84 AGRICULTURE. 
farmers this may look like a primitive or even a wasteful practice, 
but it saves labor, as well as a great outlay of capital, and has thus 
far proved more remunerative to Western stock-growers than stall- 
fattening. The superior quality of Missouri beef and pork is easily 
traced to this mode of feeding, which affords to animals the pure 
air and exercise they lack when pent up in close stalls. 
WuEAat— Triticum, Z. Of what country wheat is a native is 
totally unknown; it has been supposed indigenous to Asia and 
Africa, and probably it is more likely to belong to these parts of 
the world than any other, but all that can be advanced on this 
subject is conjecture. 
While second on the list among the productions of our State in 
point of value, wheat stands confessedly at the head in importance 
as an article of human food ; it deserves this distinction as being 
the origin of our daily bread,—the source from which the chief 
aliment of millions is derived. The flour made from it contains 
more gluten, and is more nutritious than that derived from corn, 
rye, or any other of the cultivated cereals. Although sometimes 
unremunerative like other crops and branches of business, and 
subject to smut, rust and other diseases, as well as to perils from 
insects, wheat, from its simple and easy culture, and its ready sale 
in the market, must be profitable as a leading crop, as long as 
people prefer wheat bread to any other. 
Except in a few of the northernmost counties, spring wheat is 
but little grown in the State, and its culture is not extending per- 
ceptibly. Spring wheat, in our climate, is apt to suffer from the 
effects of hot weather and midsummer drouth, as well as from rust, 
causing a shrinking and shriveling of the grain while in the milk, 
and often superinducing a total failure of the crop. Owing to the 
snowless winters on our wide, bare plains, and to the loose, arena- 
ceous nature of the soil, wheat is easily winter-killed in the prairies, 
and seems better suited to the /vess and clay-loams found on the 
ridges extending over the central and southern portions of the 
State. There is probably no soil in the United States that is 
better adapted te the cultivation of this cereal, or superior to the 
white oak ridges that adjoin the Mississippi and Missouri bluffs in 
St. Charles county, for the production of the best quality of winter 
wheat. By pursuing a regular and rational system of rotation, 
breaking up the soil to a greater depth, and by bringing the drill 
into general requisition, the average yield of our wheat fields can 
be greatly increased. The drill not only saves seed, but deposits 
the grain equally and uniformly at any depth wanted, protecting 
the roots from disintegration by alternate frosts and snows, instead 
of laying them bare,—a consideration of importance on light sandy 
lands and thin cold clays, which tend to throw out the plants. 
The principal diseases incident to wheat are smut and rust. 
Smut, a fungoid distemper by which the grain and even part of the 
husk is converted into a black, soot-like powder, can be prevented 
by steeping the grain before sowing, in a weak solution of sulphate 
of iron, or green vitriol. This remedy has been employed for 
many years with unvarying success in various parts of Europe. Rust 
is a much more destructive disease than smut, and as it is probably 
occasioned by a peculiar state of the atmosphere during the periods 
of flowering and ripening, it is likely to baffle all attempts at 
prevention. A selection of early ripening varieties, and, when 
the ravages of the Hessian fly are not feared, early seeding in 
autumn, lessen the tendency of wheat to rust, especially in dry, 
cool seasons, when this disease usually does but little damage. 
Oats—Avena Sativa, L. The oat is a very useful grain for 
horse food, and is grown in all parts of Missouri, though more 
peculiarly adapted to latitudes north of this State. Its native 
country is unknown, unless the wild oat of Europe be considered 
the parent species, which is highly probable. Of all the gramineous 
plants this is the easiest of culture, growing in any soil that admits 
of plowing and harrowing. The most tenacious clays, and barren 
gravels and sands, where no other cerealia would succeed, will pro- 
duce a crop of oats if plowed at a proper season, and the seed 
judiciously sown and covered; but on account of a propensity to 
blow down and lodge, oats are not adapted to very richland. The 
mode of sowing oats is almost universally broadcast, although the 
drill could be used to advantage in most instances. Northern oats 
are superior to our own in yield and quality, and a frequent impor- 
tation of seed from the North, as well as autumn preparation of the 
soil, and early sowing in spring, will be found beneficial. In our 
dry, warm climate, the grain seldom becomes plump, and is apt to 
be thick-husked and unproductive in meal. Commercially, the oat 
crop is not one of much importance, its principal use being to follow 
corn and precede wheat in a rotation of crops. 
RyE—Secale cereale, L. Is but seldom grown in Missouri except 
for spring pasture, for which purpose it is admirably adapted. It 
makes an excellent bread, preferred by many to wheat bread, and 
is more common than wheat in many parts of the continent of 
Europe, being a more certain crop, and one which requires less 
culture and manure. It is subject to a peculiar disease called ergot, 
probably due to a fungus, which although not absolutely confined 
to rye, is very seldom found on any other graminaceous plant. 
Ergot finds a place in the materia medica, 
BarLEY—AHordeum, Z. -' This grain has been cultivated from 
earliest antiquity, and was much in use among the Romans, both as 
food for soldiers and for horses. Barley is exacting in the selection 
of soil, and requires a sheltered location, with a rich, moderately 
light loam, finely pulverized. It does not succeed on soft, sandy 
soils, nor on strong clays. Winter barley, the only species grown 
to any extent in Missouri, is a tender grain, easily hurt in any of 
the stages of its growth, and subject to frequent winter-killing ; and 
while the crop is sometimes a profitable one to grow, the difficulty 
and even danger attendant on the harvesting and threshing of this 
grain, all unite to detract from its popularity. The berry of barley 
produced in our latitude is not as plump or bright in color as that 
grown further North or in Europe, and the latter is now preferred 
by brewers, 
' Tosacco—JVicotiana, L. ‘The variety of tobacco almost every- 
where cultivated in America, is the VV. Zadacum, an annual, and a 
native of Mexico or the West Indies. It belongs to the genus So/- 
anacee, afamily of plants comprehending the potato, tomato, datura 
stramonium or thorn apple, and several other well known esculents 
and weeds, some of which are deadly poisons. 
The report of the Statistician of the Department of Agriculture 
for the year 1870 demonstrates the fact that Missouri, with an 
