Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1874-09-09
A 2ricultural-
FIny Bushels OF Wheat per Acre.

States, according to the statistical reports,
the average yield amounts to only nine
bushels. In New Jersey it amounts to
about thirteen. OF course such accounts
Of crops must be considered only as ap-
proximations to the actual product. If
the average yield per acre is represented
thirteen bushels. there must be hundreds
of acres which yield only four, five or six
bushels, as it is known from actual weight
of the grain that great many farmers
raise from twenty to twenty-five, and ev-
en- thirty bushels of beautiful grain per
acre.
Such approximate accounts of the wheat
crop reveal several expressive facts con-
corning the cultivation of this valuable
cereal, which should arouse tillers of the
soil to careful consideration of the i'm
mense loss sustained, both by the propri-
etors of the land and by the government in
consequence of such meagre crops. Boun-
tiful harvests not only render tillers Of
the soil more independent, pecuniarially,
but they tend to augment the revenue OF
tie government 1t is an impoverishing
policy, 10 more than one respect, for a
farmer to pursue that system OF manage
ment which will return him only six. nine
or twelve bushels of wheat per acre; as
the expense of ploughing. narrowing the
ground. putting in the seed and cutting
The crop with reaper will be about as
great when the yield is only eight bushels
per acre as when the product is forty, or
even fifty bushels. Land III a poor state
of fertility will require about two bushels
Of seed wheat per acre, The product may
be eight or ten bushels. 1t will not pay
to attempt TO raise wheat at such costly
rate. The productive capacity Of large
portion of the tillable soil of America can
safely be computed at forty and even fifty
bushels of clean and bright grain per acre,
provided the land is titled as it should be,
and as it will pay to cultivate 1t.
1t was Of common occurrence, wien the
pioneers of our country first removed the
forests, to hear of forty, fifty and even
sixty bushels Of beautiful wheat per acre.
Even at the present period numerous ac-
counts are rendered every season of the
actual yield of large fields in which the
product is represented by forty, some fifty,
some sixty, and few more than sixty
bushels. Here, then, is an Impressive
fact, which furnishes an instructive COM
mentary on the cultivation Of wheat. The
pioneer farmer of Western New York was
wont to cut down all the timber on a civ.
en- area of ground, let the trees, brush
and all remain for few weeks until the
weather was hot and dry, when the ground
would be cleared bya huge bonfire, the
surface thoroughly narrowed mot plough
ed), ard one and half bushels of seed
wheat put liz. An ordinary yield would
be thirty bushels of clean and plump grain.
A fair crop would be spoken Of as forty
bushels, and first rate harvest as fifty
bushels. without weed or thistle or par
ticle of chess among the growing grain.
If an acre of fair wheat.land now covered
with heavy timber be cleared in the same
manner, and seed wheat put ID about the
first of September from the first to the
tenth at the Nortb), the proprietor can
relic on yield Of forty bushels of choice
grain with almost absolute certainly, pro-
vided he sows choice seed.
This fact furnishes a correct idea of the
natural whoat-producing capacity of the
soil. But most Americans are SO graphing
that the most fertile ground that can be
found is soon badly impoverished by iDju-
dicious management. When forest is
cleared, every tree and stick Of frewood
is removed, instead Of being burned to
ashes, In this single crop OF timber, the
fertility that it has required ages to de-
velop is carried off the field. Then crop
after crop is grown and removed without
returning one atom Of fertilIzing material
to aid in maintaining the original fertility
Of the ground. IT is difficult and tedi-
GUS process 10 renoyate field that has
been completely impoverished by injudic-
lous management. But if the rrecaution
we're observed to maintain the fertility of
rich ground by returning fair equiv
aent ID the form of some kind of fertiIiz-
ing material every time crop is removed,
there would be no difficulty 10 raising from
thirty to fifty bushels Of superp wheat from
every acre that is adapted to the produce
ton of this sort Of grain.
TILE DRAISs.--Taking off the surplus
water is only one advantage Of tile drains;
they also make a tenacious soil more fra
IA l. - -t.a.. \