THE GENESEE FARMER. 



235 



expense, and were thus enabled to sell at low 

 prices. It was wise in them to do so. If, now, the 

 laud needs manure, they m-nst supply it. The soil 

 is not exhausted — the manure may be. 



This is the great problem which the farmers of 

 tlie older States have to solve — how they can en- 

 rich their land so as to compete with the naturally 

 manured new land of the West. They need all the 

 lip;ht which modern science can afibrd; all their 

 skill and experience will be taxed to the utmost ; 

 but they will prove equal to the occasion. They 

 have done well ; they deserve honor, not censure; 

 they will do still better in the future. 



JOHN JOHNSTON'S WHEAT CROP — SALT 

 AS A MANURE. 



Successful agriculture is the main foundation 

 of national prosperity. Anything which injures 

 the farmer, injures all other classes. ''Will the 

 midge continue so destructive as to force farmers 

 to abandon wheat culture?" is now the anxious 

 question asked by the miller, the merchant, the 

 mechanic, and the manufacturer — bankers, brokers, 

 forwarders — " middle men" of every class — all 

 feel that their prosperity depends on the ability of 

 \he farmer to meet this alarming adversary. Many 

 intelligent persons advocate the temporary cessation 

 of wheat raising, in the hope that the midge may 

 pass over. But the experience of farmers in the 

 Eastern States indicates that this wiU be useless-- 

 the midge is now as injurious there as it was 

 twenty-five years ago. The midge can propagate 

 iti^elf in other plants. "We have found it in barley 

 and in couch grass. If we give up wheat culture 

 now, we can hardly hope to renew it at a future 

 day. No; we must meet "the yellow villain" 

 now, or acknowledge ourselves vanquished. We 

 have seen fields of wheat, the present season, cut 

 for fodder; and it seems almost fool-hardy to con- 

 tinue to sow wheat under such circumstances. 

 But we must not — will not — succumb. 



The midge is no new thing; it is probably as old 

 as wheat itself. Nearly thirty years ago it was as 

 destructive in Scotland as it has ever been in the 

 worst aifected districts of this country. It prevails 

 to a greater or less extent in all parts of Great 

 Britain. In the London Gardener'^s Chronicle for 

 1841, Prof. Henslow says: "The wheat midge, 

 {Ceci'/omyia tritici^) millions and millions of which 

 infest every wheat field, is hardly known by fai-m- 

 ers to do them any wrong; and yet on an average 

 it destroys one-twentieth of a crop, and may possi- 

 bly destroy a great deal more." 



Previous to the introduction of underdraining, 

 high manuring, and guod cultivation, in England, 

 mildew, rust, and smut, were nmch more preva- 

 lent, and the midge and other insects more uumer- 1 



ous and injurious, than at present. Many English 

 farmers still living have sold wheat for seven dol- 

 lars per bushel ; and one man we are acquainted 

 with declared, when wheat fell to $3 per bushel, 

 that it was "cbeap enough to feed the pigs;" and 

 yet this man to-day, owing to an improved system 

 of culture, realizes more profit from his farm thau 

 when he obtained $7 per bushel for wheat. Enc^- 

 lish farmers have been forced into a better system 

 of agriculture, and such will be the case in this 

 country. At the present time, there is scarcely a 

 plant grown by the farmer or gardener, that is ex- 

 empt from the attacks of insects. As a general 

 rule, it will be found that the means necessary to 

 escape these attacks will be such as promote the 

 health, vigor, and productiveness, of the plants. 

 This we believe will prove true in regard to the 

 wheat midge. It is a N^emesis sent to scourge us 

 into good culture. 



But will good culture enable us to escape the 

 ravages of the wheat midge ? It may not enable 

 us to escape entirely, but it will certainly greatly 

 mitigate its injuries. It will enable us to raise good 

 wheat, at a fair profit. Those farmers who adopt 

 the best system of culture are even now affected 

 the least; but they suffer more than they would, 

 from the fact that the propagation of the midge is 

 encouraged by the bad cultivation of those around 

 them. Probably there is no farmer in Western 

 New York who has his land in a higher state of 

 cultivation than John Johxstojt, of Seneca county. 

 He has thoroughly underdrained every part of his 

 farm. He grows great crops of clover, and feeds 

 it out in his barn-yards to sheep and cattle. — 

 Though he has raised some years as much as 3,000 

 bushels of corn, he has never sold a bushel off the 

 farm. He has for many years purchased large 

 quantities of oil-cake, which, together with the 

 corn, clover, straw, etc., are fed to cattle and 

 sheep, thus making a large quantity of rich ma- 

 nure. The result is that he has always had good 

 crops of wheat, and has made himself rich by farm- 

 ing. True, he has suffered somewhat from the 

 midge, but nothing in comparison to his neighbors. 

 Two years ago, one field of 25 acres produced 841^ 

 bushels of good Saules wheat, or over 33^ bushels 

 per acre. The same field is in wheat (Soules) again 

 the present season, and we had the pleasure of ex- 

 amining it the second week in July, 



To grow wheat every other year, is running the 

 land pretty hard, and the crop on a portion of the 

 field the present season indicates that the unaided 

 soil will not bear such heavy cropping. Eleven 

 acres were sown without any manur.e, and fourteen 

 acres were dressed with one barrel of salt (380 lbs.) 

 per acre. Otherwise, the conditions were precisely 

 the same, — the same previous crops and tillage, the 



