240 



STATISTICS OF WHEAT CULTURE, 



as_ in"cane, timothy, corn,_ oats, rye, rice, millet, and the proportion of this 

 mineral varies as much in wheat-straw, as bone does in very lean and very 

 fat hogs or cattle. 



A young growing animal, whether a child or a colt, that is kept on food 

 which lacks hone-earthy (phosphate of lime,) will have soft cartilaginous bones. 

 Nature cannot substitute iron or any other mineral in the animal system, out 

 of which to form hard strong bones ; nor can any other mineral in the soil per- 

 form the peculiar function assigned to silica in the vital economy of cereal 

 plants. To protect the living germs in the seeds of wheat, corn, oats, rye, 

 barley, &c., the cuticle or bran of these seeds contains considerable flint. The 

 same is true of chaff. 



The question naturally arises, — How is the farmer to increase the quantity 

 of soluble silica or flint in his soil } This is a question of the highest practical 

 importance. There are three principal ways in which the object named may 

 be attained. First, by keeping fewer acres under the plough. Land in pas- 

 ture, if well managed, will gain its fertility, and in the process accumulate 

 soluble silica in the surface soil. In this way more wheat and surer crops may 

 be made by cultivating a field in wheat two years than four or six. If the 

 field in the mean time be devoted to wool growing, butter or cheese-making, or 

 to stock-raising, particular care must be taken to make great crops of grass or 

 clover to grow on the land, and have all the manure, both solid and liquid, ap- 

 plied to its surface. 



There are many counties in England that yield an average of thirty-two 

 bushels of wheat per acre for ten crops in succession. There are but few of 

 the old counties in the United States which average the half of that quantity : 

 and yet America has greater agricultural capabilities than that of Great 

 Britain. 



Another way to increase soluble silica in the soil, is to grow such crops, in 

 rotation with wheat culture, as will best prevent the loss of dissolved flint at 

 any time by leaching and washing, through the agency of rain water. This 

 remaik is intended to apply more particularly to those large districts devoted to 

 cotton and. tobacco culture, plants that take up no considerable amount of 

 silica, and which by the constant stirring of the earth, and the clean tillage 

 which they demand, favor the leaching of the soil. To keep too much of a 

 plantation of these crops, is to lessen its capabilities for producing good crops 

 of corn, wheat, and barley, at a small expense. Corn plants, well managed, 

 will extract more pounds of silica in three or six months from the soil, than any 

 other. As not an ounce of this mineral is needed in the animal economy of 

 man or beast, it can all be composted in cornstalks, blades, and cobs, or in the 

 dung and urine derived from corn, and be finally reorganized in the stems of 

 wheat plants. Corn culture and wheat culture, if skilfully and scientifically 

 conducted, go admirably together. Of the two, more bread, more meat, and 

 more money can be made from the corn than from the wheat plant in this 

 country. But so soon as what is called " high farming" in England, shall be 

 popular in the United States, the crops both of wheat and corn grown here will 

 demonstrate how little we appreciate the vast superiority of our climate for the 

 economical feeding and clothing of the human family, over that of our " mother 

 country." In several counties in England, it takes from twelve to fourteen 

 months to make a crop of wheat, after the seed is put into the ground. At or 

 near the first of December, 1847, Mr. M. B. Moore, of Augusta, Ga., sowed a 

 bushel of seed wheat on an acre and a half of ground, which gave him over 

 thirty bushels by the middle of May following. This ground was then 

 ploughed, and a fine crtp of hay made and cut in July. Afier tliis, a good crop 

 of peas was raised, and harvested in October, before it was time to seed with 

 wheat again, as was done. While the mean temperature of England is so low, 

 that corn plants will not ripen, in Georgia one can grow a crop of wheat in the 

 winter, and nearly two crops of corn in succession in the summer and autumn, 

 before it is time to sow wheat again. No writer, to my knowledge, has done 

 full justice to the vast agricultural resources of the southern portion of the 

 American confederacy. But there is much of its soil which is not rich in the 

 elements of bread. Nothing but the careful study of these elements, and of 

 the natural laws by which they are governed, can remedy defects in wheat 

 culture anywhere, but especially on very poor land. 



