48 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No 468 



SCIENCE; 



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FOETY YEAES OF WHEAT CULTURE IN OHIO.' 



Ohio lies within the borders of what is known as the win- 

 ter wheat belt of the United States — a region, the soil and 

 climate of which are especially adapted to the culture of this 

 cereal. The State possesses two great natural arteries of 

 traffic, one on its northern and one on its southern boundary, 

 and before the aidvent of the railway it was crossed by two 

 lines of canals, each extending from the lake on the north 

 to the river on the south, and affording outlets for its pro- 

 ductions that served a very important function in its early 

 history. Lying, as it does, right in the gateway between 

 the East and the West, it has been crossed by line after line 

 of the great transcontinental railways, while its rich mineral 

 resources have caused the building of multitudes of other 

 lines, running in all directions, until its territory is now 

 traversed by a network of railways, aggregating within the 

 State nearly 8,000 miles of main track, besides more than 

 2,000 miles of sidings. 



Under such circumstances it is not surprising that the 

 culture of wheat became at an early date, and has ever con- 

 tinued to be, a leading branch of Ohio's agriculture, and that 

 the State should not only have liberally supplied itself with 

 bread, but have had much to spare. 



Because of this I'elative prominence of wheat culture in the 

 agriculture of the State, the Experiment Station has made 

 the study of wheat a leading feature of its work, and the 

 statistical study now published has been undertaken primarily 

 for the purpose of obtaining such assistance as it might give 

 in the conduct of the station's experimental research. It was 

 hoped that this study might throw some light upon such 

 problems as the relative adaptability to wheat culture of soils 

 of different geologic origin and history, and the effect of 

 differences of latitude, of drainage, and the use of commercial 

 fei'tilizers, and it is believed that some of the conclusions 

 which it seems to warrant should be carefully considered by 

 the farmers of large areas of the State. 



' From theBulletlnof (he Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Nov., 1891. 



A glance at the geological map of Ohio shows three broad 

 bands running across the State from north to south. That 

 on the east embraces the coal measures, and extends across 

 nearly one-third of the State; then follows a narrower strip, 

 underlaid with Waverly rocks and bordered by a narrow belt 

 of Huron Shales, while the western half of the State lies over 

 limestones. 



As the Waverly rocks are chiefly sandstones or calcareous 

 shales, this formation would offer a sharp contrast between 

 soils of such origin and those derived from limestones, were 

 it not for the fact that, in the case of Ohio, both these for- 

 mations are covered with a thick bed of glacial drift. The 

 drift, however, is considerably modified by the underlying 

 rocks, and it would seem that if there were any marked 

 differences in the value for wheat culture of soils of the 

 widely different character produced from these different for- 

 mations it should be indicated in this case. 



Omitting the four counties in the north-western corner of 

 the State, which overlie the outcrop of Huron shale in that 

 region, viz.: Williams, Fulton, Defiance, and Henry; the 

 five counties which lie on both sides of the belt of Huron 

 shale, extending north and south through the State, namely: 

 Erie, Crawford, Delaware, Franklin, and Pickaway, and the 

 five counties lying immediately north of the coal region and 

 chiefly over conglomerates, namely: Lake, Geauga, Ashta- 

 bula, Summit, and Trumbull, the remaining seventy-four 

 counties have been divided into three parallel belts, accord- 

 ing to latitude, and subdivided according as they lie over 

 the limestones, shales, or coal measures, making nine groups 

 in all. 



In the northern belt are included twelve limestone coun- 

 ties, viz. : Lucas, Ottawa, Wood, Sandusky, Paulding, Put- 

 nam, Hancock, Seneca, Van Wert, Allen, Hardin, and 

 Wyandot; seven counties over the Waverly, viz.: Lorain, 

 Cuyahoga, Huron, Medina, Eichland, Ashland, and Wayne, 

 and six counties over coal, viz. : Portage, Mahoning, Stark, 

 Columbiana. Holmes, and Carroll. 



In the middle belt are eleven limestone counties, viz. : 

 Mercer, Auglaize, Marion, Shelby, Logan, Union, Darlje, 

 Miami, Champaign, Clark, and Madison; four Waverly 

 counties, viz. : Morrow, Knox, Licking, and Fairfield, and 

 seven coal counties, viz.: Coshocton, Tuscarawas, Harrison, 

 Jefferson, Muskingum, Guernsey, and Belmont. 



In the southern belt are twelve limestone counties, viz. : 

 Preble, Montgomery, Greene, Fayette, Butler, Warren, 

 Clinton, Highland, Hamilton, Clermont, Brown, and Adams; 

 three Waverly counties, viz. : Eoss, Pike, and Scioto, and 

 twelve coal counties, viz. : Perry, Morgan, Noble, Monroe, 

 Hocking, Athens, Washington, Vinton, Meigs, Jackson, 

 Gallia, and Lawrence. 



Tt appears that in the northern belt the counties over 

 Waverly rocks have given a larger average yield over the 

 entire forty-year period under review than those in the same 

 latitude, which are underlaid with limestones or with the 

 rocks of the coal measures, and that the rate of increase in 

 yield during the past twenty years is also larger in the coun- 

 ties over the WaVerly. 



In the middle belt the result is just the opposite: the lime- 

 stone counties show the larger yield and the greater rate of 

 increase. 



In the southern belt the limestone counties show the 

 larger yield, but the Waverly counties show a greater rate of 

 increase. 



The counties overlying the coal measures stand below 

 either of the other divisions in yield per acre in each of the 



