The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1889-05-03
APPLIED SCIENCE AND THE AGRl-
CULTURE OF THE FUTURE.

The average yield of wheat in the
United States is about twelve bushels
per acre. 1t is commonly sown with a
drill, which deposits the seed in rows
eight inches apart; eight rows are COM
monty planted at each turn; an aver
verage of one and half bushels Of
seed is used per acre: one man with
team will plant eight acres per day,
and this being done in September,
the field has no further attention un-
til the reaper is put in the following
July to gather whatever harvest Prov
idence has seen fit to send as reward
for the negligence of the husbandman.
Professor Blount, of the Colorado
Agricultural College, having first made
an elaborate study of the habits and
needs of the wheat plant, conducted
series of experiments in its 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 eight
teen inches apart, and at harvest
threshed out sixty-seven bushels; again,
upon one-fourth Of an acre he planted
thirty-two ounces of selected seed, and
the product was eighteen bushels and
again, upon seventy-six square feet he
planted seventy-six kernels of extra
fine seed, weighing forty-five 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 remarka-
BILE in the excessive yield from given
area than in regard to the yield from
given portion of seed. Agricultural
discussion too often directs attention to
a result without sufficiently analyzlng
the means by which it is obtained. A
pertinent feature of these experiments
is the saving of an amount Of seed
which, averaged upon the entire grain
acreage, would add annually vast
sum to the wealth Of the nation.
If we should throw into the sea an-
nually fifty million bushels of wheat
and proportionate amount Of the 9th
er cereals, the world would cry out at
our improvidence. Yet if Professor
Blount's conclusions are correct-and
they are supported by much collateral
evidence-we bury this amount in the
ground where it is not only thrown
away, but where it actually decreases
the resultant crop.
The economic results that would
follow if we should be able to increase
our production even approximately to
the above ratio are too far-reaching for
the scope Of this article. Our ability
to feed an almost limitless increase of
population would be assured. 1t may
be that over-production would recoil
upon ourselves, but We have already
successfully encountered the lowest
wheat markets of the globe, and as in
creased production would mean de-
creased cost, We might eventually be
able to make good our boast of 'sfeed2
ing the world"
With population increasi. the
rate of twenty-five per cent. es-
cry decade, it is hardly probahlethat
our production (after the fina. -occnpa-
tion of all the public landss VII at
the best more than keep pace with its
needs. As before suggested, most
progressive development viii be requir.
ed if We even accomplish that
Farmers generally will say that the
results secured by the above expert
ments are not attainable upon any ex-
tended scale: probably not, to the
average farmer, because, having so
much land to till, he must still SOW his
eight acres per day. 1t may occasion
ally occur to one of particular INTEL
ligence that it might be economy to
produce his hundred bushels by the
thorough cultivation of two acres rath-
er than by specifically working upon
eight Such one will find that exact
and scientific methods are practical as
we'll.
1t would consequently seem that the
purpose Of agriculture can offer in
ducements to the student who would
in turn become the teacher, to the bus
lness man who would exert his talents
in it as financial enterprise, to the
scientist who would combine profita-
bic avocation with the investigation Of
the laws of nature, and to the econo-
mist who from his own observations
would add to the general knowledge of
how best to conserve the forces Of pro-
duction.-JAMEs X. REEVE, in Har-
pers Magazine.
Feelings come and go like light
troops following the victory of the
present; but principles, like troops of
the line, are undisturbed and stand
fast.
BE as careful of the books you read
as Of the company you keep, for your
habits and character will be as much
influenced by the former as by the lat
ter.