FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 457 



Secretary Baircl said it was evident that this matter of improving seed by 

 selection and cross-fertilization, was not merely curious and interesting, but 

 also of very great practical importance to the farmer. The time was within 

 the recollection of most of us, when it was quite common for farmers to think 

 that they must sell out their cattle, sheep and other domestic animals and 

 purchase a fresh lot as they inclined to "run out." That is just where we 

 arc now in regard to raising cereals. Every few years we introduce a new kind 

 of wheat or oat to replace something that has done well for a few years and 

 then "run out." 



When a man has once fairly embarked on the enterprise of improving his 

 stock of cattle, sheep or hogs by selection and importation, he would regard 

 it as ruinous to sell out every few years and begin anew. When science has 

 brought sufficient light to bear on this subject with reference to the various 

 kinds of grain, we believe it will be regarded as an equally foolish and ruin- 

 ous policy to allow suitable varieties to run out every few years. 



If the results given in the lecture are approximately correct, it appears to 

 me that the trouble and expense of improving and imparting a greatly in- 

 creased vigor to existing varieties are trifling as compared with the profits to 

 be realized from it. It is not therefore a work merely for the scientific invest- 

 igator, lie enters as the forerunner merely of the thousands who on learning 

 what he has found will follow and reap a rich reward. 



Mr. Davis asked for information in regard to whether it would be better to 

 get seed from the north or from the south. 



Dr. Miles said that he had collected corn from all quarters, and all expe- 

 rience showed that corn from the south took too long to ripen in this latitude. 

 He recommended that oats for seed or for cross-fertilization be obtained from 

 a cool climate, as there we found the heaviest and most perfect grain. 



Hon. D. L. Montague, said he would like to have a record of failures as 

 well as successes. He had raised 20 bushels of Norway oats from four pounds 

 of seed, but after he had raised this kind for three or four years they were 

 one-fourth smut. In the last ten years he had increased the yield of wheat on 

 his farm one-third. 



Mr. Dewey said he thought it would be difficult to obtain a perfect cross- 

 fertilization as pollen was carried considerable distances by the wind and by 

 insects. 



REQUISITES FOR SUCCESSFUL FARMING. 



BY R. G. BAIRD, SECRETARY OF THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



[Read at Flint, Howell and Dowagiac Institutes.] 



It may appear somewhat presumptuous for one who has been principally 

 engaged in other occupations, to undertake to instruct a body of practical 

 farmers in the business to which they iiuve devoted their lives. Yet farming 

 is an occupation of such universal importance, second to none, if not really 

 oiitranking all others in regard to utility and a more absolute necessity — that 



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