The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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All alkaline minerals, such as potash, soda, lime, ammonia, and
magnesia, hasten the solution of the several insoluble compounds of
silica in the soil. This fact should be remembered by every farmer.
To undertake an explanation of the various ways in which alkalies,
oxides, and acids act and re-act upon each other in the surface of
the earth, when subject to tillage, would be out of place in this
outline view of wheat-growing in the United States. I may state the
fact, however, as ascertained by many analyses, that a cubic foot of
good wheat soil in the valley of the Genesee, contains twenty times
more lime than do the poorest soils in South Carolina and Georgia.
The quantity of gypsum, bone-earth, and magnesia, available as food
for plants, varies in an equal degree. Not only lime, but phosphoric
acid, potash, and magnesia are lacking in most soils, if one desires
to raise a large crop of wheat, and have the seeds of the grain
weigh as much as the straw. In a number of the specimens of wheat
analyzed by Prof. Way, when cut close to the roots, the dry wheat
outweighed the dry straw.

Having secured the growth of a bright, hard, glassy stem, the next
thing is to develop a long, well-filled ear. To this end, available
ammonia or nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, and magnesia are
indispensable. Ammonia (spirits of hartshorn) is necessary to aid in
forming the combustible part of the seed. The other ingredients
named are required to assist in making the incombustible part of the
grain. In 100 parts of the ash of wheat, there are the following
substances, viz.:--

Silica 2.28
Phosphoric acid 45.73
Sulphuric acid 0.32
Lime 2.06
Magnesia 10.94
Peroxide of iron 2.04
Potash 32.24
Soda 4.06
Chloride of sodium 0.27
-----
Total 99.94

The quantity of ash in wheat varies from 11/4 to 21/2 per cent.; the
average is about 1.69. The amount of phosphoric acid in any given
quantity of the ash of wheat varies from forty to fifty per cent. of
the same.

Seeds that have a thick cuticle or bran, and little gluten, contain
a smaller per centage of phosphoric acid, and more silica. About
one-third of the ash is potash; in nearly all cases magnesia varies
from nine to fourteen per cent.; lime from one and a half to six per
cent. Peroxide of iron is seldom as abundant as in the ash above
given, and the same is true of soda. Chloride of sodium is common
salt, and exists in a small quantity. Salt is beginning to be much
used as a fertilizer on wheat lands in western New York. It operates
indirectly to increase the crop.

The following may be taken as about the average composition of the
ash of wheat-straw. It is "Specimen No. 40," in the tables of Prof.
Way, and I copy verbatim all that is said upon the subject: [Soil,
sandy; subsoil, stone and clay; geological formation, silurian;
drained; eight years in tillage; crop, after carrots, twenty tons
per acre; tilled December, 1845; heavy crop; mown, August 12th;
carried, August 20th; estimated yield, forty-two bushels per acre;
straw long, grain good, weight sixty-two pounds to the bushel.]
Length of straw, forty-two inches.

_Relation of Grain, Straw and Chaff_.

Actual quantities. Per centage.
Grain 1633 lbs. 45.15
Straw 1732 47.89
Chaff 250 6.96
----
Total 3615 lbs.

Specific gravity of grain 1.396
Weight of grain per acre 2604 lbs.
" " straw " " 2,775 3/10ths.
" " chaff " " 401 1/6th.

_Mineral Matter in an Acre._
Wheat 44 1/2 lbs.
Straw 113
Chaff 47 1/6th.
-----------
Total 204 7/10ths.

_Analysis of the Ash of the Grain_.
Per centage. Removed from an acre.
lbs. ozs.
Silica 5.63 2 8
Phosphoric acid 43.98 19 8
Sulphuric acid .21 0 1 1/6th.
Lime 1.80 0 12 8/10ths.
Magnesia 11.69 5 3 2/10ths.
Peroxide of iron .29 0 2
Potash 34.51 15 5 6/10ths.
Soda 1.87 0 13 3/10ths.
----- --- ----------
Total 99.98 44 6 l/10ths.

