IT has been said, and with much truth, that a failure of the wheat crop in England affects the exchanges of the whole commercial world, and a scarcity in France generally brings about a revolution. The statistics of the last census, in connexion with the official returns of our exports of wheat and flour for the past two years, exhibit some important facts in reference to the vast agricultural and commercial value of the annual wheat crop of the United States. Our foreign exports of wheat, flour, and other breadstuffs, show, too, the dependence of Great Britain, France, and some other foreign countries upon the United States for the "staff of life,” in years when the crops of those countries have fallen much below an average; but how much longer we can continue to furnish, for foreign consumption, such enormous amounts of wheat and flour, under the present wasteful system of farming as practiced in too many of our western States, is a question that time alone can answer.

That some sections of our country, from the composition of their soils and climatic influences, are more favorable to the production of wheat than other sections, is undoubtedly true, though these supposed unfavorable districts, under judicious and careful cultivation, yield heavy crops of Indian corn, oats, barley, hay, and root crops.

To show that wheat can also be successfully and profitably grown in these same sections is, in part, the object of this communication. A large portion of New England, from the deficiency of lime in the soil, has been thought to be less favorable to the production of wheat than those soils, having a much larger percentage of lime in their composition.

This may be true, but facts, in numbers sufficient to put the matter beyond all cavil, prove that the granite soils of New Hampshire, by the aid of good farm-yard manure and proper preparation of the soil, will, in years favorable to the wheat crop, yield as large an average per acre as is grown in the more (apparently) favored States.

The varieties of spring wheat have been universally grown here till within about a dozen years past, since which time winter wheat has been somewhat largely grown by our farmers. Previous to that time some of them, as I am aware, had attempted its culture, for the general belief was that the plants would not survive our northern winters. In consequence of this belief none but spring wheat was grown, which, till about thirty years ago, was successfully grown, not only upon our hill farms, but also on the intervals and other low- lying lands in the valleys bordering our rivers and smaller streams. But about the year 1830 the fly, the parent of the orange-colored midge, (improperly called weevil,) made its appearance in this vicinity, and soon spread in every direction, committing serious depredations, year after year, upon the wheat crops, to such an extent that its cultivation upon low-lying farms was generally abandoned, and oats, barley, and rye grown instead. In consequence of which, thousands of our farmers have been obliged to purchase western flour to furnish their families with “ wheaten bread,” and thus the citizens of our State have paid out millions of dollars for wheat and flour the products of other States. The last census returns, however, show that the production of wheat in New Hampshire has been greatly upon the increase within the past ten years.

The census returns of 1850 put down the number of bushels of wheat in the State at 185,658; that of 1860 at 238,966—being an increase, over that of 1850, of 53,208 bushels. Much of this increase is undoubtedly owing to the extended culture of winter wheat among our farmers within the past few years.  Of winter wheat I shall have more to say further on.

During the thirty years that the wheat midge has been among our wheat- fields, the crops on our hill farms have suffered but little from the ravages of the insect, when contrasted with the injury done the crops in the valleys and upon the more level plain lands. The reason why the spring wheat was less injured upon the hills than that at the base of them has been supposed to be owing to the greater prevalence of winds sweeping over the elevated lands.  The winds, it was thought, interfered with the extensive operations of the almost invisible winged insect that deposits, within the chaff or husk enclosing the kernel, the orange-colored midge.

It is possible that the winds may sometimes interfere with the insects in their attempts to deposit their progeny; and it is quite certain that the almost ever- moving winds upon the hills cause a dryer atmosphere than that in the vallies, and it is said that the insect * cannot endure a dry atmosphere.”

“They (the winged insects) are most active in a moist atmosphere, and cannot endure a dry one; hence they are only seen at their work on the wheat ears in the night time when the dews are falling and on cloudy days; and if the last half of June be wet and showery, this insect is most numerous and destructive, but if it be remarkably dry the wheat that year escapes from injury, the insect withdrawing from it, probably, to the grass of moist low-land meadows and the margins of streams, in which to rear its young, to run, as they do, into the wheat next year.”

