IMPORTANCE OF THE WHEAT CROP. 35 



ENGLISH WHEAT-GROWING DECREASING. 



Another fact is auspicious to the prospects of the 

 American farmer, which is that the number of persons 

 engaged in grain-growing in Great Britain is on the de- 

 crease. By reference to reports in English journals, it 

 will be seen that the number of persons there engaged in 

 wheat-growing in 1861 was one million eight hundred 

 and thirty-three thousand two hundred and ninety-five ; 

 but in 1871 the number was decreased to one million six 

 hundred and thirty-four thousand one hundred and 

 ninety-two, a reduction of nearly twelve per cent in ten 

 years ; and the decrease, during the past decade, is re- 

 ported as being still larger, though the number engaged 

 in grazing has remained as usual. 



It is also reported that the number of acres sown to 

 grain, especially to wheat, is steadily becoming less, for 

 the past ten years. 



Great Britain will, undoubtedly, for a long time, be the 

 largest purchaser of our farm products, especially of 

 wheat, while some other countries of Europe and of 

 South America will often need portions of our grains, but 

 they will want it mostly as flour, which is really the true 

 form in which we should sell all of our surplus wheat. 



From numerous reports and other sources, in foreign 

 journals, we learn that the average yield, per acre, in 

 France and Germany, until the last few years, was 

 twenty-eight to thirty-two bushels ; and in England and 

 AVales, from thirty to thirty-four bushels, until the late 

 disastrous crops ; but that was the average yield, for 

 many generations, even on their old lands, which had 

 been cropped for ages. 



