RALEIGH, N. C., August 15, 1909.

SIR-I submit herewith manuscript on the culture of wheat and oats and tests of varieties of wheat, oats and rye on the several Test Farms of the Department during the past few years. I recommend the publication of this material as the August Bulletin.

Very respectfully,

To HON. WILLIAM A. GRAHAM,

Commissioner of Agriculture.

B. W. KILGOre, Director Test Farms.

Formulas for the Mountain District and Piedmont Red Clay and Valley Lands

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Formulas for the Sandy Loam Soils of the Piedmont and Eastern Sections, 15 Adaptation ...

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CULTURE OF WHEAT AND OATS.

BY B. W. KILGORE, J. L. BURGESS AND F. T. MEACHAM.

INTRODUCTION.

The object of this bulletin is not only to report the progress of the work done in testing different varieties of wheat, oats and rye, but also to call attention to and create a greater interest in the possibilities along the line of grain production that lie within easy reach of the farmers in many parts of the State. We hope the day is not far distant when we shall be able to sell wheat and oats rather than buy these cereals for home consumption.

Every farmer knows that all of our soils are not equally well suited to wheat production; that we have some soils on which wheat culture should not be attempted. But there are areas of soils in the Coastal Plain, Piedmont and Mountainous sections of the State on which wheat culture may be carried on with profit. The Piedmont has a larger area adapted to wheat than the other sections of the State, but, since farming, in the last analysis, is a business in which the different departments must stand or fall on an economic basis, we cannot encourage the growth of wheat in one section and discourage it in another, because it is always wise to grow the crop that PAYS BEST; and while some soils are much better suited to the production of cereals than are others, there are conditions under which it may pay the farmer better to grow wheat on the soils that lend themselves less kindly to the production of this than to the production of some other

crop.

In this connection we would urge the farmer to study the demands of the local and the general markets and plan his crops with reference to the wants of the consumer. Be ever seeking to grow that which PAYS BEST under the conditions existing in the locality.

HISTORICAL NOTE ON WHEAT.

Wheat is one of our oldest known cereals. It was a field crop with the Greeks and Egyptians. A small-grained variety was grown in Switzerland as early as the Stone Age and in China its cultivation. was common in 2700 B. C. The domestication of this plant is much older than the history of man, as is evidenced by its presence in many ancient monuments that antedate the Hebrew Scriptures.

The original habitat of wheat is not certainly known, but is thought to be the valley of the Euphrates in western Asia.

Its ease of cultivation, nutritive value and ease of preparation for food, its almost exclusive possession of the elements necessary to make a light, porous bread, and its ability to adapt itself to widely different soil and climatic conditions has made it one of the principal foods of man. While the wheat crop has long been important in countries occupied by civilized people, its use is becoming more and more pronounced as civilization advances. Indeed, wheat is the principal edible cereal of most civilized countries.

Wheat, unlike the potato, corn and tobacco, is a naturalized plant in America, its cultivation having been commenced here some time. after Columbus reached our shores.

Prior to 1880, wheat was grown pretty generally over North Carolina, but since that time the production has been largely restricted to the Piedmont and Mountainous sections of the State.

A number of factors have operated in curtailing the production of wheat in the Coastal Plain region, not least among these being a general absence of soils suited to wheat culture and a lack of sufficient water power to operate the primitive burr mills used in its manufacture into flour. The farmers of the section were also, doubtless, influenced against wheat growing by the better adaptation of their soils to and the promise of greater rewards from the growing of cotton, peanuts, light tobacco and early truck crops.

STATISTICS.

The annual supply of wheat to the world to-day is something over three billion bushels, of which the United States produces about onefourth. For years no systematic records were kept of the yield of wheat in this country. In 1850 the Census Report showed the production of the United States to be about 100,000,000 bushels. From this amount the yield grew to our maximum production of over 748,000,000 bushels in 1901. In 1907 the average yield of wheat per acre in the United States was 14 bushels. The same year the average acre yield for North Carolina was 9.5 bushels.

Strange as it may appear, the price of wheat in the United States in 1850, when we grew but 100,000,000 bushels, was lower than it is to-day, when we grow over 700,000,000 bushels. This shows that while the supply has increased over 600 per cent, the demand has undergone an even more pronounced change.

In 1900 North Carolina produced 5,960,803 bushels of wheat worth 82 cents a bushel, representing a money value to the State of $4,887,858. In 1907 we produced but 5,320,000 bushels, but the price advanced to $1.07 a bushel, thus giving the crop a money value of $5,692,000, an increase of $804,142 over the larger but lowerpriced crop of 1900.

In view of the rapidly increasing price of wheat and the thousands of acres of land in the State well suited to the production of this crop on a profitable scale, the State Department of Agriculture deems it wise to foster and encourage the growth of this crop among our farmers.

When we remember that the great wheat region of the Northwest, where good crops may be grown without irrigation, is nearly all occupied, and that these virgin soils lose their crop-producing power rapidly after five or six years of continuous wheat culture, the present high price of wheat in our midst should carry a definite meaning to North Carolina wheat growers. Why should not the farmers of the State make wheat growing a profitable branch of their farm economy? Everything seems to be in their favor. The wheat growers of the West must harvest their crop and let their land lie idle till the next season. One crop per year is all they may hope to get. But in our State many of the growers can follow their wheat with either a crop of cowpeas for seed or hay, or they may sometimes put corn in on the newly broken stubble. This latter practice is rarely advisable, however, except where heavy and special fertilization is practiced. It is quite feasible and generally advisable to have a crop of either cowpeas or soy beans follow the wheat crop, as this plan gives the farmer a double profit in a single year and leaves his land in better condition for the growth of succeeding crops.

CULTIVATION.

The farmers in the Piedmont and Mountainous sections of the State are familiar with the ordinary methods of wheat culture as practiced in the State. Usually, the crop follows wheat or peas which have grown on a wheat or other small-grain stubble, or is sown on corn stubble after the crop has been removed. In the eastern part of the State cotton is sometimes out in time to allow wheat to follow this crop. More generally wheat follows corn. Where level cultivation of the corn has been practiced, and where the land was well prepared for the corn crop and there is not too much trash in the way of grass and weeds on the land, the wheat may be put in with a drill after the corn has been removed, or else cut and shocked on the land, by giving the land a thorough disking beforehand and going over it a sufficient number of times to make a good nice seedbed two to four inches deep. Many farmers, however, prefer to give the land a light plowing before putting in the crop, even where corn has been grown. This latter practice is likely the best where there is much weeds and grass on the land, which cannot be gotten rid of well with a disk harrow; but the plowing should be shallow and should be done a sufficiently long time before seeding-one month will answer, especially if there are some rains in the meantime to