Plant Life on the Farm.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2057, 12 September 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Plant Life on the Farm.

TO IHB EDITOR Of " TOT UVB STOCK JOURNAL." Sib,— While for years past the agricultural interest has been busy improving live stock, it has often struok me as strange that the plant life of the farm has received little or no share of this attention. The farmer— at least, the intelligent farmer—is most sorupulous in his choice of a bull for breeding purposes, but the same farmers never lets a thought enter his head as to either the pedigree or any other mark of quality of the seed he sows. Mr. Faunce de Laune, with muoh credit to himself, has done something to stimulate the apathy in the matter of permanent grass-seeds. For many years past I have taken muoh interest in turnips, especially swedes, and have amused myself by selecting the best roots I can get, and growing seed from them. Two years ago, in 1883, I procured 23 lots of swedes from various seedsmen of Great Britain and Ireland, and had about one acre of each lot sown, and I repeated the same experiment this year. When the crops were ready I got three of my neighbors— leading agriculturists in this county— to walk over them, and place the lots in order of merit, the basis of the awards to be quality, apparent weight per acre, and symmetry, shape, and habit. Taking the numbers as they stood in my books, the results were :—

It ia worthy of notice that No. 23, the firstprize lot on both trials, is the only lot whioh appears on both occasions ia the prize-list, and it may be of some satisfaction to Irish farmers to know that I prooured the seed from Messrs. Hogg and Robertson, 22, Mary- street, Dublin. This eeaeon before the judges went over the roots, I had the leaveß removed from two drills of each lot, so that the •' bulkiness " of the respective Borts could be easily seen. After the pudges made their awards this season, I carefully weighed equally measured portions of each lot, and, to economise your space, I only give you the results of what I term the prize-list : — ' No. 11 = 28 tons 10 cwt. per tUtuto aero. No. 7= 27 „ 1(5 „ „ i, No. 20 =2G „ 7 „ „ „ Lot. No. 18 turned out to weigh 28 tons 10 owt. (the same exactly as the first prize, No. 23), but it had already been excluded from the prize list on account of coarseness in habit. The liphteßt crop, No. 22, wa3 21 tons 11 owt. 2 qrs , and several of the other lots were but very little better than this weight. Now, given even that lots No. 22 and No. 23 be of equal feeding quality, there is a lois of about seven tons per acre against No 22, which to me, had I sown all my land with No. 22, would mean about 12G0 tons short ol feeding stuff, as I had about ISO acres of swedes as well as 280 acres of white and yellow turnip?. I have shown by trial that one stock of turnip seed is better than another, and I think it behoves cur great agricultural socie ties to take this matter up, and give every encouragement to farmers and seedsmen to improve stocks of turnips ; and I maintain that the very best stocks we have are oapable of improvement. It is a well-known faot that the French of today grow nearly 50 per cent, more food off beetroot than they did 25 years ago, simply through the life labors of one man (M. Vilmoiin) in improving the strain of seed. Why cannot we do the same with our root seeds of all sorts ? With your permission, I may apain trouble you on this subject. — Gco. Rutherford, in the •" Live Stock Journal."

No. 23 lot .. No. 1 „ .. No. 2 „ .. No. 7 „ .. No. 20 „ .. 18S3 Ist .. 2nd .. 3rd . . not placed • • >> •• 18&1 Ist not placed 2nd 3rd