The Bossier banner., 1883-02-15


Wheat must always be a staple crop
wherever grain is grown. Upon farms
where the dairy is the chief interest
wheat may be dispensed with, as it can
be bought more eheaply than it can be
grown. But where cattle or sheep, or
both, are fed and fattened for market,
wheat should be the main crop, not only
for the sale of the grain, but for the
straw, which can be used for litter or
for feeding, where no other litter can be
procured. It may be that wheat can be
grown in,the west trife cheaper than
it can be east of the great river. But,
then. farmers on this side of the Mis-
souri, can and should produce double the
yield OF the western grain fields, and
they are gradually approaching that
point. The report of the Secretary of
the Iowa State Agricultural Society for
1881 shows this, when it gives the yield
of Iowa as only eleven bushels and SAYS
'.Iowa farmers laugh at the farmers of
New England, who, ontheir rocky land,
produce more than fifteen bushels to the
acre. while they. on. their rich new land,
gather only eleven bushels.n But the
average yield of wheat in New York in
the bestwheat districts in the western
part OF the State has now increased to
over twenty bushels per acre and is
rapidly rising, And this increase will
and must become larger and larger as
the soil becomes richer by more liberal
manuring and better cultivation, until
it approaches or smpasses the large yield
of English farms, where a common re-
turn is equal to forty bushels to the
acre. - EEtas9 ssI4
Land may be too rich for wheat. It
will not do to laugh at the Iowa farmers
because they raise but eleven bushels to
theaere when they can turn the laugh
upon their competitors by pointing to
their magnificent fourteen or six
teen feet high But the soil may be too
rich even for corn, and force this gigan-
tic growth of stalk without adequate
yield of grains And this is the reason
to large extent for the low average
yield of wheat in the new rich prairie
States. This, however, does not apply
to the worn soils OF eastern farms, which
have been under cultivation for many
years. Here course of rehabilitation
must be pursued. !, And it is always a
slower process to build up than to pull
down. Things fall of their own weight,
but when they are 10 be lifted up energy
Of force must be applied Besides, in
growing crops much indirect and inter-
vening work must be done before we can
touch the point we aim at. And this is
tue in growing wheat.
Wheat requires that every element of
its substance. be supplied in the SOIL
There may be abundance of lime, potash,
phosphoric acid and nagresia, but if the
nitrogen be deficient the yield will be
small. In like manner if nitrogen be
abundant and the minerals be deficient,
tllefelmaybe large growth of straw but
small product of grain. Many farmer
hasrichlymanured his land, hoping to
get a large crop, but has seen his hopes
Eid low by the lodging of the grain
from 81 exuberance, but yet weakness,
of the straw. And on this ac-
count wheat cannot be grown most sue
cesgfuily except under a system of high
feeding Of cattle, through which the soil
is also highly fed and by the use of
fertilizers. England has imported mill
ions Of tons of special fertilizers for use
in her Wheat fields, and the large yield
OF sHfty or sixty bushels per acre has
been produced only by the liberal use of
these fertilizers and by the equally
liberal employ oyment of imported artificial
feeding stafs, as oil-cakes of various
kinds, by which large quantities of
manure have been made. Yet it is a
question of, the deepest interest to
American farmers if they can profitably
follow the practices OF the English
farmers and, whether smaller Yields
grown with less high culture may not be
more profitable. It is not always the
largest yields that produces the most
clear profit, and this applies to the
western farmers, who can better afford
to grow ten or fiften bushels of wheat to
the acre by scratching over their corn
stusbleswithsa harrow and sowing the
Seeds this cheap manner than by pro-
tluciffgatwiee as much with more costly
scul6ifalien by the dear labor which they
would be forced to employ. It is not
sale on, wise to laugh at another mani
ways or methods until we can put our
selves into his place and see with his eyes.
3 The problem before every farmer
whose land has passed its freshness and
inhelited our natural fertility is how to
make the most from it at the least lex-
pense. This is business. And farming
1s.h olQse and exacting business which
friesssthe patience and the skill of the
farmer. for il is subject to a thousand
difficulties and vicissitudes which must
all be met. and overcome. And as re-
CARDS wheat-growiag. he has to consider
how be ean arrange the business of the
faln so as 10 make wheat the leading
crop. and then to,secure the largest Weld
by The most skillful cultivation. There
can be no doubt that the only way in.
which this is to be done is to feed stock,
even. if some grain food is to be pur-
chased; to make manure; to grow heavy
crops oflgrass and clover and corn, and
perhaps make use Of the system of en-
silage to cure the corn, which then should
be. grown for fodder and not for grain.
A large quantity Of fodder is indispensa-
Bile, because this cannot be purchased.
If TONS - .D,.r ~