Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1889-05-31
Economic Experiments in Wheat
Growing.

The average yield of wheat in the United
states Is about twelve bushels per acre 1t
Is commonly sown with drill which de.
posts the seeds IN rows eight inches apart
eight rows are commonly planted at each
turn an average of one and a half bushels
of seed Is used per acre one man with
team will plant eight acres per dav. and
tins being done in september, the field has
no further attention until the reaper is put
m the following July 10 gather whatever
harvest Providence has seen fit 10 send as a
reward for the negligence Of the husband
man.
Professor Blouut, of the Colorado Agri-
cultural college, having first made an elab
crate study of the habits and needs of the
wheat plant, conducted a series of expert
ments m It's cultivation with the following
results
First he planted upon an exact square
acre seven and one-half pounds of hand
picked wheat In rows of eighteen inches
apart, and at harvest threshed ont sixty
seven bushels again, upon ne-fOurth of an
acre he planted thIrtytwo ounces of Sc
lected seed. and the product was eighteen
bushels and again, upon seventh sin
square feet he planted seventv-six kernels
of extra-hne seed, weighing fortv-tive
grains and the product was ten and one
half pounds, or nearly at the rate of one
hundred bushels per acre.
These results are not more remarkable in
the excessive yield from a given area than
IN regard 10 the yield from given portion
of seed Agricultural discussion too often
directs attention 10 a result without sufi-
cIentiy analyzIug the means by which 1t is
obtained A pertinent feature Of these ex
perlments Is the saving of an amount of
seed which, averaged upon the entire grain
acreage, would add annually a vast sum To
the wealth of the nation
II we should throw into the sea annually
fifty million bushels of wheat and a proper
tonate amount of the other cereals the
world would cry out at our improvidence
\ ct If Professor Bount conclusions arr
correct-and they are supported 10y much
collateral evldence-we bury this amount
IN the ground where it is not only thrown
away, hut where 1t actually decreases the
resultant crop.
Farmers generally will say that the re
suits secured 10y the above experiments are
not attainable upon any extended scale :
probably not, 10 the average farmer, be
cause, having so much land 10 till. he must
still SOW ms eight acres per day Ii may
occasionally occur 10 one of particular in
tellgence that 1t might be economy 10 pro
duce ms hundred bushels bv the thorough
cultivation OF two acres rather than by su-
pcrtieially working upon eight such a one
will find that exact and scientific methods
are practical AS well
10 would consequently seem that the pur-
suit of agriculture can offer Inducements
o. the student who would IN turn become
tho teacher. 10 the business man who would
exert hl, talents in IL as a financial enter
prise, 10 the scientist who would combine
profitable avucation with the investigation
of the laws of nature, and % the economist
who, from ms own observations. would add
o. the general know ledge of how best o.
conserve the forces of production --.jaA,ss
h ffeere, Ia Haprr's Naga-u,e FOR Aau