Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1914 — ONE VARIETY BEST. [ARTICLE]

ONE VARIETY BEST.

There are many advantages to bo derived from growing a single variety of a given cereal in any particular community. There are climatic and economic factors which may make it desirable or even necessary to grow more than one .variety of a ce.eal, as, for instance, a spring and a winter wheat, oh a single arm. This phase may be neglected here in order to place heavy emphasis on the opposite aspect

One of the comnunest observations is the mixture of varieties. These mixtures greatly reduce the vame of the crop for seed purposes, even if they do not cause a lowering of the market grade. They entail loss through nonuniformity In ripening nd differences in length and strength of straw, disease-resistance, adaptability to soil types and climatic conditions, and other similar chrxacters.

Two points shouU be held In muid. First, mixtures are fundamentally vroug. Most growers will not be able to distinguish between themixtures which may not cause loss and those which will. Secondly, no investigator can predetermine when, in an apparently harmless and profitable mixture one variety shall be taken and another left. Only in purity is there safety. Another advantage of pure varieties is the better yield which usually results if the proper variety is grown. The man or the community may nut receive a better price for the pure seed but would be profited in any case by the increased yield. It should not be forgotten that the neighborhood separator is a .powerful factor in mixing varieties where many are grown. It seems scarcely necessary to mention the mixtures of wheat and bariey or oats and barley, which are difficult to separate and objectionable on the market Such should be avoided at any time. —Carleton R. Ball.