Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1878 — Selection of Wheat for Seed. [ARTICLE]

Selection of Wheat for Seed.

.There is a reason why the production of grain in the Western States has not reached the perfection which attended the growing of stock. The farmers have not considered the importance of good parentage, nor have they given any attention to the matter of selecting commensurate with the importance of bur grain crops. This season there will be an immense yield of wheat. The price will be very low, and to the farmer who gets but fifteen bushels per acre, there will be scarcely any profit, and even his labor will be poorly paid for. On the other hand the man who secures thirty bushels per acre will have the margin of whatever this extra fifteen bushels will bring him, less the extra cost of handling, which will be very slight. This extra yield is worth more to a farmer in wheat than in root or potato crops, because the expense attending the gathering and marketing is a very slight addition on account of the increased yield, and be the price ever so low the extra yield is nearlv clear gain. • This margin, to be sure, depends largely upon character of soil and quality of tillage, but a very important element is often lost sight of, and that is the pedigree of the seed. The man who would consider another demented to put a valuable cow in a herd containing a scrub bull, even if there be in the herd never so good bulls of her own kind, because of th* losing chance, accomplishes this sjme piece of folly each year with his wheat crop. He takes the rye and cockle out of his seed, to be sure, but leaves the kernels produced from roots bearing one stalk and a short head with these from roots bearing fifty stalks and long heads. . It is a well-estafclished fact that a single jheadof wheat away from all others does not fill well—in other words, a crop is produced in a field of wheat largely by cross fertilization. The importance. then, of having seeds from stalks well fertilized—that is, fertilized by the male element of good heads from good roots—becomes an important matter. This <j*n not be consolidated in wheat as perfectly as in cattle and horses, but it can be so far managed as to create a tendency toward better seed with each generation, and tow is the time to begin. Select first from the largest stool, because the chances are that, with a good many heads together, the fertilization was from the same plant, and as the plant itself is a good one, in choosing from it the promise is'for a good resultant, By going through a wheatfield, in a little while one can secure the cream of the field, which, if planted by itself another year, and perhaps the short heads and poor roots taken out, will certainly give a quantity of seed that will increase very materially the produce of an acre. Every farmer cannot go at work upon crossing wheat artificially, with success. This requires peculiar knowledge and skill; but not one but can, by using his best judgment in selecting, increase the value, in three years, of his crop, by 25 and perhaps 50 percent. This is no theoretical estimate; it has been tested and found to work. We wish also to suggest in this connection, that in preparing for a grain-, show at the State and county fairs, let a good bundle of the grain be shown, not a single handful oCa dozeh heads, but a generous bunch; showing head and stalk, in connection with the cleaned grain- Thia ia a good work

for the boys; perhaps by so doing the attention*of otwers may tee'drawn to this matter of selection, and thus a good idfiuenoe got out from this simple work. Fairs are for the education of the people in all matters that promise to increase production aijd benefit the farmer. Here is a chance to drive a wedge.— Detroit Free Press.