_Analysis of Straw with its proportion of Chaff._
Per centage. Removed per acre.
lbs. ozs.
Silica 69.36 111 1 7/10ths.
Phosphoric acid 5.24 8 6 7/10ths.
Sulphuric acid 4.45 7 2 2/10ths.
Lime 6.96 11 2 2/20ths.
Magnesia 1.45 2 5
Peroxide of iron .29 1 2
Potash 11.79 18 14
Soda none none.
Chloride of sodium " "
----- --- -----------
Total 99.54 160 1 l/10ths.

If we subtract the 111 pounds of silica from 160 pounds of minerals
in the straw and chaff, the difference between what are left and
those in wheat, is not great. As the stems and leaves of wheat
plants grow before their seeds, if all the phosphoric acid, potash,
and lime available in the soil is consumed before the organization
of the seeds begin, from what source is nature to draw her supply of
these ingredients to form a good crop of wheat? If the farmer could
reverse the order of nature, and grow a good supply of seeds first,
and make straw afterwards, then many a one would harvest more wheat
and less straw. But the cultivator must grow the stems, roots, and
leaves of wheat, corn, and cotton, before nature will begin to form
the seeds of these several plants: and every one should know that
the atoms in the soil, which are consumed in organizing the bodies
of cultivated plants, are, in the main, identical in kind with those
required to make their seeds. The proportions, however, differ very
considerably. Thus, while 100 parts of the ash of wheat contain an
average of 45 parts of phosphoric acid, 100 of the ash of the wheat
straw contain an average of only 5 parts. The difference is as 9 to
1. In magnesia the disparity is only a little less striking.

In what are called the organic elements of wheat (the combustible
part) there are seven times more nitrogen in 100 pounds than in a
like weight of straw. Hence, if the farmer converts straw into
manure or compost, with the view ultimately of transforming it into
wheat, it will take 7 pounds of straw to yield nitrogen enough to
form one pound of wheat. Few are aware how much labor and money is
annually lost by the feeding of plants on food not strictly adapted
to the peculiar wants of nature in organizing the same. It is true,
that most farmers depend on the natural fertility of the soil to
nourish their crops, with perhaps the aid of a little stable and
barn-yard manure, given to a part of them. As the natural resources
of the land begin to fail, the supply must be drawn from other
quarters than an exhausted field, or its cultivator will receive a
poor return for the labor bestowed.

In Great Britain, where the necessity for liberal harvests and
artificial fertilizing is far greater than in this country, the
yield of wheat is said to be governed in a good degree by the amount
of ammonia available as food for growing plants. This opinion is
founded not at all on theory, but altogether on the teachings of
experience. But in England, limeing and manuring are so much matters
of constant practice, that few soils are so improverished as many
are in the United States, With land as naked and sterile as is much
that can be found in the whole thirteen colonies between Maine and
Alabama, English farmers could hardly pay their tithes and poor
rates, to say nothing of other taxes, rent, and the coat of
producing their annual crops.

The first step towards making farming permanently profitable in all
the older States, is to accumulate in a cheap and skilful manner the
raw material for good harvests in the soil.

Over a territory so extensive as the United States, it is extremely
difficult to lay down any rule that will be applicable even to a
moiety of the republic. There are, however, many beds of marl,
greensand, gypsum, limestone, saline and vegetable deposits
available for the improvement of farming lands, in the Union. In
addition to these, there are extraneous resources, the ocean with
its fish, its shells, its sea-weeds, and its fertilizing salts,
which will yield an incalculable amount of bread and meat. In the
subsoil and the atmosphere, every agriculturist has resources which
are not duly appreciated by one in a thousand.

As a general rule, the soil must be _deepened_ before it can be
permanently improved. One acre of soil 12 inches deep is worth more
to make money from, by cultivating it, than four acres 6 inches in
depth. Thus, admit that a soil 6 inches deep will produce 14 bushels
of wheat, and that 12 bushels will pay all expenses and give 2 for
profit. Four acres of this land will yield a net income of only 8
bushels. Now double the depth of the soil and the crop: making the
latter 28 bushels, instead of 14 per acre, and the former 12 inches
deep, in the place of 6. Fifteen bushels instead of twelve, will now
pay all annual expenses, and leave a net profit not of _two_ but of
_thirteen_ bushels per acre. If small crops will pay expenses, large
ones will make a fortune; provided the farmer knows how to enrich
his land in the most economical way. It is quite as easy to pay too
dear for improving lands, as to lose money at any other business
whatever.

