]SS STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



North Dakota Experiment Stations exchanged seed wlieat of the same 

 variety. It was a pure strain that had come originally from Minnesota. 

 Each ICxperiment Station ]>laiitpd the home grown seed in a i)lot along- 

 side ol" that obtained I'roni the adjoining state. In each case the plot 

 from the home grown seed produced the more. The experiment was re- 

 I)eatcd with the same results. On the average the home grown see<l 

 produced 2..") bushels more per acre than the imported seed. This simply 

 brings out the point tliat it is unsafe to get seed of a new variety of 

 wheat for planting a general acreage unless the wheat lias been tried 

 under the same or similar conditions. It does not mean that wheats 

 from the Experiment Stations or other sources should not l»e tried. A 

 new varietv from reliable sources mav promise considerable in the wav 

 of increased yields, but sliouhl lie used for the tirst time in a moderate 

 way and in comparison with the home varieties. 



WHAT FARMERS CAN DO TO IMPROVE THEIR WHEATS. 



Farmei'S can keep their wheats from ''running out." It is very im- 

 portant to keep a variety pure. A wheat said to he ''ran out" is really 

 ao badly mixed with low grade and poor yielding wheats (if not also 

 weed seeds) as to lose its identity. Light wheat and weed seeds should 

 always be cleaned out with a good fanning mill. Always remember 

 that "like begets like," and a man can hope to harvest only what he 

 sows. 



Much of the work at the Experiment Station includes the isolation of 

 pure strains and the testing of these to give the farmer only the best. The 

 farmer can co-operate by keeping the wheats pure. The threshing ma- 

 chine brings grain from the neighboring fields and the first few sacks 

 of grain threshed will be mixed with these other varieties. The farmer 

 should always have his next year's seed in mind at threshing time. All 

 he needs to do is to save his seed wheat after the machine has been 

 running long enough to shake out all the foreign wheat. This wheat 

 should then be stored separately for seed purposes. 



If, however, a pure variety has been mixed, it can be purified with a 

 little more work. Two or three hours should be sj^nt just before the 

 wheat is cut in gathering some of the best heads of the type of wheat 

 that it is desired to raise. Half of a burla]) sack full of such heads will 

 give the farmer a good start. This sack should l)e lunig up in a sheltered 

 I>lace. where it will have a free circulation of air and be away from the 

 mice. When the heads are thoroughly dry, the wheat may be threshed 

 by pounding the sack with a stick. Then after looking the fanning 

 mill (»ver to see that no other wheat is caught in the screens, run this 

 small lot of wheat through. This pure wheat .should be sown in a plot 

 by itself being careful to keep it separate at threshing time the follow- 

 ing season. It would j)ay to flail it out to nuike sure that it is not mixed 

 with other wheats. This will provide enough seed to sow a good sized 

 j)lot which can be threshed the next season with the ordinary thresher 

 but the first two or three sacks of it must be set aside and the seed wheat 

 saved after that. 



WINTER KILLING. 



The winters of 1009-1010 and 1011-1012 have enabled the Experiment 

 Station to observe the wheats from the standpoint of endurance to cold 

 and ice sheets, the past winter presenting esp>ecially favorable conditions 



