SOLID STRAW TUSCAN WHEAT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1393, 20 March 1912, Page 8

SOLID STRAW TUSCAN WHEAT.

A SOUTHERN REVIEW. Solid straw Tuscan wheat, which is largely grown in Canterbury and parts of Ota go, is commented on as under by tho South Island correspondent of the "Farmers' Union Advocate":— "It is a splendid, all-round wheat that will grow almost anywhere, and generally gives good 'esults. Millers have had a good deal to say against it, and'. have induced farmers to grow some of tlie finer wheats in conjunction with it. This was nothing but right, because croppers were inclined to go in almost wholly for solid straw, which would not blow out. and which gave good yields, both as an autumn and as a spring sown wheat. This season it lias shown a tendency to rust nnd blight more readily than many other varieties, and many farmers are losing conceit in it. It is also difficult to handle, the straw is very hard, and is severe 011 the lingers and knees in stooking and stacking. The sheaves are usually J very square in the head, rendering tho| stuif difficult to stook and stack. It sprouts readily 'in stook, before other varieties show any tendency to grow. The heads ot' the sheaves stand open in the stook, ami take the rain easily, lint it is to bo hoped, with all theso drawbacks, that farmers will not neglect a very good iriend. Solid straw Tuscan is a first-class export wheat; it is a reliable cropper, and it does not easily shake in a windy season. If it is grown in conjunction with such wheats as pearl, red chalf, velvet, it can bo upstanding in a windy season while the,others are cut down, and it will take 110 injury. As for the handling of it. that is not such 11 serious matter after all. If tho season is a favourable one and a mill is available, the best way to deal with it: is to thresh it out of the stook as soon as it gets into fit condition for putting into bags.