1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



47 



"WHEAT CULTUBE. 



OME of the West- 

 ern cultivators are 

 becoming serious- 

 ly alarmed at the 

 steady deprecia- 

 tion of the wheat 

 crop in all the old- 

 er wheat growing 

 States. The Prai- 

 rie Farmer of the 

 7th Nov. has a 

 <;;; ^—^'1 t w -="r:y Spirited article un- 



*07!/> /Xi f^Avfe)- ^^^ *^® caption 



"Where shall we 

 get our bread?" 

 It quotes the re- 

 port of the Com- 

 missioner of Agri- 

 culture going to 

 show that within 

 ten years the cen- 

 tre of wheat pro- 

 duction will be beyond the Mississippi, and 

 that the yield in California will, in a few years, 

 be reduced from the fifty or sixty bushels to 

 the acre, which it is now, to ten or twelve 

 bushels. The editor states that Ohio within 

 the' past three years has imported 10,000,000 

 bushels of wheat to supply her people with 

 bread, instead of exporting fromO to 10,000,- 

 000 per year, which it formerly did. 



This article was followed by another the 

 succeeding week, which was republished in 

 part in our last paper. We wish to call atten- 

 tion particularly to the proposition of the 

 Frairie Farmer for a convention of wheat 

 growers to discuss various questions connected 

 with the subject. This is an important matter 

 and it concerns the bread consumers of the 

 whole country, as well as the bread producers. 

 The fact that the average product of Illinois is 

 reduced to ten or eleven bushels per acre is a 

 conclusive proof that the present system of 

 wheat, culture is perfectly ruinous, and that an 

 entirely different method must be inaugurated. 

 The great distance to which wheat is now 

 transported, adds enormously to its cost to the 

 consumer. 



This is a matter that concerns the East as 

 well as the West. It is arresting the attention 

 of commercial men, and concerns us all. The 

 editor of the Farmer says, "had there been 



no virgin plains west of the AUeghanies, there 

 would be better crops of wheat grown to-day 

 between the AUeghanies and the sea than 

 there are." We have no doubt of this. 



There are many varieties of wheat, among 

 which might be found those that are suited to 

 different climates and soils. Varieties might 

 be found that will ripen early enough to es- 

 cape the devastations of insects . This subject 

 requires study and careful attention. The 

 wheat grown in New England may not be as 

 white as that grown in a more Southern lati- 

 tude, but it is as sweet, and as nutritious, and 

 with proper cultivation we get more bushels 

 to the acre than any but virgin soils yield at 

 the West. We have grown fastidious about 

 our bread, and sacrifice economy to whiteness. 

 There needs to be a great reform in this re- 

 spect. 



Every farmer in New England should raise 

 the wheat consumed in his own family, at 

 least, and if he will select good seed and drill 

 it into well prepared soil, he can do it, and 

 thus obtain good, sweet, nutritious bread much 

 cheaper than he now does. The bringing of 

 bread ten or fifteen hundred miles by land to 

 feed farmers who are cultivating soil upon 

 which good bread stuffs may be raised, must 

 be an expensive mode of living. A large part 

 of our earnings must be paid for transport. 

 This should be saved at home. The inhabi- 

 tant of the city, the mechanic and the manu- 

 facturer, must purchase their bread, and they 

 will of course obtain it in the market, but the 

 farmer^ should find his own bread in his own 

 granary. 



Western men are coming back to the 

 East to learn more scientific methods of cul- 

 ture, and are learning that they have no right 

 to expect a continuation of large crops, with- 

 out returning to the soil the elements which 

 the crops have taken from it. When this les- 

 son is learned, instead of the "bread centre" 

 being at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, or 

 beyond, we shall raise a larger portion of our 

 breadstuffs in the older States than we do now. 



A Good Native Cow. — A correspondent 

 informs us that Luther Stanley of Springvale, 

 Me., has a native cow from the milk of which 

 in seven days, eleven pounds of butter were 

 made. The cow had only common pasture 

 feed. 



