SEED WHEAT. UNKNOWN.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1543, 25 May 1882, Page 4

SEED WHEAT. UNKNOWN.

THER^ l ,jj r^s l/ a J^r^jajt^cndp^co at the monthly meeting of the Farmers' Club in conne.jfyoi j'lWitU,,, th 3 \ 3Jaringhup ' and Maldon Agricultural Society, on Wedncstlayu,Api < 1 il 1 29.~Mr A. Harrowven, vicepreajcteut, in.i the chair— when Mr W. Rollason i;ead .the, following paper on seed wheat : — As,wo,ara again on the > eve of seedtinio, I thought a' fitting subject for my paper would be a few remarks on the selection and jtreatment of seed wheat, for it is very evident that wheat will be the principal product from our farms for many years to come ; and it behoves us to do our utmost to try and increase the tho yield by every means in our power, and by adopting energetic measures to secure the best yields obtainable ; we shall at the same time improve the quality of our wheat, and thus be in a good position to compete with the world. The few remarks I have jotted down herennder may* not appear to some of you, at, a cursory glance, of much impoitance,"bnt an bbserving farmer will, I am sure, Jihink as I do— that the subject is orie oi-paraihount importance, quite as much so as manuring, lotation of ciops, &c. Iftn* several years past I have frequently noticed the increasing difficulty ol obtaining pure seed wheat. We may purchase a tine-looking seed under the impression that it is such and such a variety, but alas, when our crops mature, that seed that we sowed for " Redstiaw," "Frampton," or any other .sort, turns out to bo a mixtuio of several varieties; tho consequence is the land which was probably clean and picpared with extra care for growing pure seed will necessaiy have a little of all sorts left on it, and tho next ciop will be likewise mkeil. Nor is this tho only drawback; the different varieties do not open with that uniformity that a pure sort would, so that we have to harvest it at an average ripeness ; some is over 1 ipc and some is not sullieiently lipc, consequently there is a decreased yield. If a farmer is under the necessity of purchasing seed wheat, lie should make a point, if possible, of personally inspecing the ciop while glowing ; lie can satisfy himself as to the purity of the wheat, also as to its yielding cnpahilitcs. Do not condemn the wop because yon perchance see a few w ild oats in it, although this pest is much to bo depriseitcd ; still, if it possesses Uic other tetjitsites, the wild o.itt>, with a little tioubl. 1 , can be taken out, but t!ic nnpmu seed can nevei be made pine. It lies, how - ' ever, in the power of any farmci to scenic | for himself pme seed by selection, I have tried thocxpciiment myself, eonsequuntly I can speak from cvpeiicnce. Many of you will doubtkss have noticed in walking round your ciops A\hen neai maturity ears of wheat possessing supenor vigour and size to their compccis ; if a stool, having several stalks, so much the better. Select only the finest of these ears, and next season dibble each grain in a properly prcpaied plot of laud, being careful not to overdo it by making j sour land to rich, but don't stint your seed plenty of room, and it •will astonish you the yield yon will get from a few ears of grain so treated. As an instance, j I may mention that I once sowed the I produce of a single ear, selected by myself, which yielded 71b weight of good seed, and that in a vciy unfavotable season. The following year T harvested one bag, as the result of the 71b, beating in mind th.'it such po» tions as I thought ! failed to reach the stand, ud weiedisc.iided, and this point should be stiietly observed at the outlet, when you have only a small lot to deal with ; .still after we have succeeded in obtaining tho bag of pure seed, and from that probably a small stack calculated to yield 20 or 30 bags, we have ajiotliei difficulty to contend with : Your stack may contain as pure seed as ever Avas grown ; when the tlncshing machine comes toopeiate on it. and however caieful you may be to sec that the machine is clean, your sample is bound to get a few grains of foreign variety in the process of threshing, so the ljibour of two or three years is partially destroyed. Om only remedy for that is to hand tlnesh that poition we lequire for seed piupo.