GRAIN CROPS. 307 



In writing about the cultivation of wheat, it is but just for me 

 to say that I never raised a bushel of wheat in my hfe, and that 

 what I have to say on the subject is the purest " book-farming j" 

 it is the result of study only, and is, of course, not to be con- 

 sidered so reliable as are those parts of this book which relate to 

 matters in which I have had the advantage of personal experience. 



The production of wheat seems, from the custom of the whole 

 world, to belong, properly, to the two extremes of farming, the 

 most careless and inconsiderate, and the most complete and 

 well directed. In the wide interval that covers the good, bad, 

 and indifferent agriculture lying between these two extremes, wheat 

 is, to say the least of it, not the most important crop. 



On such virgin soils as are better adapted to the growth of 

 wheat than of corn, there is no crop that is at once so easily 

 raised, and so valuable when raised ; and for a few years after the 

 first breaking up (sometimes for many years). " Wheat is the 

 crop every time." In many newly settled countries, 40 bushels 

 of wheat to the acre have been common, and fine crops have been 

 raised for successive years on the same ground. Sooner or later, 

 however, the constant cultivation of this single crop begins to tell 

 on the land, and the yield falls off, while the constitution of the 

 plant suffers more and more from the unfavorable condition of 

 the soil, and the door is opened for the attack of rust, weevil, and 

 blight, which add to the risk and help to reduce the result. 



The best wheat lands, treated as they almost invariably (and 

 necessarily) are by new settlers, commence at 40 bushels per 

 acre -, and after two or three years they begin to grow smaller and 

 smaller; — 35 — 30 — 20 — 15 — 12 — sometimes even 8 bushels per 

 acre, marking the steadily decreasing return until the cultivation 

 is abandoned. Usually, every reason but the right one is given 

 for this decrease. Climate, the removal of forests, the proximity 

 of the sea, or of mountains, bugs, blight, " bad luck," winter kill- 

 ing, too much snow, or too little — hundreds of plausible reasons 

 are given why wheat ceases to grow. The right reason is almost 