The first thing for the operator to do is to acquire all the
knowledge within his reach, from the experience of others who have
done for their soils what he proposes to accomplish for his. Twenty
or fifty dollars, invested in the best agricultural works in the
English language, may save him thousands in the end, and double his
profits in two years. The Agricultural Journals of the United States
abound in information most useful to the practical farmer: and the
back volumes, if collected and bound, will form a library of great
value.

_Rotation of Crops in connexion with Wheat Culture_.--A system of
tillage and rotation which will pay best in one locality, or on one
quality of soil, and in a particular climate, will be found not at
all adapted to other localities, different soils and latitudes.
Hence, no rule can be laid down that will meet the peculiar
exigencies of a farming country so extensive as the thirty States
east of the Rocky Mountains. There are soils in Western New York,
known to the writer, which have borne good crops of wheat every
other year for more than twenty years, and produce better now than
at the beginning of their cultivation. The resources of the earth in
supplying the elements of wheat and corn are extremely variable.
There are friable shaley rocks in Livingstone county, N.Y., which
crumble and slake when exposed to the air, that abound in all the
earthy minerals necessary to form good wheat. These rocks are
hundreds of feet in thickness, and have furnished much of the soil
in the valley of the Genesee. The Onondaga Salt Group, and other
contiguous strata, which extend into Canada West, form soils of
extraordinary capacity for growing wheat. Indeed, the rocks and
"drift" of a district give character to its arable surface.

Nothing is more needed at this time than a good geological map of
the United States, accompanied by an accurate and popularly arranged
work on agricultural geology. The writer had hoped to give such a
map in this report; but it is thought best to devote another year to
the collection of geological surveys and facts, and to the making of
more critical and extended researches before publishing.

In the matter of rotation of crops in connection with wheat culture,
clover and corn are generally preferred in all the Northern, and
most of the Middle States. In New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Northern Indiana, and Illinois, so far as the
writer is acquainted, a crop of wheat is made in rotation, either
every third, fourth, or fifth year. Wherever wool growing is united
with wheat culture, clover and wheat are the staple crops of the
farm. Wool and superfine flour are exported; farmers taking nearly
all the bran and shorts of the millers who purchase their wheat.

The offal of wheat makes not a little feed with chaff and cut straw.
Many agriculturists grow peas, beans, turnips, beets, and carrots in
large quantities, as well as clover, corn, oats, and barley. Peas
and beans, both stems and pulse, when well cured, are excellent feed
for sheep; and on good land they are easily grown. They prepare the
soil well for wheat.

All the manure derived from sheep is husbanded with extreme care by
the farmers who are gradually enriching their lands. On a deep,
rich, arable soil, quite a number of sheep may be kept per acre, if
highly cultivated; and their manure prepares the land for producing
generous crops of wheat at a small expense. Of all business men,
farmers should be the closest calculators of _profit_ and _loss_.

Great care should be taken to sow good and clean seed on clean land.
Previous to putting the seed in the ground (drilling is preferable
to sowing broadcast), wheat should be soaked five or six hours--not
longer--in strong brine. After this, add a peck or more of recently
slaked lime to each bushel, and shovel it over well, that the lime
may cover each seed. It is now ready to commit to the earth. Most
good farmers roll the earth after seeding: some before.

In the Southern States, planters are in the habit of permitting
their wheat to remain too long in the field after it is cradled, and
in small shocks. Good barns are too scarce in all the planting
States, and in some others.

