Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-05-07
WHEAT CULTURE.

With q superior soil and diversified
climate, the United States should be
the leading Wheat-grOWing country of
the world; but il is not, aud for the rea-
son that farming, as a general remark,
is carried on in q very slovenly man.
neT, compared with agricultural effort
in the more densely populated cOuD-
tries of Europe. Great Britain, for ex-
ample, had 3 1852, 125 acres oflard under
wheat culture, last year, from which
the aggregate yield, estima'ed at TWEEN
ty-eight bushels to the acre, was 102,-
$780, 96 bushels. On some of the most
highly cultivated farms the yield per
acre reached sixty, and yer seventy
bushels. In the United States the area
under wheat cultivation in 1867 (the Ia
test returns at HANDY, was I2,304,S94
acres, n the aggregate yield 167, 9I1,-
III bushels, scarcely half the product Of
Great Britain, when compared acre for
acre. This is a tri6e under fourteen
bushels to he acre. 1t is a noteworthy
fact that in the sterile Eastern States.
the Weld per acre is greater than it is on
the rich prairie and alluvial bottom
lands of the West. This arises from
the fact that farming in the East has
been reduced more nearly to a science
than in the West, added 6y the free use
of fertilizers and rotation of crops. In
justice to the Eastern States, the indus
try and thrift of whose population are
p~roverbia1, it may be stated that the
yield of wheat per acre compares not
unfavorably with that of most foreign
countries. Agricultural Improvement
in the West has been retarded, not so
much from the lack of energy and
knowledge, as for the labor and means
to carry il to a high state of perfection,
The farmers of the more newly settled
States attempt too much. The land, for
the most part, is specifically cultiYa-
ted, the crops wastefully gathered, and
comparatively small returns follow, as
a matter of curse. The West, howev-
er, is beginning to gain knowledge from
experience, and the day is probably not
VerY remote when a better system of
farming Will obtain. Present wastes of
fertilizers, &c, will be utilized, and
when more careful cultivation is found
to pay, 1t will be generally adopted.
The average product per acre of new
prairie land it about twenty bushels.
but succeeding crops generally show a
falling of She average yield on land
that has been cultivated for a series of
years being not oYer fifteen bushels, if
indeed it exceeds twelve. We have
known a yield per acre of twenty-five
and thirty bushels, on prairie land that
had been under cultivation for TWEEN
ty years, which shows conclusiveIvthat
a careful system offarming will always
meet with its reward.
The raw lands of the West are being
settled at a marvellous rate, yet the lin
= VI agricultural production In this
country is not likely to be reached du-
ring the next or the succeeding pener-
atlon nor is the constant multiDiiciv of
new and improved AGRICULTURAL ma
ch1nery going to lessen the demand for
manual labor, as has been claimed bv
some WRITER'S. The introduction of new
implements is so gradual that ali par
Ties nave no d1thculty in providing for
them, not only without troubIa h1t
with positive advantage. Tbjs veTs
not the case, we should not have tbis
grand result, as wonderful as it is ob1j2
Gus, namely, that in this eountrv
where abOr-saYtng machines abound r.
a greater degree than in any other, man
ual labor commands higher paw than
it does anywhere else, and it is so son
stantly in demand that, besides xhaus-
ting the supply of the native popula-
ton, it attracts asteRdy foreign immi-
grafton.
It is evident that IL farmers are des-
ned TO encounter a continued sharp
competition in wheat culture from the
agricultural countries OF Continental
Europe, and especially Russia. Hith-
erto that country has iabored underthe
disadvantage Of a lack of railroads
which has -neutralized her advantages
OF cheap labor, &c. Russia. however
mas at length awakened to a sense OF
me value of her grain region, compri-
sing Z34,0OO,OO0 Of as fine wheat land as
tueEe Is TO be found anywhere, and has
OniLnenced anet-Work of railroads that
VIII penetrate to every part, when COM