No.133.] 291 



her' majesty over this part of the Romaa empire, holding in both 

 hands bundles of wheat, apparently of the red bald-headed variety. 

 It would seem that the white wheat of modern days comes from 

 the cool climates pf the north. In Africa we find there were eo 

 less tlian eleven or twelve provinces to this part of the empire^ 

 including the kingdoms of Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Lybia,. 

 Thebes, Kgypt, and "some others. Each of these banners repre- 

 sented the goddess Ceres, holding in lier arms an immense bas- 

 ket of bread. At this day Spain also was a large wheat-growing 

 country ; 'while Germany produced but little, if any, of the seeds 

 of the grain. Africa is evidently an exhausted country ; so are 

 Asia Minor, Palestine, and most of tha Turki^ih empire ; that is — ■ 

 the people have grown wheat and grain until it, will grow no 

 longer. The ingredients of the soil which produced wheat have 

 become exhausted, and it is so in many parts even of the United 

 States'. Wheat will produce >straw, but the heads will not fill 

 with the berries of grain. Our cotton lands, and tobacco lands, 

 and wheat lands aie exhausted precisely in the same way. New 

 England now produces little wheat, and the State of New- York 

 only slrows a production of eleven bushels and less, at the present 

 day, to an acre, 09 an average. Indeed, some accounts reduc« 

 the production to the small quantity of seven bushels to the acre 

 in the State of New-York, on an average crop. Tlie starch and 

 the gluten, and other combinations to produce the wheat crop from 

 the soil are evidently fast becoming exhausted with us ; we can 

 no more grow wheat out of the soil unless we feed it than we can 

 fdt cattle without giving them food. The phosphoric principle is 

 wanting, and must be supplied as fist as it is taken away by crops. 

 Manure that will supply the March, the gluten, and other ingre- 

 dients composing the grain of the wheat are wanted, and must be 

 obtained and put into the soil, or we must abandon the culture of 

 wheat from necessity. The limes, with their various combina- 

 tions will do tliis, and supply the food for tlie growth of wheat. 

 Professor Mapes, of Newark, N. J., has a manufactory ot the super 

 phosphate of lime at his farm. It is a thing wanted, and when 

 applied to land at the rate of 3001bs. to the acre it is sure to give 

 a g<x)d crop. He sells this lime at $50 a ton, which will supply 

 5J acres with a most invaluable manure. We lately, in company 