_Summer fallowing_ is generally abandoned, except in cases where old
pastures and meadows, new prairie, or bushy bad fields are to be
subdued. As a general rule, friable soils need not be ploughed long
before the intended crop is expected to begin to grow. Among
fertilizers, wood ashes, salt, bones, lime, guano, and poudrette
have been used in wheat culture with decided advantage. In Great
Britain, manure derived from the consumption of turnips and other
root crops by sheep and neat cattle, is much used in preparing land
for wheat. Sheep, clover and peas, corn and hogs, rotate well to
insure the economical production of this staple. Manure is usually
applied to the crop preceding wheat.

It may be interesting to some readers to see in this place the mean
result of several organic analyses of wheat made by M. Boussingault.
Wheat, dried at 230 deg. _in vacuo_, was found to contain:

Carbon 46.1
Oxygen 43.4
Hydrogen 5.8
Nitrogen 2.3
Ash 2.4
-----
Total 100.0

Charcoal may be regarded as a fair representative of carbon, and
water as the representative of both oxygen and hydrogen. It will be
seen by the above figures, that over 95 per cent. of wheat is made
up of elements which greatly abound in nature in an available
condition; and the same is true of all other plants. It is doubtless
owing to this circumstance, that a comparatively small quantity of
guano and other highly concentrated fertilizers are able to produce
crops five, ten, and fifty times greater than their own weight.
Azote, or nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, or nitric acid, (aqua
fortis), and the incombustible part of plants are the elements which
least abound in soils, and should be husbanded with the greatest
care.

The Hon. C.P. Holcomb, of Delaware, furnishes some interesting remarks
on the wheat crop of the United States:--

A short wheat crop in England, Mr. Webster says, affects the
exchanges of the civilized world. In the vast increase of population
in the absence of long wars and famines, the importance of this
staple is constantly increasing. Its cultivation is the most
attractive and pleasant of all descriptions of husbandry; and its
rewards are generally remunerating, when the soil and climate are
favorable, and the markets are not too distant.

It is important to know what our relation is to this staple of the
world, and what is, and what is likely to be, our contribution to
the great aggregate of production. Beyond feeding our own great and
rapidly increasing population, it probably will not soon, if ever,
be very great. It is a mistake, I apprehend, to suppose our country
is naturally a great wheat-producing country. The wheat district at
present, in comparison to the whole extent of our territory, is
limited. It is confined, so far as any appreciable amount is grown,
to about ten degrees of latitude and twenty degrees of longitude,
and embracing about one half the number of the States. The crop of
1848 is estimated by the Commissioner of Patents at one hundred and
twenty-six millions, and our population at twenty-two millions. This
gives a less number of bushels, per head, to our population than the
consumption of Great Britain, which is generally set down at one
hundred and sixty millions, or six bushels to each inhabitant. But
with us Indian corn is a great substitute; so are potatoes and oats
in Ireland and Scotland. Still our consumption of wheat, including
the black population, is undoubtedly less, per head, than theirs.
But in the absence of any certain data, to ascertain either the
actual production, or our consumption, our only safe course is to
take the actual excess, or the amount exported, after supplying our
own wants. This, for the fiscal year 1848, being the crop of 1847,
amounted, in flour and wheat, to twelve millions two hundred and
ninety-four thousand one hundred and seventy-five bushels, although
Mr. Burke's figures would show a surplus of some forty millions!
That there was not, and never has been any such surplus in the
country is very evident, for the foreign demand was all the time
good, and drew away all we had to part with.

The crop of 1848 was, undoubtedly, one of the best and largest we
have ever grown; yet I have ascertained, by application at the
registrar's office, that the exports for the fiscal year 1842,
amounted in wheat to but 1,527,534 bushels, and in flour to
2,108,013 barrels, or less by 226,676 bushels than the exports of
1848. Twelve millions is comparatively a small surplus in a
favorable season, for a country with a population of twenty-two
millions of inhabitants. The loss of a small per cent. in an
unfavorable season would at once sink this excess.

Let us now notice more in detail the different sections of our
country as adapted to the growth of wheat.

