Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 240, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1914 — Crop Improvement [ARTICLE]

Crop Improvement

Standardize Your Wheat. Grow a Single'Pure Variety Beat Adapted to Yedr Locality.

. GROW ONE VARIETY I Community Action In Wheat Production in Paet Would Hive Prevented Enormous Loss. Carleton R. Ball, Cerealist, U. B. Department of Agriculture, has issued a bulletin on “Community Growing of Crop Varieties.” After describing the obvious advantages of community action, he says: “Still another form of cooperation has been Induced by direct economic problems connected with crop and stock production. Such, for Instance, are community campaigns against noxious weeds, insect pests, fungous diseases, animal diseases, cattle thieves, and the like. • Advantages of Community Action. “The chief advantage of community action, and the u&ual incentive for it, is that it brings to the individual some desirable thing which he could not obtain by his own unaided efforts. The benefit which fnay accrue from the cooperative regulation of crop varieties or cropping methods in any given community yvill vary with the crop and the uses to .which it is to be pvt. The direct result may be to hi ndicap the operations of some insect pest, as the cotton boll-weevil; to control some troublesome weed pest, as the Russian thistle; to avoid injury by some fungus disease, as smut or rust in wheat and oats; to gain access to profitable markets at a specified time, as in the case of perishable fruits and truck crops; to enable the profitable sale of new or improved crop verities, as durum wheat or long staple cotton; to prevent the results of undesirable cross pollination, as in cotton and corn, or to avoid mechanical mixture and consequent lowering of grade and value, as in most cereal crops.” In the United States and Canada wheat is grown annually to the extent of about 55 million acres, yielding an average of about 840 million bushels. One of the most evident facts in the wheat-growing areas is the mixture of varieties. A mixture of hard and soft common wheat or a mixture of common and durum wheat would be really serious in its financial effects. A mixture of two varieties with, similar kernel characters would result in no appreciable commercial disadvantage, no matter how different the varieties might be in outward appearance. Some' striking examples of the need for communal action in wheat production may be cited. When the durum wheat was first grown in the United States' the farmers could find no market for it as wheat, but were compelled to accept feed prices for it, 20 to 25 cents a bushel less than for other wheat. The millers did not want it because it required special tempering to prepare it for grinding. They also asserted that its flour was of little value for bread-making when ground. Doubtless it was in demand for export to be used abroad in making macaroni and but the growers often were isolated and the quantity tributary to many elevators was small. During succeeding years the spread in price between durum and common wheat has been closed gradually until the crop of 1912 sold at a premium over common wheat If, in the early days of durum wheat production, communities where this wheat was especially adapted had combined to produce .It in quantity and to obtain a fair price for it, the long peri d of discrimination against It would have resulted from such action. These arguments still hold good in localities where durum wheat Is being nearly introduced since there Is bound to be discrimination where the grain Is presented In less than car lots. Conditions similar to those described existed when the hard red winter wheats were first brought to the Central Plains area and community cooperation would have done much to relieve the onerous situation.