The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-28
PROFITS OF WHEAT GROWING.

l FRUITS OF WHEAT GROWING.
 There is no large profit in wheat grow 1 ing, no matter how great the yield, where the farmer has to sell for less than one dollar per bushel That is. so far as dol l lars and cents are concerned. but the l wheat crop has a side value in a roA- ton of crops which should also be taken 1 into considerat ton. Secretary Wilson l says that wheat growing must come again 10 our great central western states, and he also says that the far mers of these states will not grow wheat unless they can sell for one dollar per 1 hushel He is correct in this, for the farmers of these states know what they ] can do in stock raising and what profits 1 there are in dairylng.
 l So to get the best profits out of a wheat crop as large an acreage as pos l sible should be sown and all the work 1 from start to finish should be performed 1 with labor saving machinery, as outlined in my paper of last week This reduces i the cost 10 q minimum and adds to the profits quickly, for 1t does not take long ] with all hand labor to take out all the profits there are in a wheat crop. This Is one of my strong reasons for putting
  1 ton of the soil before seeding. With the seed bed properly prepared it Is a quick. 1 easy Job to go in with a drill and SOW the seed so that the crop will grow; so that the great reaper, when the golden grain Is ready for harvest can gather and bind it. The harvester can save all the grain, for it the soil or seed bed has been properly prepared and the seeding has been uniform there will be but lit tie loss in harvesting.
 The farmer who Is growing less than twenty bushels of wheat per acre had better take the advice l saw on a sign at a railroad crossing in Maryland Stop. Think, Look, Listen Yes such farmers had better stop and think, for the time has come when we cannot af- ford to farm by almanacs and guess work. We cannot afford to pay taxes on land unless we are getting a profit fro mthis land in some way. Take the twenty bushel crop, and what is it worth? The very best price Is 75 cents per bushe This gives him gross s15 Take out expenses and see what is left. If that land was set to grass and dairy COWS or sheep kept to graze the profits from thls source would more than dou- ble that of the wheat crop.
 Poor Class of Farmers.
 But what about the farmer who is growing less than eight bushels per acre. Now, to be honest, these eight bushel farmers do not care cent whether they do any better or not They are not the class of farmers. as a rule, that we must look to for raising the standard of our wheat crop. Of course there will come seasons of disasters that may cut down the crop of our enterprising farmers to even below contingencies, but it is the careless eight bushel farmer that I al- lude to here He generally gets eight bushels or less of very low grade of wheat, all mixed with chess, cookie rye, oats and often garlic or wild onions Un- dertake to talk to him and he will look al you in a strange, suspicious way.
 l saw one of these men unloading load of wheat recently in a Missouri town. I examined his wheat and asked him how much his crop made. He an swered that he got an average of seven bushels and a half, and 1t was very poor stuff. The miller was paying him 70 cents per bushel for it, $5.25 per acre. l asked him If he would not like to learn how to grow twenty bushels per acre. He was a much younger man than I. and besides I am engaged in this missionary work so l always feel free to give good advice. He looked at me a little In a ! suspicious way and then asked what kind