The New England States, some of them aided in their recent
enterprises by bounties offered by the state governments, have
failed to insure such success as is likely to encourage them to
continue the culture of wheat; or, at all events, to induce them to
aim at increasing their product to any considerable extent, since,
as one of their own farmers candidly states, "the attempt to grow a
crop of wheat is an experiment."

The States south of North Carolina, and inclusive of a part of
Delaware, have never heretofore succeeded in growing wheat to any
considerable extent, though there were periods in their
history--before the general introduction of the culture of
cotton--when, if it had been practicable to make the cereal one of
their staples, they would certainly have done so. Besides the common
dangers from rust and blight, the fly, and sometimes the frost--as
the past season--they have a most formidable enemy in the weevil. In
Upper Georgia, in the Cherokee country in particular, wheat will
probably be cultivated to some extent, and a limited cultivation of
it by the planters for their own use will probably continue in
several of the southern states. But the cotton, rice, and sugar
states, like the manufacturing states of New England, will not soon,
if ever, add much to the supply of wheat; the rich staples of the
former, and the varied husbandry and grazing of the latter, suited
to supply the immediate wants of a manufacturing population, will be
likely to receive their attention in preference.

Kentucky and Tennessee, though their agricultural history dates back
beyond the settlement of the north-western states, have already been
out-stripped by at least two of them. In neither of these states has
the culture of wheat ever been put forward, and regarded as one of
their best staples, or as very favorably adapted to their soil and
climate. Still, notwithstanding the formidable danger from rust, the
production of Tennessee is estimated to be equal to nine bushels to
each person, and Kentucky about seven and a half bushels. Missouri
may be classed with Kentucky and Tennessee, which she much resembles
in soil, climate, and productions, except that she raises much less
wheat than either, her crop being placed by the Commissioner of
Patents at only two millions, or less than four bushels to each
resident of the state. But, besides that the experience of the past
discourages the idea that these fine states are likely to become
great wheat-producing states, the fact that the staple of cotton may
be cultivated over a considerable portion of one of them, and that
hemp and tobacco are among the valuable products of the other two;
that Tennessee is the very largest corn-producing state in the
Union, showing her soil and climate are particularly adapted to this
description of grain, and that Kentucky and Missouri are unsurpassed
as grazing countries, and there is little ground to suppose that any
change in their husbandry will very greatly or suddenly augment the
production of wheat. Let us come now to the States of Indiana,
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and that _fabulous_ wheat district or
territory to the west of these again, from which, according to the
vaticinations of some, may be drawn supplies of wheat to feed the
population of both Europe and America, or fill warehouses that would
sustain our people through a longer famine than that which afflicted
the people of Egypt! I cannot help thinking that, to some extent,
this generally fertile district of country has, so far as the
production of wheat is concerned, been "shouted forth in
acclamations hyperbolical." My own impression in regard to it is,
including the states last named, derived in part from observation,
from intercourse and correspondence with intelligent agriculturists
of these states, and from a careful examination of a geological
survey of two of them, that the soil and climate of this whole
district of country are _not_ particularly favorable to the
production of wheat. The popular idea I know to be otherwise. I am
not going to dwell upon it, or to examine the subject at any length.
There is a single remark that may help to explain the reputation
that has gone abroad in reference to the wheat-producing qualities
of these lands. The prairie sod, when first broken up, generally
produces wheat well, often most abundantly, provided it escapes the
rust, insect, &c. But, when this ground has been much furrowed,
becomes completely pulverized by exposure to the atmosphere, the
light and friable mould, of which most of it is composed, drenched,
as a good deal of it is, at times, with surface water, fails to hold
or sustain the roots of the plant, it is thrown out, or
winter-killed; and "winter-killed," "winter-killed,"
"winter-killed," we all know, is among the catalogue of disasters
that almost annually reach us. Sometimes, when escaping the winter,
the high winds of spring blow this light soil from the roots,
exposing them to such an extent, that, in a dry time in particular,
the wheat often perishes. When breaking up fresh prairies, there was
much encouragement and promise of hope, but which, I believe, has
not been, nor is likely to be, realized by their husbandmen, in the
degree that early experiments induced them to look for.