WHEAT SOWING ON NEW LANJ). 61 



to feel that there was anything out of rule In such intru- 

 sion. We were close to the boundary of the country 

 where all men are bom free and equal. 



The wheat crop in these northern parts of America 

 has a history which is interesting, not merely to the 

 practical agriculturist, but even to the political economist 

 of the broadest views. I shall have occasion hereafter 

 to return to this subject, in discussing the relation of the 

 American wheat-producing capabilities to our home agri- 

 cultural condition. I shall here, however, mention two 

 particulars of a practical kind. 



In the first clearing of a piece of woodland, when he 

 hews his farm out of the forest, the new settler sows his 

 wheat in the autumn. The winter snows fall and cover 

 it, till one sweeping thaw comes in spring, when the 

 green blades spring up under the influence of the sun, 

 and ripen into a healthy crop. But after the woods have 

 been cut back, and the laud has been more widely cleared, 

 the continued covering of snow is not so certain. Spring 

 comes with partial thaws and freezings, which throw out 

 the winter wheat, and kill It in whole or in part. The 

 only practical remedy adopted for this is to sow spring 

 wheat, which rushes up and ripens rapidly, but yields a 

 grain which is said to be not equal in quality to the 

 winter corn. This fact has an important bearing on the 

 supply of first-quality flour to the American and Euro- 

 pean markets. 



Again, in many localities the wheat crop is liable to 

 rust, and In many more the wheat-fly has come like a 

 pestilence, and almost put an end to the cultivation of 

 it. The practical remedy for these two evils is to sow 

 bearded wheat. Of this two varieties are here sown, 

 both spring wheats. The one is known as the old 

 bearded red, and the other as the Black Sea wheat — a 

 white bearded variety. These are supposed to be less 

 liable to the attack of both the vegetable and the animal 