"And what could it be that banished this insect from the wheat in 1860 and brought it back in 1861?  The remarkable difference in the weather of the two years furnishes an answer to this question. When the midge fly came out to deposit its eggs in June, 1860, the weather was excessively dry; in 1861 it was very wet and showery, and thus we learn the fact that these flies cannot breathe a dry, warm atmosphere; they are forced to retreat to places where the air is damp and moist.”

His remarks about the dry weather of June, 1860, I presume, applying to portions of New York, and so of the wet month of June, 1861; but the month of June, 1861, in this section of New Hampshire, was the reverse of "wet and showery.” In August of that year I forwarded to the publishers of the Country Gentleman, Albany, New York, a dozen samples of winter wheat which I raised that season. In the letter accompanying the wheat I stated "we had no rain from the first week in June (1861) till into July, and the drought, I presume, somewhat affected the growth of straw and heads, as neither are as long as the same kinds were the previous year."  But none of the different kinds, except one or two very late ones, were at all impaired by the midge.  After the first week in July the weather was “wet and showery,” and many fields of spring-sown wheat were very badly injured by the midge.

The above statements seem to go far to corroborate Dr. Fitch’s views; but if correct I do not see of what practical benefit it can be to farmers, as none of them can fortell at seed time what the weather of the last half of the month of June will be—whether wet and showery, or dry and windy. Consequently the farmers must commit their seed to the soil when their judgment shall dictate, and trust to the weather as heretofore.

To avoid injury from the ravages of the midge, some farmers, when the season will permit, sow early, sometimes in the latter part of April. In favorable seasons the wheat gets into blossom before the fly makes its appearance, and thus the grain mostly escapes the midge and rust. Others prefer sowing their wheat late, say from the 20th of May till 1st of June, the midge having generally disappeared before the wheat comes into bloom; but late-sown whea is more liable to suffer loss from rust, mildew, &c., than the early sown, but of late the midge has not proved so destructive to the wheat crops as formerly, From this fact, and from better manuring of the land, and more care in its preparation for the reception of the seeds, wheat-growing is evidently upon the increase in this State, though much of this increase is derived from the more extended culture of winter wheat within the past ten years. Previous to that time very little was raised. Winter wheat can be grown, yielding good crops, on low-lying farms, where it was useless to attempt the raising of spring wheat, for the reason that the winter wheat would, when sown early, and on suitable soil, get so far advanced in growth before the appearance of the midge fly as to entirely escape its ravages.

About a dozen years ago the son of one of our farmers was in western New York, and was go pleased with the appearance of the winter wheat there that he brought home fourteen quarts—all his valise would, hold. This was sown early in September on one-third of an acre of light, dry land, from which a crop of oats had been harvested. The oat stubble ground was manured before being ploughed; the wheat sown and harrowed in. Next spring the plants came out bright and green, none being winter-killed, and no injury from midge or rust. The season being favorable, the product or yield was sixteen bushels, or at the ratio of forty-eight bushels per acre.

This small patch of winter wheat and its favorable results created quite an excitement among our farmers. Scores of them never before had seen a field of fall sown wheat. All the farmer could spare was readily sold for seed at three dollars per bushel. The results of the several experiments, as made by different farmers, were, as might have been expected, “good, bad, and indifferent."  Those sowing as early as the first of September, on suitable soil, realized a yield from sixteen to twenty bushels for the bushel sown, while others that deferred sowing till after their corn was harvested—some time in October—harvested rather light crops, suffering loss by midge, rust, and winter-kill.

Most of these last-named experimenters decided at once that fall-sown wheat could not be grown here.  But their failure was not in our soil or climate, but the result of their inexperience and lack of knowledge in the proper culture of winter wheat. I procured a bushel of the farmer above alluded to, and sowed it about the 20th of September, (three weeks too late,) on one hundred rods of light, sandy land, from which a fair crop of field beans had been harvested at the time of sowing the wheat. I applied 125 pounds of Peruvian guano. Some patches were deeply covered by snow drifts, winter-killed. The yield, however was ten bushels, most of which I sold for seed at three dollars per bushel.

