Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1875 — Seed-Cleaning Experiments. [ARTICLE]

Seed-Cleaning Experiments.

We have before us the results of the cleansing of barley and wheat by the aid of one of the most perfect grain separators we have ever seen—which we believe have never before been published. The first was a bushel of barley, weighing forty-six pounds, which was separated with the following aesults, viz.: From the bushel twenty-eight pounds of plump seed barley was obtained, thirteenjwninds of light barley and oats, three pounds of buckwheat and one pound of seeds of weeds. The' second was a bushel of wheat weighing fifty-eight pounds, cleansed with the following results: From this bushel thirtyfour pounds of No. 1 or heavy seed wheat were obtained, twelve pounds of No. 2, or middling (light) wheat, six pounds of No. 3 wheat small, pinched kernels) and pink or cockle, five pounds of oats and barley and one pound of tangle-weed and other foul seeds. As both the above samples of grain were taken from the ordinary crops grown on a first-class farm, it will be seen howlarge proportion of poor, light grain, as well as seeds of foul and noxious plants, were being raised and propagated by the use as seed of the barley and wheat raised. Even if the oats and barley and wheat

were in every instance cleaned or washed before being sown—which, however, is not the case—the Seeds of weeds are propagated through tlie manure hauled out upon the land, and our fields are by this means overrun with useless plants and weeds. So if the farmer would not only raise profitable crops of heavy' grain, but keep his iarm clean and free from weeds, he must lie careful to sow only good grain, thoroughly cleansed, free from worthless and foul seed. —Maim Fanner.