New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-08

average 5. An English traveller IN no was amazed a.
finding that tho land around Albany yielded 30 to 40
bushels per acre, with the most imperfect husbandry,
while in England their best-managed land did not yield
half 80 much. Yet in 1916 the average Of the same
Albany region had sunk TO a bushels per acre. In
Dutcbess County, it had dwndled TO s. in Columbia,
20 g. in Rensselaer, TO g. and in Weschester to-. In
come portions of Maryland and Virginia, wheat is no
longer cultivated on land which forty years ago pro.
duced abundant crops. Ohio ITSELF the second on the
list of wheat producing States rapidly losing ground
In Canada, the yield is 80 steadily diminishing tina,
within period of IL years it fell from q, 9Sl ,2+4 TO
9i2 1876 busbels, difference of over 22,ooO,Ooo.
It may be inferred with some reason, from such an
array of facts that the comparatively barren harvess
of the last few years just what ought to be ex'
nected in the future and that the abundant crop OF
1860 ia altogether exceptional 1t evident that the
relative production of food to increase of population IS
annually diminishing notwithstanding the opening up
of virgin sos TO the pow. As these are opened o'h
ers are abandoned from exhaustion. Without THESE
virgin soils 10 fee TO- the failure OF single wheat crop
would occasion national scarcity. Actual famine can
never occur in this country, because in its enormous
corn crop 1t will eyer hold a granary almost large
enoueh to feed the world. The boast has been
that we could feed the world with wheat, but
nothing could DO wider of the truth. In the single
month of October last we shipped $4,000 600 OF grain
and -four to England but in the same month OF the pre-
ceding wear we sent her none Such the uncertain
ties of dependence on market abroad instead Of upon
one at home. The crop Of 1913, amounting to
100 COO 900 bushels is held to be IN average We
then had - 900 900 inhabitants giving within fraction
of bushels to EACH But England consumes 66 900 900
bushels annually, or bushels each. We send her
wheat whenever she needs it, but spare only be-
cause we have corn to fall back upon If it were not
for this peculiar product of climate, all the wheat
we raise would 10 insufficient for wants. Our
average export IL 70 900 900 bushels all in fact
snare. This surplus, moreover, is annually diminish
ing The present abundant crop may cradle US to ex-
coed this quantity but the average will not be en-
srped Our population dc ubles in about twenty years,
vet the relative dminu'ion Of the wheat crop 10
great that unless our mode Of agriculture is improved
and the ratio per acre increased the export Will entirely
cease, and we she'll produce enough for ourselves
The census Of 1870 viii probably establish this fact.
The gravest reasons exist for such AZ opinion. The
prevalent belief that this whole continent 10 adapted to
wheat-growng IA a great misapprehensiou. Our wild
lands are not ii wheat land On the contrary, the
true reliable wheat region of this counry If ascer
tanned TO be limited TO ten degrees Of latitude and TWEEN
ty of longitude covering about bali the Ssies Beyond
these limits wheat lie certainly produced but 1t is almost
exclusively Spring wheat an inferior article giving less
yield and always selling low. As New-England lies
outside Of this belt 1t never be wheatproducing
region Vermont alone increased her product in the
last decade the increase being only 1000 bushels and
this in the face Of legislative premiums held forth TO
stimulate its cultivation. Formerly she was = large
wheat-exporting State; now che does not export a
bushel but imports more than half Of all the Hour She
consumes Manufacturing has superseded agriculture.
because more profitable andthe consumer having placed
himself beside the producer both are prosperng New
England so when FIRST brckenup produces good wheat
but exhaustive cropping has diminished its productive
ness-everywhere, in fact virgin soil will wear out.
The lands south Of North Carolina have never been and
never can be reliable for wheat. In only four States
south of this line has there been increase in the last
ten years. and that Of only 10000 bushels In the e1-
IRENE South the diminution has been enormous. The
gain in Delaware and Maryland exceeded more than
half the loss Of the whole fifteen Slave States. FLORIDA
Louisiana, and Texas, produced in 1850 only 43,13
bushels.
The West is heralded az the cornucopia Of the
world In which the wheat plant finds It's most eongena
home. Her now bursting granaries would seem 10
confirm this idea. But two preceding harveNs were
disastrous failures though in the same two seasons
New.Yoik and Pennsylvania had abundant crops' Her
virgin prares when first broken up, usually produce
good wheat But the soil is loose and fable, often
covered with weter in Winter, and the grain being
heaved up by frost, is killed. The longer
these praires are cultivated, the more liable
they become TO these disasters. Hence the cultivation
OF Spring wheat has been resored to as the readest
remedy. The quantity grown may be larger, but the
quality ia inferior, ard the price always lower Such
grain is raised 30 readily prairie soil that It s nc
wonder the yield of Illinois from 1893 bushe'
in 1910 to Al 575 in 1850, and Wisconsin in the same
period from 2l2 lilo TO 1886 &3I. But the popular
otnon that this region is 10 be the permanent grsnary
Of the Union may well be doubted. 1t will un-
auestionaLy 20 on increasing its annual product as
new praires broken up until the whole has been
subjected 10 tlage But while the lands are yield
ing literally, thoee first titled will be wearing ont more
RAPIDLY than those Of the Atlantic States, which con-
tain the true wheat soils of the continent. II Is dill
cult TO bring the mind TO let 20 long settled belief Of
this kind, and still more TO believe that the Western
limit of the true wheat region has already been reached
! by the settler.
But sueh is the fact. On the great American plains
extending TO The Rocky Mountains perpetual barren
ness rests. Thence to tie Pacific is a wilderness in
which Indians alone can dwell because it produces
game Gully. Here the traveller moves on for days
without once finding water. Then comes the great
Colorado deser, utterly bare of soil and vegetation
Nearly all Sonora is sterile, and most Of New.Mexico
has no agricultural value. No wheat can be grown
over all this vast region unless it be in small portion
Of Western 1exas and the narrow belt along the Pa
cic. Ohio is the real Western boundary the wheat
producing region. AS general rule, in thOte sections