WHEAT. INDIAN COEN. 83 



less rank. There is abundance of lime in the country, so that 

 the remedy is at hand, and will undoubtedly be applied under 

 a more scientific system of agriculture. 



Autumn wheat is the most valuable corn, but it is also the 

 most difficult to be grown, for it has to withstand the unpro- 

 tected severity of winter. The earlier it is sown after the 

 1st of September the more likely it is to succeed, and it is 

 generally successful when sown on the first and second crops 

 of a newly-ploughed prairie which has been broken in proper 

 season. If any of it should be destroyed by frost, the ground 

 is sown in spring with spring wheat, and this seldom fails. 

 The crop varies from fifteen to forty bushels an acre, twenty 

 being reckoned a fair average. 



Indian corn usually forms the third crop, and if the land 

 is kept clean by diligent horse-hoeing, this crop may be re- 

 peated as long as the farmer likes. It is undoubtedly the 

 main crop of the prairie farmer : it never fails. In some sea- 

 sons it is more productive than others, but the most ordinary 

 care will secure a crop. Under good management the yield 

 often exceeds 100 bushels an acre, and, in the middle districts 

 of the State, fifty would be reckoned a moderate average. 

 One great advantage of this crop is that a large breadth of it 

 can be cultivated by one man and a couple of boys. Two 

 men and a boy with four horses can till 100 acres. Instances 

 have been known of 100 acres of Indian corn and 50 acres of 

 wheat being all managed by a man with his two sons and 

 their horses. There is no hurry in harvesting it. It can be 

 cut at any time after it is ripe, and takes no injury by stand- 

 ing either uncut, or in the shock, for many weeks. When 

 consumed on the ground by cattle the shocks are merely open- 

 ed, and the cattle shell the com for themselves. It is always 

 convertible into money, either as corn or pork, and it is ex- 

 tensively used in distillation and in the manufacture of starch. 



