ON WHEAT, &C. 85 



COMMUNICATION FROM MR. KEELY, ON WHEAT. 



Wheat, in this country, is usuaily an uncertain 

 crop, but this season it has been, generally, little bet- 

 ter than a failure. To point out the causes, and a 

 remedy for this uncertainty, is a subject of sufficient 

 importance to merit the attention of our best scien- 

 tific agriculturalists, and will not now be attempted. 

 A few suggestions, however, will not, perhaps, be 

 deemed impertinent. 



It is well known that much of the land in the long 

 settled parts of New England which is now consid- 

 ered unsuitable for wheat, has become so under the 

 exhausting system of cultivation which has been pur- 

 sued. Once, wheat was a profitable and tolerably sure 

 crop, as it is now in similar soils and climate where 

 the same system either has not been adopted, or has 

 not been in progress long enough to produce its mis- 

 chievous effects. If it be asked, what is there so in- 

 jurious in the system of cultivation under which our 

 soil has so greatly deteriorated, it is replied that 

 among other things, one of its most prominent fea- 

 tures will be found to be a7i almost entire neQ;lect of 

 the principles of rotation.) or even of alternation of 

 crops. Continual crops of either wheat, corn, oats, 

 rye or grass, constituted the series ; for potatoes are 

 comparatively a new article, at least to any extent. 

 Grass for mowing, is generally allowed to stand until 

 the seeds are formed, and in many instances, to be- 

 come nearly ripe before it is cut. Now under this 

 management, there is very little alternation ever, 

 l^hese plants are all culmiferous, and all, with the ex- 

 ception oi^ gYa.ss,fari?iaceons, as they are all suffered 

 to produce seed, tend to exhaust the soil of nearly 

 the same quality, and that without any alleviation. 



With respect to a remedy for the evil, it is remark- 

 ed, that the application of large quantities of animal 



