San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-06-15
Exhaustive Farming.
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Fifty years ago the great wheat.n,.
ducing regions OF the country were ss.,
of the Alleghanies, chiefly the vail
of the Hudson, the Mohawk, the GSys
nesse, the Delaware, the. James and ~.
Potomac. But since the days Of rail
roads, what is called the wheat belt h..
been steadily receding from the sbo,as
of the Atlantic, until its center Is nos
west of the Mississippi. There was tim
when the grain raised in the trans. Mis-
sissippi regions would not bear the cos,
Of transportation to the seaboard. IN
those times the producer realized ye,r.
little for his grain, because of the az,
pense of hauling it long distance.
but since the advent of railroads has
virtually brought the market 10 his
doors, he realizes fair profits.
The older prairie states, however. aro
beginning to lose their productiyepess
through an exhaustive system of cron..
ping, and the heart of the spring wbes,
belt is thus being pushed up into the
Red River Valley of the Northwest
The center of wheat production is now
northwest of Chicago. 1t will soon Get
Us far rs Dakota, and then will nova
on with the new northwest. There can
be little doubt that the people of the
United States are exhausting their rich
heritage. The enormous grain crops
which amaze the Old World are pro.
duced at the expense of the fields in
which they grow. The average crop
gradually decreases on land that has
been cultivated number of years. Iowa
is, by comparison, new state, yet its
wheat crop, in the best of years, scarce.
ly averages above ten bushels to the
acre. Iowa and Illinois have been con-
sidered among the best farming states
in the Union. They have rich, deep
soil, which has been for many years
been sufficiently productive without
fertilizers. This soil attracted enter
prising and intelligent farmers from all
parts of the Countrywide class of farm.
ers one would suppose, who would see
the necessity of keeping the condition
of their land up to an average standard,
and yet, with everything in their favor,
they have permitted their rich grain
land to run down to an average of ten
or twelve bushels to the acre. In Eng.
land the average from year to year is
between twenty-seven and twenty-eight
bushels to the acre. But the states we
have mentioned are by no means the
only ones that, agriculturally speaking,
have gone to seed. The fertility of the
middle and Southern states, as well as
the eastern, has become so reduced
that the use of fertilizers has become
necessary, as we'll as better system Of
farming generally. AS long as there is
an immense area which can still be ap-
propriated to wheat culture good av-
erage will be kept up. In Ohio wheat
production hardly reaches an average
of eleven bushels to the acre. Thirty
years ago the average was nearly double,
ranging from twenty to thirty bushels.
The center of wheat production will
not be stationary until all the new land
has been laid under cultivation for the
growing of wheat. We produce ina.
mense crops, but immense acres ofland
are.cultivated to secure these results.
We cannot go this way forever, bring
ing new land into cultivation and wear
ing it out. In time we shall have to
renovate. The English farmer DIES
not think of permitting his land to de-
teriorate. One condition of it's cultlya'
ton is that, by the use of fertilizers no
shall keep it's yielding capacity up to
the standard. But there are in our
older states signs of better state OF
things. There is tendency to cult
vate fewer acres and cultivate. them
more thoroughly. Wherever the ex'
reriment has been tried it has been