§94 



STATE BOAKD OF AGEICULTUKE. 



taken about the right view, we can, in the necessary plowing, cultivating, and 

 harrowing to kill the shelled oats or barley, do nearly as much labor as on the 

 old system of open fallow, have our summer crop keep down the weeds, and 

 usually get from three-quarters to seven-eighths as large a crop of wheat as by 

 the old process. 



One other point in wheat culture presents itself, and that is the matter of 

 seed. Our farmers are too careless about this. 



If as much pains were taken to pedigree our wheat as it were, and ascertain 

 how it had been raised for several years, much good would be done. Almost 

 any farmer can improve his wheat by taking the earliest, largest and finest heads 

 for two or three years and sowing their produce. 



To any who may be a little skeptical on this point, let me refer you to a paper 

 on the pedigree of wheat as a means of increasing the crop, by Frederic F. 

 Hallet. This appeared in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 Great Britain. He claims that with due attention to the seed we may seed with 

 less and have the tillering propensity of the plant largely increased, with the 

 ears much lengthened, and the number of grains in the ear increased. I repro- 

 duce his table, showing his experiment and the result : 



1857- 



1858- 



1859- 



1860 — Ears imperfect from wet season. 



1861— Finest ear.. 



-Original ear 



-Finest ear raised. 



Length. 



4% in. 



7M " 



^74: 



Grains. 



47 

 79 

 91 



123 



No. of cars on 

 BtooL 



10 

 22 

 39 

 52 



Thus you see that by repeated selections alone the length of ear has been 

 doubled, the number of grains nearly trebled, and the tillering power of the 

 seed increased nearly five fold. By taking large ears to start with found them 

 developed into coarse products that were not very salable, so he took an ear Avith 

 a fine quality of grain, irrespective of the size of the ear, and trusted to pedigree 

 and selection to obtain fine ears. In planting the grains of a single ear one 

 was always found to greatly excel all others in vital power, but jilanting them 

 in the order in whicli they grew on the ear, no fixed place was found for this 

 grain having this strong vital power. In order to determine whether such ped- 

 igree would produce as much Avith thin seeding, he sowed two plats of an acre 

 each, six pecks being drilled on the first and 4i pints planted in single grains 

 one foot apart each way on the second. It was found the wheat that was planted 

 produced over C7,000 more ears on an acre than the drilled, and about 31 times 

 the amount of seed was used in drilling. After obtaining ten pecks of seed he 

 was anxious to try and did sow ten acres at the rate of one peck per acre, getting 

 it in very late. Notwithstanding this fact he harvested 57 bushels of wheat per 

 acre, and a growth of straw weighing 2^ tons per acre. 



In giving you these results 1 do not expect that we in our climate and with 

 our prices for labor could attain such a result, but I do think that much may 

 be done in the furtherance of this object by our farmers by attention to the 

 matter of seed and sowing only the finest. Michigan was once nearly first 

 among the wheat-producing States, but has now taken several steps down the 

 ladder. Shall not we take up this matter, and by educating ourselves raise a 