From that time (ten years ago) to the present I have grown winter wheat every year, and without a single failure in raising fair crops. There has been some difference in the acreable yield in different seasons.  But on my farm winter wheat has proved a surer “crop, than either corn, potatoes, or oats. I have grown it on interval or alluvial soil, and on sandy, gravelly, and loamy lands, as also on yellow, loamy, upland rocky soils. I have grown it on inverted timothy sod, on a clover ley, and after oats, and wheat after wheat.  I have tried all the above ways and kinds of soil for the purpose (in part) of ascertaining the adaptation of our different soils and climate for raising winter wheat, and have come to the conclusion that fall-sown wheat is as sure a crop in New Hampshire as it is in any other of the States in the Union.

During the time I have experimented with a great variety of wheats from the Patent Office and other sources; much money has been expended by the Agricultural Division of the Patent Office in the procurement of wheat from foreign countries, and other sources, for distribution among the farmers and planters in the different sections of the country. Some of the varieties from foreign countries, although large and handsome kernels, proved too tender for this northern climate, winter-killing in toto. Other sorts proved half hardy; a few varieties distributed from‘the Patent Office, foreign and American. have withstood our winters quite well, and proved valuable wheats for cultivation in New Hampshire. One of the hardiest foreign varieties I have experimented with is the Early Noé from France.

No. 1, Early Noé has a stout, stiff straw, good heads and kernels, is productive and hardy. Its flour makes a good quality of bread—white, sweet, and moist. It is a white, bald variety. The Patent Office Report for 1854 says:
"From its hardy and productive nature it is gradually superseding the summer wheat in the high latitude of Paris, and is much sought after on account of its precocity. As this wheat has the property of ripening some days before the common sorts, if it succeeds in our climate in this respect a great point is gained. A single week thus gained in ripening would often secure a crop from injury by fly or rust, aside from the advantages to be gained from an early market.” Under my culture the Early Noé has not proved earlier than the White Flint and several other varieties under the same conditions.

Michigan Tuscan wheat.—This variety I received from the Patent Office some five years ago. It was highly recommended in a printed circular (accompanying packages) signed by a number of Michigan farmers. The Tuscan is a white bald variety—a good-sized berry—productive and hardy. It makes a prime quality of flour.

Professor Emmons in his "Classification and Analysis of Wheats,” says of the Tuscan bald wheat: “This kind, introduced from Tuscany in 1837, has been laid aside in consequence of its liability to be injured or destroyed by frost.  Its flour is fine and white, and its heads well filled.”  I presume the Tuscan of Michigan is of the same kind as that described by Dr. Emmons, but under my culture it has proved a hardy variety; "its flour fine and white, and its heads well filled.”

“General Harmon's Improved White Flint.”—Dr. Emmons says this variety is considered by Mr. Harmon as new, having been produced by himself by a selection of the best seed and liming and sowing on a limestone soil. It is larger than the White Flint and yet the caticle of the kernel is equally thin, delicate and white. It weighs, according to the statement of Mr. Harmon, when prepared for seed, 64 pounds to the bushel. Two bushels and eighteen pounds of this wheat produced 106½ pounds flour and 31 pounds of bran; loss, one-half pound.

Some twenty years ago General Harmon sent a quantity of the above-named wheat to the Patent Office for distribution. At that time I received a small sample, but as I knew nothing of the culture of winter wheat I sowed it so late in the season that most of it was destroyed by the midge. After two trials I gave it up, saving what little the midge left, perhaps half a gill or so, which was put in a package properly labelled, where it remained in my seed-box till about seven years ago, when I received six or eight packages of Patent Office wheats. These, with the White Flint, were carefully sown in drills, the Flint yielding the best of the lot. From that small beginning I have every year since raised fair crops and sold many bushels for seed. The crop of 1861 weighed 64 pounds per bushel, making 48 pounds of superior flour. This year it weighs 63 pounds per bushel, making 47½ pounds of flour per bushel, of as good quality as the best western flour, which is worth ten dollars per barrel here at the present time. Four and one quarter bushels will make a barrel of extra flour, thus making the wheat worth a trifle over $2 33 per bushel, for the coarse flour and bran are worth more than I pay per barrel for flouring, viz: twenty-five cents per barrel. From the foregoing data, our northern farmers can judge whether it is better to raise wheat for family use, or raise other crops and purchase western flour.

