OLD WHEAT BEST FOR SEED.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 39, 23 September 1867, Page 234

OLD WHEAT BEST FOR SEED.

The following letter appears in the Australasian of the 27th nit. :■ — “Sis, —Most farmers are fond, of new wheat, yet if you ask them why they cannot tell you; they can assign no reason why new wheat is preferable to old, only, simply that it suits. . I, who always love to make observations on causes as well as their eiiects,' have found by experience that it is not most advantage* ous to sow new wheat. My reasons are these:—First, I have a field of twenty acres, which, whenever in the course of time it caine to be sown with wheat, was always sure to be winter proud. The soil .being rather light, 1 sowed (merely from [practice; with pew wlwat j the result was

it became shriveled in tbe grain, and was not at all to be compared with the crop of an adjoining neighbor, even though the culture of the soil was the same in every respect, and the only difference was that his ground .was sown with ‘old wheat.’ Another year! followed, and it presented the same appearance—‘shrivelled in the grain, and' the straw weak and brittle.’ The result was, I tried it last season with seed wheat of some three years old (if 1 may use this term), and strange to say I reaped a plentiful harvest, ana for grain or straw my crop wbb unequalled. Many farmers have suffered from this distemper distroying their crops, and who unde r the title of * rust ’ believed the distemper incurable. Second, I would advise my brother farmers to stubble before ploughing, and likewise not to sow the wheat (and not use wheat of less than two years old) too late ; and lastly, to be sure never to roll it until the crop appears overgrounds I have tried this, and found that I extirpated the rust from my fields. “ L. D. O’Rtak. “ Drumbane Farm, Woolert.”