Agricultural. TO INCREASE THE WHEAT YIELD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2170, 5 June 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Agricultural. TO INCREASE THE WHEAT YIELD.

(Leader.) Assuming that the land has been well prepared, one of the principal factors in ensuring a good yield at harvest time is the selection of good seed. Many farmers endeavour to satisfy themselves by going through a perfunctory attempt at " obtaining a change," which often is worce than useless, through neglect in attending to the first requirement of a change, viz., the necessity for securing better seed than that grown on the farm. Unless this object is attained, the mere "changing" of the seed is notin itself any virtue. It will be well to bear in mind the- point that seed may be often changed ana yet undergo deterioration owing to proper selection not being attended to, while it is possible to grow from the same seed indefinitely with constaut improvement. It will be remembered tnat our special correspondent in America found interesting proof of this in the practice of Mr Legrange, of Ureely, Colorado, who had used the same wheat seed without change for over ten years, with the result that instead of deteriorating it had very greatly improved both in quality and yield. This was due, however, to special treatment. "1 have observed," he remarked, " that the earliest sprouts from a newly sown field of wheat are, first, one main shoot, having a tap root, and next there come from it two side shoots. These early shoots can be obserted main* taining their supremacy throughout the later processes of tillering, when the growing crop is thickened and apparently greatly added to by the multiplication of side shoots— known among farmers by the term ' stooling ' and 'tillering' respectively. Now always as harvest approaches I go through the crop and selict my next year's seed from the ertrs which have sprung from the first taproot plants and their first two side shoots. The produce from these ears I carefully set Out in a well prepared nursery plot, dibbling each seed in at * distance from its neighbour of not less than six inches, and thus I raise seed that never deteriorates, but on the contrary improves. From my dibbled-in patches I obtain yields at the rate of from 60 to 72 bushels per acre, and I take care to have sufficient in the nursery every season to provide for the coming season's need." Mr Legrange having given considerable study to this matter of selection, was positive in his opinion that the deterioration of seed was attributable to one cause, viz., the practice of annually sowing grain that been produced indiscriminately from everything that had been sown, without any attention to selection ; and he could confidently recommend his plan as one that he had proven to be true by an experience of over ten years with the same grain planted yearly in the same soil, the result being, as he bad already stated, that his wheat, instead of deteriorating, had annually improved in vigour, quality, and productiveness.

German Aobicdltcrai. Colonies.— The Lower House of the Prussian Diet in Berlin on has adopted on the second reading, clause first of the Bill, placing one hundred millions marks at the disposal of the Government for the purpose of establishing German agrioultural colonies in West Prussia and Poscn, with a view of arresting the growth of the Polish element. Intimidation in Skyk— Sometime ago the crofters on Kintail, belonging to Mr Mackenzie, sent a petition to the proprietor asking for more land. That demand wan not complied with, and at a meeting held recently it is reported to have been resolved to tike possession of the land. According to information from Inverness thin has now been done, a party of twenty or thirty crofters having ploughed part of a field near Morvich House in defiance of the lessee's servants. Clod Crushers.— Amongst the most valuable inventions for which during the last few years the British farmer has to thnnk the Americans, one of the most noted is the Patent Acme Pulverising Harrow, whioh has been largely adapted by the farming community in thin country. This implement possesses the following special merits : —1. Ease of Draught— The coulters or teeth, by running obliquely, or with a long slant through the noil, have the name advantage that belongs to a sharp boat in running through the water, instead of a, squareheaded or blunt one. 2. Efficiency 'of Work — While many other harrow teeth come square against the soil, making hard work for the homes thooe of the 'Acme' turn the crumbling soil to the right and left, and have also an oblique or draw-out downwards, slicing and crashing the hard lumps over which it passes. A two-horse team will draw One of these harrow* with the driver riding on the seat, and thus rendering its downward out more efficient, with as much apparent ease as a common squara-tooth barrow is drawn without a load, and' it mellows a breadth of ground 6ft wide' at each passing. How to Grow tour Furl. — In some sections of Dakota, where fuel is expensive, farmers will this year raise flax for that purpose, a ton of flax being considered more valuable for fuel than a ton of soft coal. Tobacco a Remedy fob Aoricoltoral Depression. — The idea of encouraging tobacco growing in England as a means of lessening the agricultural depression; ia gaining ground in some quarter!. Our English contemporaries, however, speak contemptuously of it, and the " Mirk Lane Express" says :— " There is nothing like sending a boy to sea in order to cure him of the wish to become a sailor, and two or three years' trial of tobacco as a farm crop in this country will give the most effectual quietus possible to (he scheme."