Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-08-11

marks have appeared IN displragement
of any man or section.
THE CULTURE AND EXPLOITATION
OF WHEAT.
So much of this continent as falls
within the limits of the United States
and the occupied portions of Canada
has great natural advantages for the
cheap production of wheat, not only to
meet the wants of some fifty millions
Of people at home, but of large pop
ulation IN Europe, South America and
elsewhere. On comparing the average
annual export of wheat and -four from
the United States for the last twenty
years with the exports IF the same
staples during the twenty years pre-
ceding 1910, we find the remarkable in
crease Of twenty-four fold. Last year
we exported -four valued In the official
returns at SOS, 25S, 094, and wheat worth
SOL, 42l, 459. The two give the hand
some sum of $50, 679,553. For twenty
years ending with 1910 the average an
nual export of wheat and -four was
about S5,500,000. From 1910 to 1850
the average was Sll,6O7, $40. From
1850 to 1860 the average was S25,5l7,.
244. From 1860 to 1870 the average
was So, l65, 233. In the year 1871 it
was S69, 1865 in 1872, S56,87O,744;
in 1873, S7O,S33,9IS.
The above figures drawn from official
records back to 1921, and extending
through more than the lifetime of two
gene rations, show that Great Britain
aud Europe are gradually failing to
meet their home wants for wheat, and
that American soil and farmers
are coming to the Iescue with
an ability which can only be tested
when our agriculture is reduced to an
industrial science, making the land
and climate do their best. Successful
wheat culture IS 50 intimately associ-
ated with manufacturing, commercial
and mercantile prosperity, that ali
business men Of whatever calling
should understand how easily air
and water may be transformed into
wheat In our climate. Bum barrel Of
-four in a metal vessel, and not over
four pounds of incOmbustible ashes
will remain. One hundred and ninety
two pounds of the one hundred and
ninety-six, VIII turn to vaPor and gas,
such as the atmosphere contains as the
sea holds water in a vast but unknown
quantity. When wheat or other grain
Is consumed by man or beast, and
passes mostly into the air as the grand
reservoir Of disorganized volatile ele-
ments, how shall these elements be re-
organized into breadstuffs for the pur-
purposes Of trade, inland and
foreign commerce, for the daily
consumption of the family and
inferior animals? 1t Is not in the
power of any animal, biped or quad
ruped, 10 annihilate so much as one
atom Of matter eaten as food; and to
produce an acre of wheat whose seeds
viii weigh 1000 pounds, and straw and
chatf 2,40O pounds more, equal to 20
bushels per acre, is IN easier task than
many suppose. Practically, the main
difficulty lies IN the fact that most
fields have in previous crops lost much
Of the precious substances that give
wheat bread the protoplasm to repair
the daily waste in the bone, brain and
muscle of mankind. All should see and
understand what nature requires to
form sound wheat and flesh.
1t is very difficult for the farmer to
command the raw material that makes
the bone and flesh of the community
unless the community co-operates in
the work BY a better system of domes-
tic, economy. Fertilizers, which are
prolific sources of fever and epidemics,
if deodorized and sold t. wheat grow
ers at a moderate price, would enable
them to raise twenty bushels of wheat
on an acre as. easily as they now grow
ten. Not one turn of the plow more
will be required, nor a seed more
planted on an ccre, to double the crop.
The uineJy.fve per cent Of carbon and
elements Of water consumed to organ
lie a large harvest is present and avail.
able in the soil and Just above it. The
farmer comes as near raising a large
crop Of wheat per acre as one can come
and miss 1t. This miss is more harm
full to city consumers of bread
stuffs, their trade, exports, i'm.
ports and manufactures, shan to
the cultivat5r of. the sill He lives
with very little intercourse with the
outside world, no matter how he works
his aud; but to the business interests
of towns, nothing is more important
than that agriculture shall be wisely
managed, so as not to damage the soil
that feeds all, clothes ali, and forms
the prosperity of al that are prosper
GUS. Giye the farmers Of Middle Ten
nessee plaster and bone earth as
cheap as they might be suppliedln tins
city, and our calcareous soils and ad-
mirable climate viii coin money by