196 



THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 



to the land, after a few years of skilful management the 

 productiveness of poor farms may be greatly improved, 

 and good land can be rendered much more productive. 

 Oil meal and coarse grain fed to sheep in connection 

 with some hay, cornstalks, and wheat straw, will make 

 a quality of manure that will produce wheat on almost 

 any kind of soil, whether it is light or heavy. 



Wheat and Cattle. 



In the second volume of my Young Farmer's Manual 

 I penned some suggestions touching the importance of 

 adopting a mixed husbandry. That is the true way to 

 maintain the fertility of the soil, especially where rais- 

 ing wheat constitutes a part of the products of the 

 farm. Intimately connected with the subject under 

 consideration are the remarks of the Editor of the 

 " Western Rural," who writes : 



" Michigan farmers have a mania for growing wheat, 

 while they too much neglect other important and profit- 

 able farm products. In 1860, Michigan produced 

 8,313,185 bushels of wheat — a little more than one- 

 twentieth of the whole amount grown in the United 

 States. Of cheese in the same year it produced only 

 2,009,064 pounds. The little State of Yermont, with 

 an area about two-elevenths as great, produced 8,077,089 

 pounds of cheese, but only 431,127 bushels of wheat. 

 That Yermont did not grow so little wheat because her 

 soil is not adapted to wheat culture, is shown from the 

 fact that the average yield of wheat per acre in Yer- 

 mont, in the year 1864, as shown by the Report of the 

 Department of Agriculture for January, 1865, was four- 

 teen bushels per acre, while in Michigan the average 



