SELECT YOUR OWN SEED WHEAT.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 82, 22 March 1883, Page 3

SELECT YOUR OWN SEED WHEAT.

Our "best varieties oi wheat were produced by the careful selection of the best heads and plumpest grains to be found in the field. These being *owed by themselves the succeeding season, and the best again preserved. ■a, great improvement has uniformly Jbeen the result- Any tanner can do this, and it is not necessary to depend •on come scientist or particular seedsman for an explanation of the proper meth3il. « ; n this sijtiji'Ct. Prof. A. E. Blount, of the State Agricultural College, Fort Collins, Colorado, states that farmers generally permit their *whea*; to retrograde ono-eig'irh. •whereas if proper care should b n bestowed upon its improvement by selecrion alone, not one would evr ifind it necessary to procure bet'er Bfled. It ody takes two years to snake wheat No. 1 and pure by selection, and from three to ten to make a successful hybrid. Wheats raised upon the sail of any locality •are better than those from other points for seeding. To prove thifact, Prut. Blount says : u I have sown- and am nicely growing now— this spring 181 ditferem varieties. tbe seed of which I obtained from «every country in the world. Many 1 received -are winter wheats, which I •converted into spring -wheats. Of all itihe samples received not one was :good, or began to be as good, as the poorest I now have." In other wor.is Dy careful selection the poorest wheat now is better than tlie best of the <originai lot and this gTeat improvment !has been made in one y p ar. If it is -desired to improve wheat try this an-thod.: go over the fiejd and select the largest heads from the best stalks Spread the grains on a tabl • ami ■examine each one separately discard ing all but the be?t formed and full•est. " v ext season make a seed bed, putting one seed to a hill, one tool -apart each way. Hoe well and keep .dean. r l he result will be surprising, ;asihe <yield will be larger, the grains ■better, and the seed -clean. When by doing this on a small piece of ground, seed is perfected, it can be sowed •for a crop. Practice thi3 annually, as ■there is no limit to improvement. — •Philadelphia Record.