bring, to buy corn 

 for fattening hogs, but growing the corn ; 

 not buying hay, but raising it; not buying 

 sugar, or cloth, or linen, but making them, or 

 at least growing the sorghum, keeping the 

 sheep, and raising the flax, of which they are 

 made. The remedy for this difficulty of over- 

 production is moreover in great part removed 

 by creating a home-market ; wherever manu- 

 factures prosper, there a permanent market for 

 agricultural produce, at good prices, is estab- 

 lished ; one infinitely better than a foreign 

 one, because it is not dependent on so many 

 chances of failure. On this subject the words 

 of Mr. J. R. Dodge, Statistician of the Agri- 

 cultural Department, in an address delivered 

 before the National Agricultural Congress in 

 May, 1874, are worthy of consideration, and 

 are to the following effect : 



When we consider that less than a third of the 

 area of the States, and less than a fifth of the entire 



