NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



160 



On motion of Mr. Hubbard, of Sunderland, it 

 was voted that hereafter the speakers be limited 

 to ten minutes. 



Mr. Hubbard then addressed the meeting upon 

 the subject of -wheat-growing. He said that not- 

 withstanding the interest manifested on this sub 

 ject some years since, and the encouragement of it 

 by bounty from the State, a feeling seems now 

 generally to prevail that wheat is among those 

 products that cannot profitably be produced in 

 Massachusetts. A short time since, at a meeting 

 to organize an Agricultural Society in his county, 

 the opinion prevailed that there was so little en- 

 couragement for the farmer to raise wheat, that 

 it was not worth while to offer a premium for it 

 He believed that there is no difficulty in producing 

 wheat in Massachusetts, and probably in every 

 county in the State. There might be some doubt 

 as to whether we could raise it" so as to compete 

 with the West. The same objection might be 

 urged against the cultivation of Indian corn, and 

 yet farmers in every part of the State cultivate 

 corn. Why, then, should they not devote a por- 

 tion of their land and their labor to the cultiva- 

 tion of wheat 1 He then proceeded to answer the 

 question, can we raise wheat in Massachusetts, by 

 giving certain facts which had come under his own 

 observation. He said there were farmers in Frank- 

 lin county who had raised wheat for twenty years, 

 and they testify that they have no more difficulty 

 in getting a good crop, than in getting a good crop 

 of Indian corn. In the autumn of 1850, he 

 plowed a piece of land from which, sis weeks be- 

 fore, he had taken a crop of clover. He had 

 mowed it for two years. The land, which was 

 warm, dry, sandy loam, was not in a high state 

 of cultivation — after plowing in the clover to the 

 depth of 7 or 8 inches, he let it remain 8 or ten 

 days and then harrowed it. He then sowed six 

 bushels of ashes to the acre and 1£ of wheat. In 

 the spring, he put on five bushels of air-slacked 

 lime, and harrowed again in April, and he here 

 observed that it is the custom there, to harrow 

 grain lands in the spring. He cut it at the usual 

 time, and the result, very liberally measured, was 

 thirty bushels. The amount of land was a little 

 less than an acre. A # neighbor of his, on land to 

 which neither lime or ashes were applied, but into 

 which was plowed corn stubble, had raised from 

 less than an acre, 37 bushels and 20 quarts of 

 wheat. In several towns in that neighborhood, 

 even better crops than this had been obtained. 

 He came, therefore, to the conclusion, that wheat 

 could be raised with profit in Massachusetts. 



Mr. Bardwell, of Hatfield, said he came from 

 a town which probably raised more wheat than any 

 other town in the State. The wheat crop had 

 been steadily increasing for years, and last year it 

 exceeded in his town 2500 bushels. The present 

 year, if favorable, he thought it would be from 



three to four thousand bushels. The average 

 yield is about 25 bushels to the acre. But a few 

 go as low as 20 bushels to the acre. And he had 

 known of one 4 acre lot producing at the rate of 

 38 bushels per acre. Farmers there follow either 

 clover, broom corn or Indian corn, with wheat. 

 It is, however, thought that it generally succeeds 

 best after clover. It does well after corn, if the 

 stalks are plowed in. He considered wheat a lu- 

 crative crop to raise. The straw will pay for two- 

 thirds of the labor. The wheat is worth on an av- 

 erage, $1,25 per bushel. The soil is alluvial, and 

 the wheat succeeds best on that which is clayey. 

 Ashes are sown in the spring as a manure. He 

 considered wheat as sure as any other crop. 

 , Mr. Pomeroy, of Hampshire, said the question 

 whether we can raise wheat to advantage, seems 

 to depend upon another question, which is, wheth- 

 er we have in our soil, or can afford to put into it, 

 those ingredients of which wheat is made. He 

 thought there was no special mystery about the 

 matter. If the farmer raises a very large crop 

 of straw and finds there is no wheat on it, what 

 he wants to know is, how to make that straw pro- 

 duce wheat. And here is where science (which 

 those who contend that practice is all that is need- 

 ed, overlook,) comes in to analyze our soils, and 

 ascertain what ingredients are wanted. We want 

 an institution to teach this science — to give us 

 this information. By Dr. Lee's report it appears 

 that these substances are very simple — and we 

 can raise wheat if we know how to supply them . 

 Thirty bushels of wheat taken from one acre con- 

 tain over 200 pounds of mineral substances, and 

 this could not be long taken yearly from the land, 

 without impoverishing it, unless it was in some 

 way supplied. Upon two acres of land from which 

 he had taken a crop of potatoes, he had put 40 

 oads of manure ; 70 bushels of air-slacked lime, 

 costing 6 1-4 cents a bushel ; 2 bushels of salt, 

 and sowed the Golden Australia wheat, a bushel- 

 and-a-half to an acre. Having thus used the ne- 

 cessary means, he expected a crop in the time of 

 harvest. He closed by alluding again to the ne- 

 cessity of science to teach the farmer how to sup- 

 ply the ingredients of his soil to adapt it to a par- 

 ticular crop. 



Mr. Bcckminster, of Framingham, made some 

 remarks in regard to the wheat growing lands of 

 the Scioto valley in Ohio, the richest in that re- 

 gion — and said that an analysis of them, had 

 shown that they do not contain one per cent, of 

 lime. In Massachusetts, we have on an average 

 two per cent, of lime. According to this view, 

 one bushel of lime to an acre, was sufficient to 

 raise wheat. Lime would not do on his land. 

 Where the land is infused with iron ore it will 

 work, and no where else. He said lime is not a 

 manure and will not enrich land. 



Mr. Howard, of the Cultivator, said the soil in 