-cs ; oi if that is too, tedious at least to strip a portion ; by.M> doing we maintain the purity of our seed, and whatever portion we may sell for seed purposes, we can safely guarantee as pine. If gentlemen or farmeis would adopt the foicgoiii 1^ plan of seed selection, they Mould, J am convinced, lie vciy soon satisfied of the profit attached, not only by an incieased yield, but an extra juice for such seed as we might sell to otln-is. Mut we must not be satisfic.l with adopting this plan once, but atwajs on the aleit for something stili better, and always have a fresh selection in hand. IJy .sowing too frequently the same wheat, I feel convinced that the wheat detei torates, what are termed "black htswk '' gradually creep in, and this, in my opinion, is a sure sign of dcterioiation To ob\ iatc the difficulty of sowing our selected wheats too often on the same kind of soil, a few farmers possessing diff'eient soils could easily manage to exchange small quantities of selected seed of the one variety ; otherwise a single individua would necessarily have to sow his^seed on the same soil a greater number of times than would lie desirable. With regard to plump or shi i veiled grain for seed purposes, I am stton«ly in favour of the finest wheat that can l>e procured ; still I am of opinion that in .some cases it might be preferable to sow shrivelled seed to plump, and my reasons for thinking so are these : — Some iai mers are at times in the awkward position of having to sow late when the land is probably cold and has an excess of moisture in it, or tlje probabilities are that, being Lite in the season, a heavy fall of rain may occur immediately after sow ing. Under such influences, germination would be very, slow, and plump wheat, having very little room to swell, would probably burst before germination took place ; or again, on rich land, a\ ith sufficient . moisture in it so that the rootlets could find plenty of plant food, shiivelled seed might •uccecd, but as a rule J think no true farmer would select shiivelled seed fn prefei'Qnce to plump. 1 don't think I shall be out of place if I say a few words here anent pickling seed m heat. It is well known to many farmers that blue stone reatrds in a great degree the germinating power of wheat, amfyct we find so many that still use one pound of Milestone to the bag of wheat, and I am firmly of opinjon- that in the case of machino threshed wheat that quantity of Milestone will kill, all the unsound wheat (by the tern* unsound I mean as regards seed purposes), and there is a gr^at deal more unsound/ wheat ,from the threshing machine* than appears to the * naked eye. After we have re-dressed, our, grain by the aid of the I'screen,1 'screen, we may consider we have taken out all the damaged grain, but let any farmer take a small quantity and place it for a time in a strong solut ion of brine, and he wijl then be at no loss to account for his thin crop, after using, bluestone at the rate, of lib. to the, bag .of; j machine threshed seed. .Mr Mactvpty the,, eminent agricultural chomißt,, tells us that 2o#, of s bluestone is sufficient for a bq,g of wheat. Consider ; then what an injury we d,o our \yheat by I using 8 amount, independent |of the Wvaste of bluestone. Tn picking. |seetl Oiriyself 'the very outside I 'have} iftllowHl '-Jib' bluestone 1 to ! 2 'gallons'' of - 1 wfoioh/ js 'somewhere' &box\fc tW

Quantity a bag of wheat will absorb, nnd since hearing Mr'Ma'clvor's opinion have used considerably less. My seed is only immersed just sufficient' time to get wetted, and lam happy to say I was never yet troubled with smut ; in fact, gentlemen, the very indifferent manner in which I have frequently treated my seed with Milestone, and my immunity /from smut, sometimes leads me to think that I am as much indebted to tile use of selected seed as to the use of Milestone for the enjoyment of that immunity, and that smut is another symptom of deterioration. On this point, however, I cannot say much from experience any further than for several years I have finished up with my sowing with uupickled wheat, probably half an acre or so, and these poi tions have been equally free from smut with that pickled. Whenever I find "Blackheads " cropping up, I know that I have used that seed long enough, for I know from practical expciienoe that no quantity ot Milestone will check them. Wlfat affinity these "Blackheads" or " Flying smut have to smut balls I ha\ c yet to learn, and should be glad to be informed on this point. Many a good crop of wheat which would be othei wise clean is mixed up with rubbish by feeding on dirty hay, and yet many of even our careful fanners are not too particular what class of hay their farm hoises get. We have seen others and have ourselves been very careful to have our horses feed well crushed or boiled, so th.vt what passes through the horses will not grow, while at the same time Me select the foulest portion of our crop for hay, fondly deluding ourselves by thinking that because it is cntgieen none of the seeds will grow . This is a mistaken ide.i, nioi c especially with regard to wild oats, for few hay ci ops are out that early but what there is invariably some portion .sufficiently matured to propagate ita species. This I have learnt to my cost, and 1 would advise every farmer who wishes to keep his land clean to always , cut a portion of thn cleanest wh eaten . hay or feeding -while working the horses j on the land ; no doubt there are dirty portions of a crop that cannot bo utilised other than for hay, but there are many ( other tunes that a fanner can use such i liiiy besides feuding it <it ploughing or j haim>t time; if he does so, he in a I nieasmo noutialrscs his efforts spent in obtaining clo.in sted. I had intended to in.ilvc a few icmaiks aiiont the best time to commence cutting our wheat, bnt mypaper it too lout; might bj tedious, still, 1 cannot clo-u my observations without making iitcicum to the system at piesent ' in \oiiut\ainougour Agi ii'iiltuial Societies ' modeling pn/cs Joi seed wheat. The system io in faot no encouiagoiiient to it f.nmur to yiow clean seed ;it is simply | oik'iing <i picniium to those who can e\- > lubit the greatest amount of patience in ' soiciming and hand-picking two bags of I coin. We all of us know \ cry well that I it we have «i eiop of wheat tliat is well j filled, no matter how foul that crop may | bo. it is not a Aciy difficult matter to obtain a few bag* of lmc-looking clean wheat horn it. This wheat, if great care U cxeiciscd in its manipulation, may probably l)i' awarded highest honours, though in all piob.ibjlity the bulk of the ciop troiM which the two bags were taken \\ ill not teeth as good a pi ice in the market a- tho whe.it tiouitUi adjoining taim, winch may hopnio, but the farmer who owni v, docs not possess that patience byfoi c alluded to, or he docs not think that the honour (w Inch b}' the way is a doubtful one) to be obtained is worth the tiouble. What inducement, then, do our societies ofl'er to encourage farmers to grow their seeds clean ? A clean farmer in thk-i respect has no better chance than a duty one. I venture to say that wei c the system established of showing our seed as we grow it, we should have more competition than we now have, for iti.s well known that those who aie in the liabitof taking prizes go toa considerable deal of trouble in manipulating their samples, more so than a gieat majority of farmers would care to do, and the prize when obtained would be a real honour and gain. According to our present system it is no mutter how pure or clean a tanner may have grown his crop, he knows that he stands no chance for a pi i/e unless he extracts all the damaged and infenor wheat ; in fact he mustmake it atti active to the eye and heavy to the bu&hel. If accessary let us increase our prizes for seed wheat ; but let iis insist upon having it .shown as it comes from the thr 'shiiig machine or stripper in the oulinary piocess. .Stringent rules could be framed to protect the honest from the dishonest exhibitor, and at the same time an extra prize can be olfoicd for the piopiietor of the machine who threshed the prize wheat, thus at the same time oftcring a io;il inducement to our fanners to farm cleanly, and to owners of threshing machines to produce in the oulinai) piocessasamplcasfroons possible fiom diitor damaged giaiu ; and I trust, gentlemen, that this society will beonc of tho liist to take the initiative in this nifittei, and by so doing they will induce nioi c competition, and offer a real encouragement to our farmers to grow clean and pure seeds. The paper was favorably received and discussed pro and ton. A heartly vote ot thanks was passed to Mr IlolLison. — JL Ibounic Louder,