White Blue Stem is a variety of bald white wheat, raised to some extent in this vicinity. The heads are rather short, and generally well filled. A few days before the grain ripens a portion of the straw below the head assumes a purplish or bluish color, giving the straw the appearance of rust. This is, I think, an old and well-known variety. What I have grown of it, by way of experiment, was selected from the Michigan Tuscany.

Early Conner wheat.—The seed grown in 1859, near Richmond, Va.; it was harvested June 2, the same year. The sample was forwarded to me by Mr. Harris, of the Genesee Farmer. The seed was sown on light, sandy soil, on the 13th September, 1860, in two drills of about fifty feet in length.  The heads of this variety are short, and the grains not very large. It is a white, bald variety, and probably its greatest recommendation is its earliness, being fit to harvest from seven to ten days earlier than the Flint or the "Blue Stem,” &c.

Early May—This variety was forwarded to me by Mr. Killgore, of Fern Leaf, Kentucky. This kind was sown in a drill, side by side with the Early Conner. It appeared to be, in every respect, identical with the Conner wheat.  The early May has been grown to some extent by Mr. J. Johnston, near Geneva, N. ¥. Tt proved earlier than some of the kinds usually grown in that section, and it ripens some two weeks earlier in Kentucky than some of the later varieties. ere there is danger of injury to the crop from midge or rust it might be well to grow the Early Conner and the Early May; but I think them less valuable than some other sorts.

Early Japan—The original seed was brought from Japan by Commodore Perry. It is the earliest wheat I have any knowledge of. I have grown it, in a small way, six or seven years. Some winters it has suffered but very little from winter-kill; in others, when covered with a large body of snow, it has been badly injured, or, as some call it, smothered. The Japan is a dark- red chaff and grain; rather small, round berry. The form of the head differs from any other variety I have grown. From its early maturing quality I thought very favorably of it the few first years I cultivated it, as it was never injured by the midge or rust.

Mr. Klippart, in a note, says: “The isothermal line of Japan is about the same as that of Tennessee.”  From this it is inferred that it would not be safe to attempt the cultivation of this variety much north of,that State; but this variety has generally succeeded in New Hampshire, which undoubtedly is due to the covering of snow.

In August, 1860, I forwarded to Colonel Boyd, Hancock, Maryland, five varieties of winter wheat, which were sown that autumn. In April, 1861, I received a letter from him, saying: “The Early Japan has been unable to stand the severity of the winter, having been almost entirely frozen out;" from which fact he supposes it one of our varieties of spring wheat. The Early Japan has proved a valuable spring wheat in some sections of Maryland.

I do not call in question any of the views, as expressed by Mr. Klippart in his report of 1857, in regard to southern wheat sown in Ohio. But I have grown the Early Conner, of Virginia; Early May, from Kentucky; Lancaster, from Maryland, and a variety from Mississippi, and the red wheat from Japan; all of which have passed through the winters as safely as any of our northern varieties, except Japan, which has sometimes partially failed by smothering; or when the snow disappeared the wheat and ground were overspread with a white, slimy mold, and the Japan, under such conditions, has suffered more than other varieties.

Some varieties of wheat are naturally earlier than others, just as there are early and late varieties of apples, peaches, &c.

Thus the Early Conner ripens ten or twelve days earlier in Virginia than some other varieties; so of the Early May of Kentucky, and they retain the game early maturing quality when grown in New Hampshire, thereby generally escaping injury from the midge and rust, while those sorts from ten to fifteen days later are frequently badly injured by one or both of these scourges of this cereal. A late variety of southern wheat sown in New Hampshire will prove a late variety there.  This fact was verified in a small sample of Mississippi wheat I grew the past season.

