January 22, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



49 



belts, the difference increasing in the more southerly lati- 

 tudes. In rate of increase they stand between the other two 

 divisions. The topography of these hilly, coal counties is a 

 sufficient cause for their lower yield, and is probably the chief 

 cause, as the rocks of the coal measures comprise both lime- 

 stones and shales, and it is probable that the soils derived 

 from them are not naturally inferior in fertility to those 

 found in the remainder of the State. 



As between the soils lying over limestones and those over 

 shales, these statistics do not yet justify any opinion regard- 

 ing their respective adaptation to the production of wheat. 

 It is probable, however, that the middle and southern belts 

 of counties afford a more just basis of comparison between 

 the two geological formations than the northern belt, because 

 in this northern region the overlying drift has been derived, 

 to a large extent, from the rocks excavated from the lake 

 basin, and which are both limestones and shales. 



Within twenty years the area annually sown to wheat in 

 Ohio has increased from an average of 1,800,000 acres during 

 the eighth, to 2,500,000 acres during the ninth decade. This 

 area repi-esents twelve per cent of the area in farms within 

 the State, but several counties are sowing annually 18 to 20 

 and even 25 per cent of their farm lands to wheat. In 1881 

 a total area of 2,800,000 acres was sown, and there is no good 

 reason to doubt that with the continued clearing away of the 

 forest and the reclamation of waste lands by drainage it will 

 soon be possible to devote as much as 3,000,000 acres to wheat 

 without infringing upan any other agricultural interest, and 

 this, even though the hill counties should reduce their acre- 

 age by one-half. Such an increase, at the present rate of 

 production, would represent an annual product of 40,000,000 

 bushels.' 



But it is not to be supposed that Ohio farmers will rest 

 content with a yield of only thirteen bushels of wheat per 

 acre. The northern third of the State has increased its aver- 

 age yield within forty years by nearly three bushels, and the 

 middle third by from one to two bushels, and it is reasonable 

 to expect a similar increase within the next forty years, not- 

 withstanding the fact that the rate of production seems just 

 now to be at a standstill. It is to be expected that progress 

 in this, as in other matters, will be more or less spasmodic, 

 and that its actual rate can only be measured at long inter- 

 vals; but it is not impossible that the time may come when 

 the average from the entire State will equal the present 

 average of Summit county, which means a total average pro- 

 duction of about 60,000,000 bushels, or bread for twelve 

 million mouths. Such a yield would be far below what has 

 been attained in Great Britain, where the average yield is 

 now 28 bushels or more, per acre and is steadily increasing. 

 This high yield is not due solely to the superiority of the soil 

 and climate of that country, for the time has been when the 

 average yield of Great Britain was very much smaller than 

 it is at present. 



Ohio's population has increased by a little more than two 

 millions since 1850, while the total wheat yield has increased 

 by an average of more than 14,000,000 bushels per annum, 

 comparing the average of the first decade witli that of the 

 decade 1850-9, so that production is keeping far ahead of any 

 possible consumption within the State. Production will 

 eventually reach a limit, while population may expand in- 

 definitely, but at present rates of increase, both of popula- 

 tion and of wheat production, it will probably be several 

 centuries before Ohio shall contain enough people to consume 

 all her wheat. 



' 48,000,000 bushels were harvested In Ohio In 1S88. 



What is true of Ohio is true to a greater or less extent of 

 the entire winter wheat belt of North America. The area 

 now sown to wheat in this region may be expanded largely 

 without infringing upon other productions, and the rate of 

 yield may and will be very materially increased by better 

 husbandry, including an intelligent use of manures and fer- 

 tilizers, and more thorough drainage. 



Let there be given a little stimulus in the shape of higher 

 prices for wheat and we shall see a rapid expansion in the 

 total production in this country, while there are still unde- 

 veloped regions in South America, south Africa, and Aus- 

 tralia, which will eventually be made to add largely to the 

 world's supply of breadstuffs. 



This is not said by way of discouragement. I believe that 

 the future outlook for the Ohio wheat grower is eminently a 

 hopeful one, but I do not expect to see the very great increase 

 in price of wheat that is being predicted by certain statistical 

 writers. In my judgment, the great opportunity for the 

 Ohio wheat grower lies in increasing the yield per acre, io 

 reducing the cost of production, and in improving the quality 

 of the grain. Such a course will render him independent of 

 the market, and then if higher prices do come he will be 

 doubly benefited. 



It appears from this statistical study of the wheat harvests 

 of Ohio that the average yield of wheat is increasing in the 

 northern and central sections of the Slate, while it is at a 

 standstill, and standing at far too low a point for profit, in 

 the southern and south-eastern counties. 



It would seem that the profitable culture of wheat on the 

 steep hillsides of southern Ohio is a hopeless undertaking; 

 that the great problem before the wheat grower of the central 

 belt of counties is winter-killing, a problem which may be 

 partially solved by underdrainage and the intelligent use of 

 clover and manures; and that in the northern counties cli- 

 matic influences are more generally favorable to wheat cul- 

 ture than elsewhere in the State. 



The statistics indicate that the wheat crops of Ohio have 

 been slightly increased by the use of commercial fertilizers, 

 but it appears that the average cost of this increase has 

 equaled its market value, and that a general improvement 

 in the methods of agriculture has contributed more largely to 

 the increase of Ohio's wheat crops than the use of purchased 

 fertility. 



It would seem that the total area under wheat might be 

 considerably enlarged, and at the same time more closely re- 

 stricted to lands adapted to tillage, and that the yield per 

 acre may be so increased that the total product shall reach 

 double the quantity now annually produced. 



Chas. E. Thorne. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF EUROPE. 

 " The Anthropology of Europe" was the title of a course 

 of lectures (the Rhind lectures) delivered in Edinburgh last 

 October by Dr. Beddoe, ex-president of the Anthropological 

 Institute of Great Britain, of which we find the following 

 brief abstract in the Scottish Geographical Magazine : Dr. 

 Beddoe, in his earlier lectures, dwelt chiefly on some of the 

 problems of anthropology, briefly on the question of priority 

 of dolichocephalic or brachycephalic types, briefly also on 

 the great Aryan question, and at greater length on that of 

 the influence of environment, towards modifying of types, 

 to which he repeatedly referred during subsequent lectures. 

 He noted the very frequent occurrence of broad, even very 

 broad, skulls in conjunction with very narrow ones in some 

 of the earlier, if not the earliest, " finds," a circumstance not 



