Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-04-08
Wheat Growing in New England.

G. B. Loring, Esq. of Salem, President
of the New England Agricultural Society,
spoke as follows concerning wheat growing,
at the meeting of the society in Boston
There is one crop to which l desire to call
your special attention. The large consump-
ton OF wheat flour, as one of the staple
articles of food, has given peculiar impor-
lance to the growing of this grain. l sup
pose the frequent falnre of this crop in New
England, the growing idea that our soil and
climate untitled for it, and the usual low
price of flour, previous to the war, have all
combined to prevent It's cultivation here
But it seems to me that, under existing cir
cumstances, we should, if possible, return to
at least local and domestic supply of what
Is called the staff of life. 1t Is impossible to
predict the time when breadstuff5 Will be
brought to their former market value, while
the present cost of production and transport
alton continues, and easy nancy market
enables the speculator to hold for a profit.
W ould it not be well in the meantime to de-
vote a small portion of our land to the supply
of bread for our families? The experiment
would not be an expensive one. An acre of
land set apart for wheat growing on every
farm would add but little TO the labor com
monty performed and if the statement is
true, that twenty-five or thirty bushels of
winter wheat are easily raised to the acre, the
DeHeHG 10 De derived from IHiS crop IL
ent. | have had no experience In wheat
growing myself, but learn from those who
have that the crop is sure one, when sown
strong lands early in the autumn to
give the plants firm root before the frOsts
of winter set in. 1t is said that wheat sown
IN August Is as sure a crop as any that can
be raised in New England. If this be the case,
the matter is worthy of your careful inyesti-
CATION and encouragement There seems to
be no doubt that the system of wheat grow
ing, especially in those sections OF the West
were great attention is paid to this crop,
must be ere long modified. The cultivation
of large tracts of fertile land, the market
value of which is comparatively low, is con-
Quoted in so imperfect a manner that the
crop is diminishing from year to year, and
the land itself is becoming weedy and ex-
hausted. Superficial ploughing, light seed
ing, no manuring, and careless covering of
the seed in the earth, are all uniting to rem
der the wholesome growing of wheat much
less profita bic than it was formerly and the
result producted by them tends to place the
proper cultivation OF this crop among the
branches Of mixed farming on a more limited
scale. | have no doubt that the devOting of
a large farm to wheat alone will be abandon
ed and that the average yield per acre will
be increased by more careful cultivation
either on smaller farms part of mode
of husbandry in which the whcat-grOwer will
also be cattle-feeder, corn-cultivator and
a producer of wool. | have seen nothing to
establish in my mind a belief in large farms
devoted to a special crop, when the land is
held in freehold This system may be sus-
tanned for few years with free labor, and
for longer period, perhaps, with slave labor ;
but the legitimate farming, which may be
made constantly remunerative and improving,
must be carried on by the owner Of the soil
and must supply the market with more than
one commodity from each farm. 1t is SO at
the East, where farms have always been small
1t is so in the Middle States, and must be so
ere long at the West and South, on those
lands that have been hitherto devoted to
wheat, or corn, or cotton. | see no reason,
therefore, why wheat cultivation should not
again enter into the agriculture of New
England always that the soil and
climate do not war against it. The increase
of the crop under careful cultivation, the
proximity to the market, and the small cost
of transportation which the farmer here en-
joys, should induce him to try the experiment
especially while he is obliged to pay fifteen
or twenty dollars barrel for his flour.