The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1870-12-29
DnT71R1oRATI0N or WHEAT.

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= Many intelligent oilers Of the sol
will persist in adhering to the assume,
ton that there is natural tendency ID
wheat to detcriorate and eventually tc
run out: ]. There is not and there never
vas any such tendency. On the con.
trary, there Is tendency in all kinds
Of grain to mora perfect Development.
What is run out and starved out, Is By
ipjudioious management but cereal
ss,is sever deter ties in the sens
Of 1atafA detssioratioa., An. rintelli-
ga, wFites In the Mark Lane En-
pres, London, says, touching this sub.
joet: T.,
SO thoroughly illogical an article as
is published in the Prairie Farmer,
headed "why wheat deteriorates,'' has
rarely been seen in the columns Of an
agricultural paper and We shall not
do our practical readers the injustice Of
assuming that they need any help from
). us to discover tho numerous fallaoies it
contains. Unfortunately, tho article is
read by many who are raw to their
business, and therefore incapable Of de-
footing any errors that would be palpa.
bic enough toan expert. In this head
ing, "why wheat deteriorates," the au-
thor Of tho article has begged the qucs
zion, He has started on the assump-
ton that wheat does deterlorate, and
directly proceeds still futher to assume
that it has done 80 when the yield
his declined from forty or fifty bushels
par acre, to ten bushels. Thus, the wri-
ssr has assuved that small yield is evil
dsnce Of . deterioration Of the constitu-
zion Of the wheat plant. There We
meet him With . challenge to prove
that any such deterioration has ever
been known to exist. Until the wri-
tsF has found = few wheat plants that
have nearly lost the distinctive char
asteristio Of wheat, and that ex-
hibit uumistakable sign Of returning to
The Wild state, let him not talk Of de-
etarioration. Wheat produced At the
rate Of six bushels per acre, is likely
10 be even healthier and better seed
than that which formed part Of crop
Of fifty bushels per acre. A dense
wheat crop is not necessarily healthier
than thin one, but is, on the contrary
more likely 10 take the rust Neither
ii.ths produce Of crop grown on rich
land 80 we'll adapted for seed at that
grown 81 land in fair, healthy condi-
tion. Tho old farmers Of England sev-
OK take seed from rich to poor, but
!piee versa. The amount of agreeable
yield is sure to be less when seed
grown on rich land IS sown, and as
surely an opposite result is obtained
from an opposite course Of practice
The fault in America is not in the
iced, but the practice, common also in
this country of exhausting the laud by |
-speated cropping without returning |
my Of the fert,lizing clements which
lie crops take away. The seed is |
right. but tho farming wrong. Ia say
''ns this We do not mean to .llege that
u s)oil is capable of producing {. |
-asalthy wheat plant, because expert
'nee has proved that some soils require |
u occasional change of seed, aud none
lemand itmore imperative by than those
lack soils that are 50 highly esteemed
y the farmers of this country. In
-aectiDg any such changes 1t is desir-
bic to bear in mind the British
'axim,-" to get your seed from poor
rland than your OWL"