PeOCEEDINQS of the FAR3IERS' ClUB. 619 



and makes, combined with milk, without eggs, only from four to six 

 quarts of blanc mange pudding ; wliile sea moss farina, costing 

 twenty-five cents, will produce full sixteen quarts. The committee 

 are satisfied that as a cheap, simple and ready dessert, or a dish for 

 young children and for invalids, it will be found as thus prepared, a 

 valuable addition to articles more generally known and widely 

 used. 



TuE Falling off in the Wheat Crop. 



Mr. James Gilbraith, Landisburg, Pa. — Some years back, or in th© 

 earlier, settlement of onr country, thirty, thirty-five, and as high as 

 forty bushels of wheat have been produced to the acre ; but now 

 from twelve to fifteen, and at the farthest twenty or twenty-two, is 

 the outside that can be raised. This is not owing to want of fertility 

 in the soil ; where the ground is made good by manuring so as to 

 produce a good crop, the wheat will lodge and not fill ; this is the 

 evil in our time. Some suppose that it is because the ground has 

 been too long worked, that it has lost its original properties necessary 

 for the different kinds of grain ; but how is it with England, where 

 the land has been worked for centuries, and they can raise from 

 forty to sixty bushels of wheat to the acre ? The long-continued 

 culture of the land caiinot be the canse. Others suppose that in 

 England it is the root culture, making more of a variety in the crops, 

 not having such a regular succession of green crops as we have. Our 

 best land is limestone ; our next best red shale. Our crops are, first, 

 corn ; second, oats ; third, wheat ; next, red clover, which is mowed 

 for hay, and clover seed one or two years ; then turn down the clo- 

 ver seed and commence with corn. This is generally our round of 

 crops, or sometimes a crop of clover in full bloom is turned down for 

 wlieat. Why is it that our wheat crops are not so good as they were 

 and that the increased fertility of the soil causes more abundant 

 growth of straw and not a corresponding amount of wheat, the straw 

 not having strength to support the wheat until it fills ^ 



Mr. Jolm Crane. — My grandfiither used to raise a crop of forty 

 bushels of wheat to the acre ; after a while it dwindled to ten ; he 

 brought it back to twenty -five by applying guano at the rate of 200 

 pounds per acre. Our correspondent would doubtless find advantage 

 from similar application. Of course there must be no falling off in 

 the use of other fertilizers. 



Mr. W. S. Carpenter. — As I undei'stand it, the straw is weak. It 



