74 How THE FARM PAYS. 



Q. On your high priced lands and limited areas, as compared with 

 the Western and other wheat fields, how do you find wheat to pay as 

 a farm crop ? 



A. It does not pay, because the manure and labor necessary cost 

 too much, as we have to manure so heavily. But we sow wheat only 

 to prepare for the after crop of grass. I raised last year forty 

 bushels per acre, but the average in this section of the country is from 

 twenty-five to thirty bushels. About $1.25 per bushel is afair average 

 price for this section, then the straw is worth about $15.00 per acre. 

 I sell no straw, but buy all I can get in this neighborhood at a fair 

 value to use as bedding for cattle. 



Q. Are there any special varieties of wheat that you prefer to 

 others? 



A. I think that it was in 1876, when in Europe, I brought back with 

 me six bushels of a variety called Champion wheat. This I think 

 was in part the cause of my average of forty bushels per acre. The 

 same wheat is now grown for miles around here. It weighed when 

 I got it sixty-five pounds per bushel; last year it fell to sixty-one 

 pounds, and this experience confirms me in the opinion that I have long 

 held : that change of wheat, as well as any other seed, should be made 

 annually, as it is a benefit to the crop. 



Q. Would you make any preference in changing from Europe or to 

 localities in the United States ? 



A. No; I would much rather get my seed wheat from Ohio or 

 Pennsylvania than from Europe, if I could get it as pure, but more 

 care is certainly taken in Britain to keep varieties pure and true, 

 than we do in this country. The best farmers of England and 

 Scotland are so careful when they grow for seed, that men are sent 

 through the fields with shears to cut out all heads that are not 

 considered to be true and genuine. By this precaution a uniformity 

 is secured that cannot be obtained in any other way. 



(Mr. H.) I can well understand the necessity of that. In our 

 business as seedsmen we have seeds grown in different sections of 

 the country, and we find it necessary to have men devoted especially 

 to the purpose of examining the crops particular care being taken 

 with crops such as peas, that are more liable to degenerate from the 

 true types to see that all "rogues," as they are called, or such 

 plants as are of a different variety, are weeded out. 



Q. Under this head of Rotation of Crops, I will ask the question, 

 Mr. Crozier, whether in your section, or the vicinity of New York, it 

 is ever the practice to let one wheat crop follow another? 



A. No ; it would not be advisable to follow such crops as wheat or 

 corn year after year on the same land, and wheat particularly being 



