Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-01-19
ABOUT WHEAT CULTURE.
a Crop Taat Leaves Little Excep. scener
aud DcDieted Soil.

Il Crop That Leaves Little Except Scenery
aud Depleted Soil.
Why SO many farmers continue to
raise wheat year after year when its
market value is less than its cost, lean
only explain On the theory that they do
not know its cost, do not take the
trouble to think about it; or that they
keep on sowing with something of the
gamblers trust in the turn of luck"
hope that favoring conditions will
next season enable them to reap a
much larger yield than they have any
reason to expect, or that great failure
in some part of the world will SO adj
vance prices that even their scanty
product may afford some profit The
government report places the average
yield of wheat of the United States for
1882 at Is bushels per acre; the average
by states is given at from 618 to 221z
bushels. Nearly one hundred Kansas
farmers report yields of considerable
areas, ranging all the way from 80
bushels to as high as 65 per acre. quite
large proportion running above 40
bushels. Now, at 80 to 40 bushels per
acre there may be a fair return to the
farmer on cheap land at even 80 cents
per bushel; but, at Ii bushels and be-
low, what can there be, even at 80
cents bushel? At so cents Is bushels
bring, ouly $40. 40. How well will that
pay for blowing once, narrowing and
rolling two or three times, cost of seed,
drilling, harvesting, thrashing, and,
perhaps, hauling several miles to mar
ket? Added to this, there is interest
or rent of land-not less than SIS per
acre. Then there is another factor of
cost that don't believe one farmer in
ten ever stops, seriously, to think Of
namely. the value of the plant.food
sold with the wheat This plant-food
is really the farmers capital--his in
vestment Remove the plant-food, the
life, the fertility, from the soil and
what is the remainder worth? Moth
ing but to wear the life out of the
farmer without return for his toll.
When that is gone he might as well
abandon his farm, unless he has
scenery to sell.
A bushel of wheat takes from
the soil about 1.25 Id. of nitrogen,
So ID of potash and AZ Id. of phos-
phoric acid. These ut market prices
for chemicals amount to about "a
cents bushel. At this rate, in selling
10 bushels of wheat per acre $40 of
your receipts would be for the cream
of your soil; 20 bushels per acre would
take 81. 80, 80 bushels per acre $50 and
40 bushels So. 60. Now a farmer is not
farming economically, judiciously, I'M
less he is able to return to his farm, in
some form, the plaut-food he sells in
his crops and still have left a balance
sufficient to pay all cost of crop, incluc-
ing interest on the value of the land.
How can a stop be put to the great
loss through producing each year more
wheat than the world will buy at re-
munerating prices9 Farmers will not
combine to reduce the acreage sown.
Low as the price Was at seeding time
last autumn, the great wheat states
have extended rather than contracted
their areas sown- Every intelligent
farmer can settle the matter for.himself
Individually. He can resolve to cut
down the area of his sowing one-half.
He can then resolve TO put the manure
usually spread thin over two acres on
one, and as much of the labor as may
be necessary to put his reduced area
into first-rate tilth. Then he will be
prepared probably to meet whatever
outcome the next harvest may bring.
Should there be an overproduction
again, he will probably have such a
large yield per acre Us to reduce cost
per bushel below the market price,
and should there be an advance in
price he will be iI position to realize
handsomely. To cultivate a less area
and cultivate that better should be the
motto of every intellige mt farmer.-C.
p. Reynolds, in y. u. Tribune.