“But even if these varieties were acclimated at the south, and proved excellent varieties, they might not be desirable in Ohio—they certainly would mature and ripen late; thus becoming liable to rust, midge, and other maladies incident to late varieties, as well as being liable to winter-kill, and otherwise deteriorate.”

I do not know but varieties of winter wheat have been procured for distribution among our farmers from some of the northern portions of Europe; if 80 I have not learned the fact; but my impression is that wheat from Russia, Sweden, Denmark, &c., would prove earlier, hardier, and succeed better in New England than that from warmer and semi-tropical regions.

But to go back to other varieties of winter wheat I have experimented with.

I believe it is thought the red chaffed wheats are hardier and more productive than the finer, white varieties. Of this, however, I am not certain, as all the winter wheats I have seen growing in this vicinity were of the white, bald sorts.

Lancaster wheat, a bearded variety from Maryland, where, as I learn, it stands high, as a hardy and valuable variety. A. G. Boyd, esq., of Hancock, Maryland, forwarded to me a small sample of the Lancaster wheat. In his letter he says: “The Lancaster wheat, herewith enclosed, is the earliest of our wheats, and is in considerable demand with us for seed. It is somewhat singular in appearance; whole fields, when ripening, presenting the appearance of rust.” The envelope enclosing the wheat in some way became rent, and a part of the seed was lost; however, there was just one ounce received. This was sown in drills 1st of September, 1861; harvested last July, yielding twenty ounces for the one sown; not a bad yield for a very wet, showery time, one or two weeks during the ripening season, which caused the straw to rust considerably, and a shrinkage of the kernels.

In August, 1860, I forwarded to Mr. Boyd five varieties of my winter wheat.  The next August he wrote to me as follows: “All the varieties of the wheat you sent me last fall, I observe, are smooth, (bald.) There is existing among our farmers a prejudice against smooth wheats, and I am beginning to be of the opinion that it is not without substantial reasons. Certain it is that our smooth varieties are more subject to the ravages of the fly and other insects, and to the elemental diseases incident to the wheat crop, and yielded little or nothing, whilst the bearded varieties, with but few exceptions, escape the insect and these diseases, and yield remunerative crops.”

All the knowledge I have had respecting bearded winter wheat has been derived from the small quantities I have experimented with the two past seasons, and I am of the opinion that in the field culture the bearded varieties may prove the most productive and profitable.

It is generally supposed that clayey soils, having a good percentage of lime in them, are best adapted to wheat raising. This supposition is probably correct, and I am well aware of the great use made of lime in the wheat-growing regions of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and some other States. But the idea that wheat can only be grown in a soil containing a large percentage of lime is a very erroneous one. Experiments, ten thousand times repeated, in growing wheat on the silicious and granite soils of New England, which are proverbially deficient in lime, conclusively prove the error of such a belief or idea. Klippart says: “Lime forms less than one pound of the ashes of one thousand pounds of the wheat grain.” A soil must be very deficient in lime that could not furnish that percentage to a crop of wheat, even if the yield should reach fifty bushels per acre.

In the New York State Agricultural Society Transactions, 1861, I find a very interesting account of the agriculture of Chester county, Pennsylvania, by L. H. Tucker, junior editor of the Country Gentleman, Albany, N. Y. He says: “That lime is largely used by many of the farmers of that county,” it being a limestone region. In speaking of the farm of Richard J. Downing, esq., he says: “Mr. D. burns 1,400 bushels at one burning, which Mr. D. computes to cost him for quarrying and all, performing the work as he does with his own teams, &c., only four cents a bushel.”  No doubt, our New England farmers would also use lime largely upon their land, if they could procure it “at four cents a bushel;” but here we are differently situated in this respect. All our lime for the mortar used in laying the brick for buildings, chimneys, and forming the walls of our rooms, comes from Thomaston, and one or two other points, in the State of Maine. It is freighted by water from the kilns to Boston, and from there to this place by railroad, (80 miles,) costing here $1 50 per barrel, or about 60 cents per bushel for the burned limestone. At this price our farmers do not think it will pay to lime their lands. If we could only raise wheat by the free use of lime upon our soils, we should truly be in a bad fix. But, fortunately for us, farm-yard manure contains all the necessary constituents for the wheat crops.

