32 WHEAT CULTURE. 



REPORTS BY LETTERS. 



Many results reported in numerous letters received by 

 the author, for last year's harvest, show that the maxi- 

 mum yield, in many sections of many States, ranged 

 from thirty, forty, fifty, up to sixty-one bushels per acre, 

 under thorough, judicious culture ; and many reports, 

 gathered from other authentic sources, for several years 

 past, in different States, show that as high as fifty to 

 sixty bushels per acre have frequently been obtained. Is 

 it unreasonable, then, to claim that the great majority of 

 farmers can more than double the average yield of four- 

 teen bushels, and make the average even as high as 

 thirty bushels the acre ? For instance, take the mean 

 between these maximum rates of forty to sixty bushels, 

 which is fifty bushels, and we believe it not a very hard 

 matter for the majority of wheat growers to obtain that 

 figure of fifty bushels the acre. 



When farmers reflect that their productions have 

 really become the controlling commodities in the com- 

 mercial world, they will understand that they cannot 

 become too intelligent in their business, nor too well 

 informed in regard to the markets and trade, where they 

 must sell and buy. Daniel Webster is reported to have 

 once said, in a speech, " that the time was not far distant 

 when American wheat would regulate the money and 

 exchanges of Europe and America," a prediction already 

 well-nigh fulfilment ; and a similar remark was recently 

 made by an English statesman, that " the breadstuff s of 

 America would soon control the exchanges and commerce 

 of the world," which is being realized by the farmers of 

 America already. 



VARIOUS STATISTICS. 



Different reports and estimates show that the total 

 wheat product of the United States, in 1878, was very 

 nearly four hundred and twenty million bushels, on 



