INTRODUCTION. xlv 



especially, the roots of grain which are not well protected by a healthy growth in aulumn are very sure, 

 by the upheaving of the ground, to be broken and exposed to a killing cold in winter. This is inevitable 

 in long-cultivated and moist lands. In new soils, rendered light and porous by the remains of vegetable 

 matter, late sowing often results differently. Underdraining will lengthen the season at least two weeks 

 in autumn and spring. The land will be drier and warmer in spring and fall, and cooler and more moist 

 during the summer months. The wheat, on thoroughly undcrdrained, well-cultivated, and enriched 

 land, will make a strong, healthy growth in autumn, and thus be enabled to protect itself ngainst the 

 rigors of our severest winters; while it will come forward rapidly during the cool spring months, and 

 by the time that dry, hot weather sets in the plants will be so far advanced, and so full of sap, that all 

 that is needed is for the crop to mature. It is at this point that we need sufficient sunshine to elaborate 

 the juices of the plant and give us heat of high quality; and it is just here that the American climate 

 is so far superior to that of Great Britain. It is seldom, indeed, that we have not sun enough to mature 

 the heaviest crops when the soil and culture are adapted to the wheat plant. 



While it is true that the American fanner is highly favored in regard to climate, it must be 

 acknowledged that the average quality of our wheat is by no means what it should be. In New York, 

 Pennsylvania, and Ohio, the midge has driven out of cultivation some of the best varieties of white 

 wheat, and their place has been occupied by the red Mediterranean wheat, which, though earlier, is of 

 inferior quality. The means which we have recommended to avoid the midge, would enable us to grow 

 better varieties, as well as to improve their quality. 



In the western States the quality of the wheat has greatly improved ; but yet it is by no means 

 what it should be. More care in cleaning the seed, better cultivation, and less slovenly harvesting, 

 threshing, and cleaning, would add greatly to the quality of the western wheat crop, as well as to the 

 profits of the grower. The census returns do not show, separately, the amount of winter and spring 

 wheat. In many sections of the west, spring wheat is now much moi e extensively grown than winter 

 wheat, and the quality is, of course, inferior to the best samples of the latter. Much can be done, and 

 is doing, to improve the quality of our spring wheat, but the same efforts would give us winter wheat 

 of much greater excellence. With a better system of cultivation at the west, winter wheat will take 

 the place of the spring variety. 



In concluding this article, it may not be out of place to suggest, that if any persons should be 

 disposed, from what we have written respecting the consumption of wheat, to draw parallels with the 

 individual consumption in other countries, they should not overlook the extensive use made of maize 

 (Indian corn) by some portions of our people with whom wheat is a secondary consideration as an 

 article of diet. 



