San Saba County news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1874-19??, 1893-09-29


Wheat in close succession is much
more exhaustive than are most
other crops Wheat requires phos-
plate and nitrogen, neither can it
! get except from the soil. Nitrogen
for Indian corn is developed in the
growing season by cultivation.
Fastening the fermentation of veget-
able matter in the soil. With wheat
the only thing possible is narrowing
in early spring Probably the greatest
benefit of this is to open the soil to
light and air. and hasten the nitrifi-
cation of what vegetable matter it
contains, A fall or winter top dress
ing of stable manure greatly adds to
the benefit from this early spring
narrowing, and it makes a good
clover catch almost a certainty. 1t
is by growing clover alternately with
wheat that the requisite fertility
needed to produce a good crop may
+ be best maintained. But the competi-
ton IN wheat growing is now so
close, and prices are so low, that it
nowhere pays to pillow under clover
for the wheat crop 1t was always a
wasteful practice. using the land two
years for one crop. The farmer who
will grow the cheapest wheat here
after must grow and feed his clover
crop so as to get a profit from that
also.
This practically means that cheap
wheat must hereafter be grown in a
rotation. and perhaps as incidental
to crops that yield larger profits than
itself. says the American Cultivator.
We know farmers whose main crop is
potatoes who find wheat growing pro
ftable, because this winter grain
gives better chance for seeding with
clover than any spring grain could
do. If they sowed clover with no
other crop, as is often advised, weeds
come in which the grains would
check. Besides, clover the first sum
mer yields very little. On rich land
it may cut ton per acre if left till
September, but this, though paying
well for cutting, gives hardly any
profit 1t is better to grow wheat
seed with clover and take the grain
and straw as clear profit. as the late
clover will be as good as if sown
alone.
This necessity OF growing wheat
in rotation is an advantage in Sc
curing greater economy OF labor. It
is, indeed. the only way in which
wheat can be grown without the cost
of harvesting eating out the greater
part of the profit. The prices of
field hands in harvesting are Excess
sive. 81 and even s. per day being
paid to able-bodied, skilled men 1t
is. except for blowing and sowing
the crop. the only time in the year
when those who grow wheat to the
exclusion of all other crops have any
work to offer 1t can only be sup
piled by outsiders who come for the
purpose, and must be paid wages
high enough to attract them.
In the far West there are bands of
tramp harvesters who begin on the
southern belt of wheat growing and
travel northward. helping in the
harvest of grain till they stop in the
Red River region of North Dakota or
of Canada They demand and get
large pay. At present low prices of
wheat they take actual profit. Posi-
bly, while virgin fertility makes his
crops good the farmer may think
that he is making something. But
after few years crops decline, and
the crop is too poor to pay the ex-
cessive cost of harvesting. 1t is a
mistake to suppose that the Western
wheat grower gets the benefit of the
improved machinery he buys. It
goes to the help that he. even with
this advantage, is obliged to hire.
The business of wheat growing
must in future be an incident in i'm
proved farming that will furnish
work for farm help all through the
year, and thus reduce harvesting
prices to a reasonable figure. With
improved machinery a farmer can
now cut fifteen or twenty acres OF
wheat and set in the barn or stack,
IL he has help hired by the month or
year, cheaper than can the Western
farmer who relies on tramp har-
vesters What the small farmer
saves in extra harvesting wages he
can put in the land to make his crop
larger. Wheat yields on most lands
can be increased eight or ten bushels
per acre by a dressing of mineral
manure costing only two or three
dollars per acre The increased
grain and straw more than pays the
cost, besides the benefit that the
clover crop receives. Often an extra
half ton of the best clover hay may
be cut on land that has been phos-
phated. In spring, too, when the
narrowing is done, q very light
dressing of nitrate OF soda will pay
well, both for the wheat and the
clover, especially if it has not been
possible to top dress with barnyard !
manure.
These are, We are sure, the condi !
tions under which most of the wheat /
the world will eat must be grown |
They involve expense that will only /
be borne as wheat becomes an Incl I
uentai crop, ana large part OF thlS /
expense can be assured to the main 1
crops on which the farmer relies for
his income. For this reason the
cheap growing of wheat must for
u long time be limited, and its price
must advance 80 that those who pos
sess more wasteful methods and get
smaller crops can at least make a
living. They need not eN-
pect profit. The poorest workers
in any line of work can earn never
much more than bare living. and
occasionally less than this. /