Mr. Tucker says there is no spring wheat grown in Chester county. He saw much winter wheat growing, (as he was there in the month of June.)  Some of the best fields on the limed lands, he thought, would yield from 30 to 35 bushels per acre.

In the Patent Office Report, 1861, there are a dozen pages on “Farming in the New England States,” by James S. Grinnell, of Greenfield, Massachusetts.  In speaking of wheat, he says: "The wheat crop is annually increasing. The average for New England being at the rate of 15 bushels per acre. During the present season (1861) 40 and 50 bushels to the acre have been frequently raised in Massachusetts. - A like yield has been obtained in the valley of the Connecticut, in the States of New Hampshire and Vermont.”

I very much doubt whether it would average a bushel of lime per acre, that has been directly applied to these lands since they were cleared of their forest growth.

“As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” If the farmer sows smutty wheat, he will be pretty sure to reap smutty wheat. If he sows chess seed with his wheat, he will be quite likely to harvest a mixture of wheat and chess.

In my experience with a great variety of wheats, starting at first with a small quantity of pure seed and threshing it with flail, I have never found a single stalk of chess.  But after growing the several kinds in quantity sufficient to thresh in machines propelled by horse or water power, and having had my pure wheat threshed immediately after wheat grown by others containing chess, I have sometimes found a few plants of chess among the standing wheat when harvested. But to my view the chess was derived from chess seed. In my humble opinion it is quite as absurd to suppose that wheat changes to chess as it would be for a serpent to become a clam or an oyster, and this clam to subsequently change into a bird.”

What is universally understood in this section of the country as smutty wheat is that diseased state of the grain when the entire kernels of a portion of the heads, instead of containing flour, are filled with a kind of lampblack substance, which, upon being rubbed between the finger and thumb, “emits an unpleasant odor resembling that of the sea, or of spoiled fish.” It is the uredo caries of De Candolle. In France it is known as ble noir (black wheat.) If smutty wheat is threshed in a machine and then perfectly clean wheat is threshed, this will become infected and will produce smutty wheat, if not washed, limed, &c.

I sometimes roll the ground after sowing—at other times have not. The grain is surer to come up where the roller is used to “finish off.” Some good farmers object to the use of the roller after the wheat is harrowed in. I generally sow timothy seed with the wheat, and clover in the following April, and have never failed in obtaining good crops of grass in this way.

In preparing the land for the crops, if a timothy sod, oat or wheat stubble pursue the same course as pointed out in the treatment of a clover ley. I have found it better to apply the manure on the inverted furrows than to plough it under.

I have never sown wheat after corn, because I could not remove the corn in season to sow as early as I wish.  Some of our farmers have sown after removing the corn crop, but such late sown is more liable to winter-kill, midge, and rust, than that sown 1st of September, nor have I ever fallowed the land (by several previous ploughings, &c.) because I have grown quite satisfactory crops with one ploughing. The use of summer fallows is being dispensed with where formerly much practiced. In an address by the Hon. George Geddes, president of the New York State Agricultural Society, at its annual meeting, Albany, February, 1862, in speaking of the improvements in the plough, he says:  "With these advances the old-fashioned summer fallow has nearly gone out of use, except to kill some noxious weeds. One good ploughing, eight or nine inches deep, is now the order of the day, and has generally taken the place of three scratchings of the surface, practiced aforetime.”

In those sections of the country where the wheat is liable to injury by the Hessian fly the wheat sown last of August or first of September is liable to injury from the ravages of this fly. To guard against this, Iater sowing is required, as late or later than the 20th of September. Fortunately, the Hessian fly has not yet injured our wheat crops. If it should visit us in large numbers we must practice late sowing, and risk winter-killing, midge, and rust.

It is said that “every man thinks his own geese swans.” I may be over sanguine in regard to the growing of winter wheat at the north, but my experience in this matter justifies me in the belief that it would be for the interest of the farmers of the “old granite State” to raise more wheat and purchase less western flour.