\\iii;at i.Mn:()\i:.Mi:N'r. 



Bullclin No. 208. 



BY FRANK A. RPKAOG. 



Michigan Wiikat Conditions. 



If one slioiikl walk into Ihe average wheat field in ^Michigan just 

 before harvest, he wonUl find occasional heads of a large number of 

 types of wheat. Pome of these might perhajis have a white chatf. some a 

 red chaff, some might be bearded and some beardless, and if a number 

 of heads were shelled differences would also be found in the grain such 

 as hard, soft, red, white, etc. The writer has counted as high as a 

 dozen types of wheat in one field. This shows that the farmer is grow- 

 ing a mixture of at least that number of varieties. 



As can be seen in Fig. 1, Michigan is not producing the quantity 

 of wheat that she should, were all her farmers practicing proper methods 

 of culture and growing the best variety for their soil and conditions. 



c5(75. PErF? ACRB^ 



Wh^AT K'O. SO/QJ 

 A \/ef?A CEf^MlCHlGA N 

 ^^HTf'^A T NO Gl 801 



Fig. 1. — Showing the relative yields of two of the better varieties at the Michigan Experiment 

 station as compared with the average yield of the state. 



Michigan is producing about half as much wheat per acre as she 

 should. The average yield of wheat in Michigan for 1910 and 1911, as 

 reported in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, was 18 

 bushels per acre. Wheat No. 00101, which is a selection from the Ameri- 

 can Banner produced 42.8 bushels jier acre and No. GlSOl, which is a 

 selection from the Shepherd's Perfection, 39.3 bushels per acre as an 

 average for the same two seasons. No doubt many of the low yields 

 that cut down the state's average come from a class of careless farmers 

 who continue to plant year by year any kind of wheat that they 

 may happen to have. These farmers do not use the fanning mill to clean 

 out the light chaffy grains and weed seeds. They do not select their 

 seed at all and after a time they say that their variety of wheat has 

 "run out." Instead, the facts are that the wheat has been mixed with 

 so many almost worthless Avheats as to lose its identity, w^hile the 

 original wheat if purified might really be a better variety for the par- 

 ticular conditions than ori2:inallv. 



