The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1885-08-05
HOW MUCH WHEAT?
BTUtUS Comes to the Rescue
And Gives the Farmers an
interesting Article on
Wheat Culture,
And Also Touches the Subject Of
Pastures.
For the NEws.


For the News.
'It is better to endure the ills we have,
than fly to others VIC know not Of"
The first preliminary in the solution of
the nbove is, can wo overdo the wheat
supply for any considerable longth Of time.
The groat wheat regions of the Northwest
havo been opening up for years. Russia
has been stimulating her energies to assist
in supplying the world with this coral, and
yet with all these new sources Of supply
during the last twenty-five years, wheat
has seldom been less than one dollar per
bushol, and then only for short periods.
The great wheat kings of tho Northwest,
like Dalrymple, instead Of becoming mil
lionniros, have become bankrupts, and yet
people continue to eat wheat bread; and
except at short intervals pay fair living
price for it. We say living price, for an
Ohio farmer can grow wheat at one dollar
per bushel and live.
But says one, count tho failures; and
does it pay? Don't count on failures.
David Swing, in writing on the oarth's
power of production says, "There are mil
lions Of acres of land in Virginia, kentucky,
Ohio, and Indiana to be reclaimed, while
the agriculture of these States, with the
entire South, is little bettor than that of
Turkey or Palestine" Is this true It
appOXimates as nearly the truth in our
wheat as any other branch of our agricul-
ture. We grumble at our failure in the
wheat cropi and yet not one year in ten, or
even twenty, but in the midst of our
| failures, but what we have some afne
patches of wheat, Even the present COM
parative failure, whero is the wheat field
TINT has not some little patch or patches Of
golden grain, like an GASES amid the weeds
and grass? Then why not tho whole field
in golden grain? We put the same
amount Of seed per acre where the weeds
stand as where the wheat is. This fact
alone ought to convince us, there is some
thing wrong with our wheat farming
Some attribute the failure to the cold winds,
others to the hard freeze and still others to
the dry freezing It is needless to stop to
argue whether one or all of these causes
combined caused the destruction of so
much Of our wheat, when in the Same field,
all sOwn at the same timo, out Of the same
kind Of seed, we have patches Of splendid
wheat, demontrates to us that all these
causes combined can not destroy the wheat
under some circumstances. Then if we
wish to succeed in our farm operation we
must apply the same conditions to all the
field, that were applied to the patches.
Then let each farmer resolve to act as q
committee Of one, to investigate tho cause
of success on the small patches whilo so
near failure on the general crop.
Our success on the highest and poorest
points Of our fields was brought about by a
good coat of manure applied to the ground
after it was broken up for corn, which
produced the finest corn rnised on the farm,
and at seeding time the ground was friable
and in fine condition to receive the seed
wheat, with plenty of strength to push the
wheat up, the result was fine wheat there,
while the balance Of the field was not worth
cutting, and that on land, which of an or
dinary good wheat year, would bring fnc
crop Of wheat, But we leave this sol
question TO another time.
One word on the permanent pasture
question. Our advice (cheap article) wal
If you have hilly or broken land that viii
wash, get it in grass and keep it there a
any cost. But the man with small farm
Of tillable land could not afford to set pas
ture fields that require from Give to ten
years 10 set" and then fertilizo every two
or three years or lot them run out. w,
say run out. First wo say it on our owl
experience. We have just such a pasture
and we have to apply fertilizers or it de
creases in productiveness. Second, W,
make the assertion on the testimony Of al
the best farmers Of New York, Pennsylva
mia, and the Eastern States, as evidence,
by their practice, and third we mako it ol
the universal testimony Of all the bss
agricultural writer's of Europe and America
No system Of mathematics ever disoovero,
win demonstrate the problem of eterna
subtraction without any addition and leav
the original quantity the same. But Clod
hopper asks 'who does not know Of oil
pastures that were in grass when they, b.
or she, were in their infancy; and that suol
pastures we're better now than forty year
ago?" Echo answers, who2 If any one
they ho, she, or it, win find me a pastur
of twenty acres in Union township leve
enough to be plowed, that has been cleare
and in grass thirty years oonsocutivoly, W
- will pay the finder a premium Of twent
. dollars. We know Of but two ways O
keeping up pasture fields without fertil
p izing One way is not TO pasture them, an
the other is like they do in old Virginia
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