86 Overgrown Wheat and tender Straw. — Profits of Farming. Vol. XI. 



this fact for the benefit of the public, and as 

 the remedy is a simple one, within the reach 

 of almost every farmer, it is certainly wor- 

 thy of receiving a fair trial. — Ledger. 



Overgrown Wheat and tender StraAV. 



Some highly cultivated farms, where dung 

 only is used as a dressing, having attained 

 an average of about five quarters wheat per 

 acre, and finding it subject to lay from over- 

 growth, it is proposed to check this over- 

 growth by burning or other means of reduc- 

 ing the richness of the soil, thus something 

 like limiting the produce to about five quar- 

 ters per acre, a limit within that of cottage 

 gardens and allotments, and which has been 

 doubted even under the plough. Surely, 

 then, there is room for trying other means 

 of stiffening the straw and promoting the 

 formation of grain, before taking measures 

 to check the fertility of the soil. Salt is 

 well known to produce both these effects; 

 the wiieats on our sea-board being noted for 

 heavy ears, and thin stiflP straw; and wheat 

 will bear much salt, Johnson — not John- 

 stone — says 10 to 20 bushels per acre. Mild 

 lime produces a like effect, but not caustic 

 lime, on rich soils, where it can liberate am- 

 monia. To check the overgrowth, therefore, 

 and increase the grain, 10 or 12 bushels — 

 say six to seven cwt. — of salt, with twice as 

 much mild lime, wliere required, might be 

 harrowed in upon the seed, or perhaps better 

 top dressed on the young plant in spring, es- 

 pecially if winter proud ; superphosphate of 

 lime should conduce to the same result, its 

 acidity retarding the stimulative action of 

 ammonia on vegetation, and its phosphorus 

 determining to the formation of grain ; two 

 cwt. per acre might be mixed with the salt, 

 varying the quantities experimentally, on 

 the small scale, as a guide, and eventually 

 we may hope attaining a stiff" straw under 

 crops much heavier than five quarters per 

 acre. Special manuring is particularly ap- 

 plicable to cases of this kind ; but my im- 

 pression is that almost every crop might be 

 improved by special top-dressing in its early 

 growth. Alkaline silicates have a direct 

 tendency to harden the stalk, but silicate of 

 potash appears, from the experiments on re 

 cord, to promote the growth of straw; of 

 silicate of soda, which costs less, I have 

 seen no reports; it might be tried at the 

 rate of one cwt. per acre, mixed with the 

 dressings above, but would be safest on quite 

 a small scale. — Agricultural Gazelle. 



Information Respectfully Desired. — 



As Chairman of a Committee, appointed at 

 the meeting of the Farmers' and Gardeners' 



Convention, at New York, in October last, 

 "to collect information," the undersigned 

 respectfully requests the Secretaries of all 

 Agricultural Societies and Farmers' Cluba 

 in the United States, to address to him a 

 note, stating the locality of the Society, and 

 the names of the President and Secretary. 



The list, when completed, will be printed, 

 and a copy sent to each Secretary. The ob- 

 ject is to establish the means of correspond- 

 ence, and interchange of information and 

 views, for the better protection of the rights, 

 and more efficient improvement of the prac- 

 tice, of agriculture. 



Agricultural and other editors are respect- 

 fully requested to give this one insertion. 

 There are nearly six hundred sucli Societies 

 and Clubs in Great Britain, all well known 

 to, and in correspondence with each other. 

 J. S. Skinner, New York. 



The Profits of Farming. 



The following is transcribed from the 

 leading article of your Gazelle of the 25th 

 ult:— 



" You and I cultivate adjoining acres of 

 equal quality; you raise 30 bushels on your 

 acre by better management and skill and 

 knowledge than that which enables me to 

 grow but 25 on mine. At 6s, a bushel, 

 you will make more money than I shall by 

 selling mine at Is. Teach me but your 

 mode of farming, skilful neighbour, and with 

 an odd mark of 40 acres I shall jog home 

 from the market, where wheat is selling at 

 48s. a quarter, a 'better man' by £10 than 

 I now do after selling at ,56s. Sure never 

 was paradox more susceptible of arithmetic! 

 Let the grower of 20 bushels an acre add 

 but four bushels to his produce by a small 

 accession of skill and knowledge, and he 

 will make more money at 6s, a bushel than 

 he made before at 7s." 



You and I shall be, for the sake of expla- 

 nation, respectively called A. and B. A. 

 therefore grows 30 bushels per acre; B. 

 only 25 on 40 acres of land of similar qual- 

 ity. Why does A, grow the extra quantity 

 of five bushels per acre on his 40 acres of 

 land, making in all 200 bushels'! Not by a 

 " small accession of skill and knowledge" 

 only, but because he has expended capital 

 with skill and knowledge, and brought his 

 land from a state of nature to a fit state of 

 cultivation, expended additional money ao-ain 

 in the cultivation of his crop by keeping 

 down weeds, the natural produce of the soil; 

 and also additional money in reaping, har- 

 vesting, and thrashing the extra bulk of 

 corn grown on his land to that grown on his 

 neighbour B.'s land. Would it not be fair. 



