Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-02-14

This fact Is very clearly demonstrated
in the enlarged demand for Northern
products, especially wheat-four, in the
Gulf States, and the gradual abandon
ment of corn-bread for wheat
bread by all classes of the pop
uiation. This assertion, no doubt.
will be more or less vehemently denied
by many unthinking persons; but we
venture the prediction that in less than
10 years corn-bread will have as nearly
disappeared from the tables of whites
and blacks in the Gulf States as it has
already from those of the well-to-do
farming classes of Pennsylvania and
Ohio. Already the blacks are as good
customers for the best brands of flour as
the whites, and the average sales of the
different grades in lots of 100 barrels,
are about 10 of the best patent process,
60 of high grades, and 30 of low-priced
and medium. From this it is evident
that the consumption of flour in the Gulf
States, already large, is likely to be-
come enormous within few years.
No doubt the different soils, climates
and ATTITUDES of different countries re-
quire that for the wheat crop there must
be some considerable Emergencies in
practices, when those of one country are
compared with another; but it is still
true that the wheat plant demands GER
tain absolute conditions of soil, whether
grown under Ga degrees north latitude,
or south 80 degrees further. These are,
that the surface soil must be free of
r1,h is n
and vegetable matter, and to the
depth of three or four inches must be in
fine filth, and sufficiently well furnished
with plant-food to feed the crop, from
the speck of termination to that of ma
turity; that the subsoil must be COM
pact and free from the line roots of
biennial plants, and have lain sufficient
" long after blowing to have the whole
substance of it come together and
crystalized. With these conditions of
soil, the wheat plant will make a crop
as far south as 80 degrees, when proper
provision is made for its growth during
the winter, or in spring, before the
summer heats have come on. In
deed, the state OF the soil described
above is just what the pioneer finds in
the virgin lands of the West, where he
has to break and fine three inches of the
surface only, to insure a crop. IL is curl
Gus to note that in old and well settled
countries, where other crops have been
leading ones, and where wheat cultiva-
ton is not understood, the errors made
in the first essay in wheat growing are
sure to be of nearly the same character
Thus, in the corn and cattle countries
Of Illinois and Iowa, where corn is
the leading crop, the farmers, when
first undertaking wheat, make the same
mistake that they do in Alabama and
Mississippi; that is, they give the land
the best possible preparation for corn,
which is the worst preparation for
wheat. In both eases mass of weeds,
weed-seeds, stubble, or all. are plowed
in. and upon this the wheat seed is sown;
and failure is sure to follow, that failure
taking the form of overgrowth of straw,
which rust or blight attacks. We re-
peat, the preparation made by natural
forces for wheat in the virgin prairies of
the West, is the best possible one to fol-
low in getting the sub-soil ready for the
crop; and going further, if we follow
the example of the pioneer, and fine no
more than three inches of lop-soil be-
fore seeding, we shall he As nearly sure
of crop as he is.-Land and Home.
If the accounts from central and
southern Russia are to be believed, the
corn beetle, which may be ranked as