Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-27
Hard or a0ft Wheat.


B. F. Johnson, Esq, of Champaign, ILL.,.
writes The Country Gentleman as follows {:
On page 81 current volume, you state the
course of the Miller's Association OF the
Northwest, which has taken action in re-
ference to urging upon farmers the pro =
priety of sowing more hard wheat than
they now dO,and refer to q like course ia
ken by similar association in Wisconsin,
which has gone so far as to object formal
ly to several soft varieties. Perhaps the
members of the bodies are not ready to
admit the fact that farmers raise soft
wheats in preference to hard ones be-
cause they not only yield more on par
TALLY exhausted lands, but will often
make crop under conditions in which
the hard sorts fail. M. Isidore Pierre, a
distinguished French agricultural chem
list, remarks: 1.-THE interest of general
consumption from the point of view of a
rich and substantial food supply, demands
the preference OF the extentioD of the
cultivation of varieties of wheat strong in
assimilable heterogeneous substances, which
are more glutinous aud more nutritive;
but on the contrary, the interest Of the
cultivator and the landed proprietor
seems to demand the preference for va
rieties of wheat less rich in gluten and
other heterogeneous matters, because these
exhaust the soil less, and the difference
in price Oh the market does not often
compensate for the difference in the cost
of production" If the northwestern
millers' associations want hard wheats
they must pay farmers the extra cost of
producing them, or send to those regions
where the soil eminently favcrs their pro-
daction and is likely to continue to do so
for the next century.
But this statement may seem to de-
mand something like an explanation,
which may be made as follows: The
successful production of wheat whether
soft or hard, requires, so far as the soil
is concerned, three or four essential
things,among Which are certain amount
of phosphoric acid, and its combination
of lime and magnesia. Some soils have
them in abundance for the first five or
six crops, and such are the wheat soil of
the northwest. After that number has
been taken of, the supply begins to get
exhausted and show it in diminished
crops, so that in twenty or twenty-five
years the average yield is reduced from
| twenty bushels 10 less than a quarter of
| it. This is what has happened in north
ern Illinois, and will doubtless happen
in the now famous spring wheat regions
OF Minnesota and Dakota.
But while the soils above referred to
are not exhausted of nitrogen to the ex-
tent of causing failure in wheat produc-
ton, they are of phosphoIic acid and the
lime and magnesia combination; these
mineral substances being found to a lin
tied extent only in them, and these lands,
after having once failed to produce wheat,
cannot be made to yield it again until
after being fertilized or subjected to q
long season of fallow. But if the soils
of the spring wheat region are deficient
in the mineral constituents above refer
red to, those of the lower winter wheat
region of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana
are rich in them, and so rich are they
that In some districts for weeks, and
sometimes months, IN the rainy anG
winter season, the surface waters are
milky and turbid with these substances
held in suspension. Here hard wheat!
have been grown for fifty years or more
since the crops of 1876 and 1877 were thu
best in quality ever made; but neverthe
less on one condition, aud that is that tine
supply of nitrates must be kept up, eth
er by the use of stable manure, or plowins
hay, or straw, or green crops under.
recollect distinctly something said b,
your venerable and enlightened CORES
pondent, Hon. Levi Bartlett of New
Hampshire, in reference to the value O
some of the salts of magnesia for the sue
cess of the wheat crop, and I am con
vlnced, from what have seen of wheat
growing for the past two or three years
that the salts do play an essential part il
the production of hard wheat, and par
out of all proportion in Importance to tn
small amount found In any and all part
of the mature wheat plant.
In course of last years correspondence
frequently wrote of the splendid ap
pearance and quality of the wheat grow
in EMngham county and that neighbor
hood, and attributed much of the excel
lence Of the grain there produced to tn
character of the soil, which gave ever
evidence of being extraordinarily rich j
the mineral substances above mentioned
Since that time, and within the last fe,
months, firm of millers in that county
becoming aware of the exceptional ez
cellence of the wheat grown in ths
: neighborheoo, have sought to manufaC
ture brand of fit ur equal in every wa
to the raw material; and the result is a
article of such excellence that it equal
| and in some respects excels, the high
, priced and fancy brands made in s
Louis and its neighborhood for the easter
markets, and sold for So and $3 barr,
: more.
In concluding these paragraphs on th
}. always important if not interesting sui
Q ect of wheat production, I should like I
9 put on record the fact that very glc;
' progress has been made in the manufa,
q ture of bread sold by bakers since fe
t years-that progress amounting to
: much that one may truly say that goo
bread is as common now as ten years ag
i poor bread, or even bad bread, was. tn
t improvement is partly due to more skill
o full and rational processes of millin
r party to the more careful and conscie1
u tous cultivation of better varieties, ar
t partly and perhaps mostly, to the e
e traordinary excellence of the bre,
!; furnished to the public by the Vienl
y and other bakery establishments at Il
3 Centennial.
" Useful and @uGgestave.
Although their products sell for mu,
70 lower prices than they did a few yea
q, ago, sheep are still among the most prt
= table ANIMALS which can be put upon
r. L.. r.. L. -. - )