Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-07-29
Wheat Production.

Your Hawkins county correspondent,
whom | know very we'll, and who Is an
intelligent gentleman, makes serious
blundsr in my Judgment, i'll urging the
farmers of East Tennessee not to pay much
attention to wheat. That confirms pow
erful conviction which have realized for
some time, that the fatal idea was gaining
ground among us, that this is no country
for wheat When man of McK's known
intelligence makes a suggestion of this sort
we may well become apprehensive of dam
aging results to the great farming public,
and to the future prosperity and growth OF
East Tennessee as an agricultural region.
1t will inevitably injure us, and before we
90 too far we should investigate this inn
pOrtant matter with a great deal of care
and caution. ".
For one, | cannot and will not give into
the monstrOus proposition that we cannot
grow wheat successfully in this section.
Were all the Horace Greeleys in the world
and the "rest of mankind to assert the
contrary | should not believe them. l do
not deny that we have been unsuccessful
in producing heavy crops of wheat, but |
cannot take this as incontrOvertible proof
that our soil and our climate are not adapt
ed to its growth. No such thing. The
causes of the disheartening failures from
year to year lie elsewhere, and instead of
prOnoupcidg a. hasty judgment upon so
vital an issue, we should set about the
work of finding out the real causes, some
ofwhich shall undertake to set forth in
this short paper.
|. Our selection of "seed wheat is not
iudcious. = We are exceedingly carless III
this. We stick too much to the old varie-
ties There is a plain law in the growing
of wheat, just as potent as the law govern
ing the animal kingdom, which is this,
that degeneracy follows the year in and the
year ont system of using the same wheat.
Every farmer knows the effect of breeding
stock upon the same family indefinitely.
Though you may start out upon the high
est farms and the mosGsymmetrical proper
tons, yet, in few brief years, all that
will disappear in a short time and you will
produce race of inferior animals. The
same principle holds good in the propaga
ton of the human species. Now what |
would suggest is this, that more care be
used in changing seed wheat, and aim to
pOcure it from climate and soil some
what similar to our own. Grain like an
individual has to be acclimated, and, like
an individual it may be greatly impaired
by the acclimating process. Efa
>. The slOvenly manner of farming
which has obtained in East Tennessee,
and which has made our farmers ridicu-
lous, has a vast deal to do with this failure
in producing wheat indeed I am aston
ished that they succeed as well as they do.
II is wonder, an absolute wonder, that
they raise enough to feed their children.
1t is cruel for such farmers to SANDER their
own soil when they are so guilty them
selves.
Their mode of preparing it for wheat
will destroyiany soil upon earth. In the
first place, they butcher it, by shallow
blowing. From two tothree inches is about
the average depth. For more than fifty
years they have followed this plan upon
the same ground until the soil is utterly
worn out, and yet they expect it to produce
them remunerative crops. What folly!
The soil of East Tennessee originally was
the finest~inl the world, but for nearly
century it has iwithstood this shocking
system,
3. The absence of clover and a clover
fallow forsgheat has been another him
drance. There Is no uEe in maintaining
that wheat can be grown successfully upon
'tstOck Iandn 1t is an impOssibility.
Glover, and clover alone, is the sure foun-
datiOn.
/. We are attempting to cultivate too
much land, and here your correspondent
and myself agree perfectly. There is not
a former in East Tennessee but what
might reduce his acres just half, and make
more money than he now does by double
the quantity. He could do better blowing
have more clover and economic more
manure. 4A" rt@
But find this article growing too long.
To me the subject under consideration IS Is
an interesting one, and l hope to see 1t
thoroughly ventilated as it should be.
SF/Tas c. w. CHARLTON.
KNOyUIIJF JulV %. 1871,