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been somewhat rudely made aware of the fact that there were other forces at work which exercised a powerful influences upon prices and which, year by year, have disappointed all calculations based upon former data; causes and effects which have completely neutralized any influence produced by the yield and acreage of this country. An examination into the wheat production of the other countries of the world shows us that several countries which were formerly purchasers from us, now produce a surplus which competes with ours in the world's markets, and that other countries, from having been very small producers, are rapidly overhauling us in the race.

Some of our most careful staticians have estimated the total wheat crop of the world at 2,000,000,000 bushels, and the total population at 1,000,000,000, thus giving about two bushels to each individual. Of course some countries do not consume nearly this ratio, but upon the other hand others greatly exceed it. Thus, while Africa is far short of consuming her quota, our own country averages at least four and one-half bushels to each inhabitant, and produces, on an average, at least eight bushels to each one.

Taking our average national crop, we may estimate it at 450,000,000 bushels per year, or at the rate of about eight bushels to each individual. If, as before stated, we consume but four and one-half bushels (one barrel of flour) each, we have left for export a ration of about three and one-half bushels per capita.

For seven years, or from 1880 to 1886 inclusive, our crops, their average yield, price per bushel and value per acre, have been as follows:

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A writer, in alluding to the capabilities of our country when we shall have attained to the average crops of England, uses the following language:

"The average yield per acre in 1886 was not far from twelve bushels, while in Great Britain for the same year it was a trifle under twentyseven bushels, and in 1885, upwards of thirty-one bushels.. Had our wheat acreage been as prolific as that of Great Britain last year, the yield would have exceeded one thousand million bushels, or one half the total product of the world, instead of a little more than one-quarter, as at present. This comparison shows the capabilities of the United States as a wheat growing country, when our farmers shall arrive at the conclusion that it will be more profitable to make two bushels of

wheat grow where only one grew before, than to double the yield by doubling the acreage. Although positive statistics are not at hand to substantiate the assertion, it is probable that the consumption per capita of wheat is as high in the United States as in any countries except France and Great Britain. It has not reached its highest point yet by any means, as in the South and South-west Indian corn forms a much larger proportion of the daily food of the people than it will when the farmers of those sections increase the fertility of their soils and give more attention to wheat growing, as they are certain to do in the future."

Next to our own country in total wheat-producing capacity we have France with about 300,000,000, or at the rate of over eight bushels per capita.

Third on the list we have India with an annual crop of (at present) 250,000.000 bushels and with a consumption so small that it leaves the large bulk of her crop for the markets of Europe, which she can supply at a much less rate per bushel than we have heretofore done.

As the fourth in the list of wheat producers we have Russia with her annual crop of about 225,000.000 bushels, or a production at the rate of two bushels per capita, with a consumption on which we have little means of calculating, but with a knowledge that by far the larger majority of her people derive their sustenance from the 750,000,000 bushels of rye which they annually produce.

Fifth on the list we have Austria and her outlaying States with a yield of 150,000,000 bushels, or in the ratio of about three bushels per capita.

Following in regular order we have Spain with her addition of 130,000,000 from 18,000,000 of people; Italy with 130,000,000, or at the rate of five bushels per capita.

On the other hand, we find Germany producing but 82,000,000 bushels for a population of 45,000,000, or at the rate of but two bushels per capita, where twice that amount is needed for the per capita comsumption. Great Britain, with a population of 35,000,000, produces but 65,000,000 bushels, and is the largest purchaser in the world's market. To supply her needs over and above her production she absorbs the surplus of Australia and India, which she takes first because they can not only be furnished cheapest, but because they are paid for in her own products, and after these have been absorbed makes up her deficiency from our surplus. From this it is evident that our place in her markets, and those of the world is dependent upon the crops of Australia and India, since they must be first sold before ours comes into the market.

