xxSii INTRODUCTION. 



In the middle States the production of wheat in 1850 was five and one-third bushels to each 

 inhabitant, and in I860 three and three-fourths bushels. 



In the western States the production of wheat in 1850 was seven and a quarter bushels, and in 

 18GO nine and three-fourths bushels, to each inhabitant. 



In the southern States the production of wheat in 1850 was two and a half bushels, and in 1860 

 three and a half bushels, to each inhabitant. 



In the entire slavcholding States the production of wheat in 1850 was three bushels, and in 1860 

 four bushels, to each inhabitant. 



In the free States and Territories the production of wheat in 1850 was five bushels, and in 1860 

 six and a quarter bushels, to each inhabitant. 



Taking the country as a whole, therefore, there has been a gratifying increase in the production 

 of wheat as compared with population ; an increase of one bushel to each inhabitant, or about twenty- 

 five per cent. 



In the western States the increase in proportion to population has been, as was to be expected, 

 much larger than in any other section an increase of two and a half bushels to each inhabitant, or an 

 actual increase of over thirty-three per cent. 



In the slaveholding States, taken as a whole, the increase was one bushel to each inhabitant, against 

 one and a quarter bushels increase in the free States. The increase per cent., however, is greater in 

 the slave States than in the free States, being thirty-three per cent, in the former, against twenty-five 

 per cent, in the latter. The production of wheat in proportion to the population was much lower in 

 1850 in the slaveholding than in the free States. 



In New England the production of wheat, little as it was in 1850, is even less in 1860. It was 

 only thirteen quarts to each inhabitant in 1850, and in 1860 about eleven and a half quarts. 



New England is almost entirely dependent upon the western States for breadstuff s. That wheat 

 can be grown in the New England States there is abundant evidence. Wheat forms the principal 

 bread-food of a large portion of all civilized nations, and has a wider range of habitat than any other 

 cereal. There is scarcely a soil in which it cannot be grown, at least occasionally. We have seen as 

 good wheat produced in, Connecticut as in western New York or in Ohio. 



It has been said that the reason why New England produces so little wheat is on account of the 

 exhaustion of the soil. We believe the soil proper is as rich to-day in New England as it ever was, 

 and that it can be made highly productive has been proved in repeated instances. The soil of New 

 England, however, never was well adapted to the production of wheat. John Adams, of Quincy, Mas 

 sachusetts, in a letter written to Elkanah Watson, in 1812, says : &quot; Full fifty-five years have I observed, 

 inquired, read, and tried experiments to raise wheat in New England. The result is total despair.&quot; 



In another letter to the same gentleman, written about the same time, he alludes to the experi 

 ments of Josiah Quincy with Siberian wheat as follows : 



&quot; He (Mr. Quincy) succeeded very well; had a fine crop, which suffered nothing from the Hessian 

 fly, mildew, blasting, or weevil. Enthusiasm was excited in the neighborhood ; all the seed he could 

 spare was purchased at a high price for sowing. My wife purchased some bushels; others more. 

 Quincy himself sowed the greatest part of all he had. Expectations were high that it would become 

 the staple of New England. The next year we all failed; every plant of it blasted, and seed, labor, and 

 all were totally lost.&quot; 



&quot; Notwithstanding all this,&quot; he further says, &quot; I have no doubt wheat may be raised in Massachu 

 setts as well as anywhere else ; but the land must be under proper cultivation, particularly manured 

 abundantly, the seed sown so early that it may be forward and vigorous enough to bear the winter, and 

 start early enough in the spring to shoot the grain and ear forward before the season of insects. But 

 this process, which / know has succeeded, and will succeed, is expensive, and the wheat will not procure 

 a price equal to the labor.&quot; 



