72 THE WHEAT CULTIJRIST. 



that a large yield of grain will sound well for their 

 culture as skilful farmers, as well as for the productive 

 ness of their ground. Therefore, they think and guess 

 that there may possibly be so many bushels of grain 

 per acre. By and by they, look at their growing crops, 

 and venture to speak of forty, or fifty, or seventy bushels 

 per acre ;. and after thinking and talking about the mat 

 ter for a few weeks, they make the confident assertion 

 that their ground produced so many bushels per acre, 

 when in truth the yield was very much less than the 

 quantity mentioned. I will record a few facts on this 

 subject that came under my own observation, which will 

 go to show that honest and truthful men will sometimes 

 talk at random. 



I knew a farmer who secured the prize of a county 

 agricultural society for reporting a yield of one hun 

 dred and eight bushels of shelled Indian corn per acre. 

 The grain was measured thus: A bushel basket was 

 filled with ears as neatly as they could be placed in the 

 basket. Every interstice was filled with a part of an 

 ear. The grain was then shelled off and weighed. 

 Taking this basketful of ears as the basis, in pounds of 

 shelled grain for every bushel of ears that was after 

 ward thrown into the basket promiscuously, without 

 shelling or weighing, the yield of grain was computed 

 at the amount just stated. The laborer who husked the 

 corn disclosed the manner of measuring and computing 

 the amount of grain. 



I have known other farmers to state, in the most posi 

 tive language, that they raised sixty bushels of barley 

 per acre, and sixty bushels of rye, or forty or fifty bush 

 els of wheat per acre, when they had not measured a 

 single bushel of the grain that grew on an acre ; and 



