294 THE CULTURE OF FARM C'ROPS. 



The peculiar kind of hard spring wheat, for instance, is a 

 a product from the seed of the Scotch Fife, which in its origi- 

 nal cool, moist climate, is plump, soft, and filled with starch; 

 by reason of its long season of growth ; but in the short sum- 

 mer of Dakota and northern Minnesota, the grain is formed 

 and ripened in a few days, and hence it is small, dark colored, 

 hard, and deficient in starch, but very rich in nitrogen. 

 Some samples afford 18 per cent, of gluten, and this enables 

 the wheat to produce a very stiff flour which absorbs a large 

 quantity of water and produces comparatively more bread 

 than the white, soft, starchy wheats. Thus all the care and 

 culture which may be given to a sample of wheat foreign to 

 any locality, will fail to improve it, or fix its type in its 

 new home; and to grow wheat successfully it must be, at 

 least to some extent, suited to the climate and soil in which 

 it is grown. No doubt the many failures in this respect 

 "with new seed, or new varieties, are due to this peculiarity 

 of the grain; and some climates well suited to spring or fall 

 wheat have been condemned as unfit for the growth of one 

 or the other variety, simply because a mistake has been 

 made in the selection of seed. 



The yield of w r heat is also affected by climate. The aver- 

 age product of Colorado is 22 bushels; of Connecticut 17J 

 bushels; of Michigan 19 bushels; while the Southern states 

 produce only from 5 to 9 bushels per acre, and Louisiana 

 with its rich soil yields no more than an average of Si- 

 bushels to the acre. No doubt some of this deficiency in 

 the yield in the Southern states is due to the wretchedly 

 poor culture; the prevailing mode of cultivation being to 

 sow the seed upon the ground amid the overpowering weeds, 

 and the corn stalks which have been stripped of leaves and 

 topped; and covering it by means of a bull tongue plow by 

 which the ground is merely scratched. Wheat cannot be 

 grown successfully in such a manner as this. On the con- 

 trary the very best preparation should be made for it. A 

 crop of 42 bushels per acre has been grown by the author 

 on an oat stubble which was plowed as soon as the oats were 

 removed, and then well harrowed. The working with the 