A writer upon agricultural statistics thus sums up the production of other and smaller wheat-growing countries:

"Next after England in total product of wheat comes Turkey with 41,143,750 bushels, closely followed by Canada with 37.219,234 bushels. Algiers is credited with 32,915,000, Argentine Republic and Chili with 28,800,629, Roumania with 22,258,146. Little Belgium produced 18,414,688 bushels and old Egypt. the cradle of the wheat-growing industry, and the country from which nearly all our varieties of wheat originated, grew 16,457.500 bushels, or a trifle over three bushels per capita last year. The wheat crop of Egypt is not so great as formerly, for while the Nile valley is just as fertile as when in the days of Joseph it produced by handfuls in the seven plenteous years, much attention has been given of late to the culture of cotton, an industry

stimulated by the cotton blockade of Southern ports during the late war. The cold kingdoms of Sweden and Norway managed to grow 2,468,628 bushels of wheat last year, while rocky, mountainous Switzerland brought up the rear of European wheat-growing countries with 1,645,750 bushels."

The same writer, in alluding to the possibility that the consumption of wheat may be an index to civilization, writes as follows:

"Along with the largest consumption of wheat has usually gone the greatest progress in the arts, sciences and literature, as well as the greatest material comfort to the peoples who preferred and were able to enjoy on the largest scale the luxury of white bread and other grades of food of which it is the recognized type. It does not follow from this that the leading wheat-growing countries are of necessity the most highly civilized, as in some instances, notably in Russia and India, the great wheat crops form the principal article of exportation, the peasants who grow it being obliged to sell it to secure money for taxes and other necessary expenditures, themselves living upon the vegetables and coarse grains which are not marketable. In other countries like England and Germany, where the consumption of wheat reaches a high figure, a goodly amount has to be imported. As a rule, therefore, the consumption of wheat in any given country may be regarded as a better criterion of its wealth and civilization than its production of this staple."

The Value of Carbon in the Soil.

At the Bucks County Institute and at the annual meeting of 1887, the address of Hon. John W. Hickman, developed the fact that there was an apparent difference of opinion between the lecturer and the practical farmers present, as to the real value of carbon and vegetable matter in the soil. Mr. Hickman had advanced the theory that the atmosphere would at all times furnish an abundant supply of carbon for any and all crops; on the other hand a number of practical farmers claimed that the vegetable matter (carbon) in barnyard manure was entitled to a fair valuation; and that it was not just to the barn yard to simply value farm manure for its phosphoric acid, potash and nitrogen. A careful examination of the question will, we think, convince all that this difference is more imaginary than real and that after all there is very little real difference of opinion in relation to the question. Mr. Hickman's address was confined to the use of commercial fertilizers, and he quoted from Ville's Experiments to show that plants and crops on soils entirely devoid of carbon (vegetable matter) and which had been carefully charred to destroy carbonaceous matter, would still produce an abundant crop, rich in carbon and showing no chemical or mechanical difference from similar crops grown upon ordinary soils rich in carbon.

All bulky fertilizers such as barnyard manure, lime and ashes, are entitled to credit for two modes of action : 1st. As a fertilizer entering into the structure of the plant, and 2d. As a mechanical agent opening and loosening the soil.

To illustrate, let us suppose it possible to crop a soil continuously for a given number of years without the addition, either by stubble or roots, of any carbonaceous matter, we may safely assume that a point would sooner or later be reached at which its mechanical texture would become such as would seriously interfere with the yield of the crop. That sooner or later, from the exhaustion and absence of

all vegetable matter, the soil would become hard and compact and would fail to contain within its particles that portion of air which is essential and necessary to the crop; it would also, from the same cause, fail to retain the rainfall, or having received it would fail to retain it for a sufficient length of time to supply the necessary moisture to the growing crop.

It must also be remembered that Mr. Hickman's claim that increasing crops might be produced by the use of commercial fertilizers alone, included the annual turning under of the roots and stubble left by the crop, and he distinctly stated that he would include one or two crops of clover in his rotation, and thus obtain a large amount of carbon.

When the question is reduced to one of a mere source of carbon for manurial purposes and for supplying the actual needs of the plant, we have no doubt that the atmosphere is by far the most economical, and that as a simple fertilizer, barnyard manure is not entitled to a value for its carbonaceous matter, but in the line of incontrovertable facts we think that for the mechanical value of this carbon, it is entitled to a valuation.

Aside from its actual and direct manurial value, and its mechanical effect and value, carbonaceous matter is also entitled to a credit for its indirect effect in the production of nitrogenous compounds. Just what this effect is, may still be a matter of dispute, but it must be admitted that in some way organic matter, either directly or indirectly, is capable of furnishing nitrogen.

