857 



The following table, from the Agricultural Report for 1882 (p. 

 G36), gives the proportion of winter wheat that was drilled and 

 broadcasted in the autumn and winter of 1881 and 1882 for each 

 State : 



Connecticut ... 



New York 



New Jersey 



Pennsylvania . . 



Delaware 



Maryland 



Virginia 



North Carolina 

 South Carolina 



Georgia 



Alabama 



Mississippi 



Louisiana 



Texas 



Arkansas 



Tennessee 



West Virginia 



Kentucky 



Ohio 



Michigan 



Indiana 



niinois 



Missouri 



Kansas 



Percent. 



1 

 II 



2 

 15 

 40 

 31 

 78 

 52 

 81 

 71 

 58 

 73 



Broad- 

 casted. 



As it has not been practicable to obtain data that will accurately 

 present the effect on the crop of the diverse features of cultivation 

 that are independent of climate, I give, in addition to the preceding, 

 the following general statements bearing on the annual crop statistics 

 .kindly communicated by Mr. J. E. Dodge, Statistician to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. Relative to the seeding and the stand of the 

 crop and other matters, he says : 



The practice varies with the kinds of corn. The small northern 

 corn is planted closer than the larger more southern varieties. In 

 the South corn is given greater distances than in the AVest. It grows 

 larger there and makes more stalk growth and fewer ears. Only 

 one or two stalks are planted in the hill there, while two or three in 

 the middle, and three and even four in the extreme northern latitudes, 

 are sometimes left in the hill. We have allowed one-third of a bushel 

 per acre. 



The individual differences in yield per acre in the States of 

 highest, as well as of the lowest yield, are far greater than the dif- 

 ferences in these State averages, as produced by differences in soil, in 

 the effects of the various vicissitudes on different soils, in fertility or 

 lack of it, in thoroughness of cultivation. 



In the extreme West, beyond the Mississippi, where land is plenty 

 and labor scarce, the cultivation is reduced to the minimum. Satis- 

 factory results are now produced in southern Iowa in winter-wheat 

 growing by simply " cultivating '' between corn rows and sowing 

 wheat at a labor expense of 00 cents per acre. The rough surface is 

 favorable for exemption from Avinter killing, and some records of 

 experiment show an increase of 25 i)er cent in yield over |)lanting 

 after clover on a smooth surface. This is so notwithstanding the 

 clover soil might be expected to have something like as great aii 

 advantage in real fertility over the .soil that had grown a crop of 

 maize. The corn exhausts, the clover enriches, and still the yield is 