A noted writer upon agricultural topics, puts the question in the following shape: "It is well for farmers not to lose sight of the fact that after all the science and experiments connected with tillage, the one great essential element of plant growth is the presence of organic matter. There are many arguments and so much talk which is not argument, in favor of the chemical elements of plant growth, that there is danger of the old ways being forgotten and old laws being ignored. There are some soils filled with organic matter, and they will stand the drain for a long time and show good results. No man can live forever on medicine, and this the charitable way of putting it. It is not so harsh as to say 'stimulants.'"

Professor William McMurtrie of the University of Illinois, writes as follows:

"It is well known that all vegetable material in the soil, whether turned under in the process of green manuring or as the debris of former crops, or even as stable and barnyard manure, quickly enters into decay. That in this decay, the result of a species of fermentation, those little known compounds, termed in general humus, humic acids, are formed. These are the primary results of decay or fermentation. Carried to ultimate result carbonic acid, ammonia and free nitrogen, with corresponding quantities of water, are liberated, the mineral constituents of the ash are set free, and these latter feed succeeding crops. But Dr. Bolton, I think it was, showed that these humic acids have an important influence in the chemical disintegration of the mineral constituents of the soil. The feldspars and the phosphatic minerals are broken down and decomposed by them to an extent that would be impossible by other agents ordinarily met in the soil.

"But Grandeau has also shown, and all who have had to do with the analysis of rich black soils have recognized, that in presence of these matters almost nothing in the soil is soluble in water. And it is gen

erally recognized that all plant food must be so soluble. Grandeau found further that the black material could be acted upon by a ten per cent solution of ammonium carbonate, or free ammonia, and dissolved, forming a dark-brown liquid. Upon analysis of the material so dissolved he found that it contained all the elements necessary to the life and growth of the plants. This experience of Grandeau with the celebrated black soils of Russia we have repeated in the black soils of the prairies of Illinois and Texas.

"It therefore appears that at an intermediate stage of the decay of vegetable or carbonaceous material in the soil it is capable of decomposing refractory mineral compounds, and yet at the same time fixing the important elements of these compounds in combinations insoluble in the soil waters and thus preventing their loss in leaching by drainage. Then as the humus compounds are further decomposed by the minute organisms of decay, these mineral elements are liberated at a time when they are most needed by plants, and often about as fast as they can be used. They therefore serve both as a medium for the preparation of plant food and as a regulator of the supply to the plant. And it seems to me that this constitutes the most important function of carbon in the soil.”

Following the teachings of Ville, Lawes and others, we are strongly impressed with the theory which runs through all of their writings and which conveys to the reader the idea that there is in either, the soil or atmosphere, an ability to furnish an unknown amount of nitrogen to the growing crop, and all of our evidence points to the belief that this supply is in some way connected with the supply of organic, or vegetable matter in the soil, and that soils rich in vegetable matter, either have the power of forming nitrogen from this kind of material, or that by virtue of containing this matter, have an increased power of absorbing or obtaining nitrogen from the atmosphere.

Admitting this we are compelled to assume that organic matter is entitled to three different scources of credit, viz: for actual plant food (aside from carbon) furnished, for a valuable mechanical effect, and for a result produced at least by its presence in the soil, upon other matters of a chemical character, which by its action are materially modified and rendered valuable as plant food.

The Theory of Deep-setting for Cream.

At the request of a member of the Board an attempt was made during the past season to secure reliable data as to the comparative effects of deep and shallow-setting for butter. After much correspondence we can but return to the point at which we started, and which, in previous reports, has been stated before, viz: That either plan, when all the requisites are carried out, will give very nearly all the butter in the milk, and that either, without carrying out the proper requisites, will waste more or less of the butter; that the increase in the amount of cream (so-called) obtained by deep-setting is deceptive, and that the increase in bulk is due to two causes, neither of which will, in any way, increase the amount of butter: 1st. The milk by deep-setting has much less surface exposed to the air, and the resulting cream therefore contains a greater percentage of water than that which is raised by shallow-setting. 2d. That in ascending through the deeper column of milk the particles of fat (cream) take up a larger percentage of casein of cheesey matter, and their volume is thus increased over that of the cream raised from the same amount of milk

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