FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 197 



WHEATS FOR MICHIGAN. 



DR. R. C. KEDZIE, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



What wheats shall we raise in Michigan is important to three classes: 



1. To the millers, with reference to the milling quality of the grain, 

 the quantity of flour it will produce, and the merchantable character of 

 the flour. 



2. To the farmer, in regard to its hardiness, its productiveness, and the 

 price it will command in the market. 



3. For the consumer, the palatable and nutritive quality of the bread 

 it will make. This embraces all classes, because Americans are emi- 

 nently a bread eating race — are well bred and eat good bread. 



In Michigan wheat raising outranks in importance stock breeding, 

 because wheat raisers outnumber stock breeders 16 to 1, and the intro- 

 duction of a better kind of wheat will benefit the great mass of our 

 farmers. About two million acres are yearly sown to winter wheat in 

 our State, and a wheat that will give even five bushels increase per acre 

 would give us ten million more bushels of wheat, a matter of great sig- 

 nificance to our farmers, even with fifty cent wheat. 



In comparison with stock breeding, the quick returns and large profit 

 for the small sum expended for better seed wheat, show the greater 

 importance of this wheat question. Michigan is preeminently a winter 

 wheat state. I would not disparage stock breeding, but only call atten- 

 tion to the greater importance of wheat breeding. 



Herds may come and herds may go, 

 But wheat goes on forever 

 — in Michigan. 



A glance at the present condition of wheat raising in our State will 

 show the need of improvement — ten to fifteen named varieties, and some 

 nameless — not one fit to be called excellent, and scarce one true to name. 

 Twenty years ago, the White Clawson was highly esteemed by our 

 farmers, and is still held in estimation by many, but if you examine this 

 wheat today you find five or six different kinds of wheat — white, amber, 

 and red, mixed together — the natural result of using seed wheat threshed 

 by itinerant threshers — an excellent arrangement for mixing the several 

 wheats of a whole neighborhood. I doubt whether a bushel of pure White 

 Clawson can be found in our State unless the seed has been threshed by 

 a flail. No stock breeder would tolerate such "miscegenation" in the 

 handling of his flock. 



THE SEARCH FOR BETTER KINDS OP WHEAT. 



Is it not time to strike out for new and better kinds of wheat and con- 

 tinue the search till the best is found — best for all classes, farmer, miller, 

 and consumer? In this matter the Agricultural College takes a deep 

 interest. Efforts in this direction were made when the Board of Agri- 

 culture imported from Canada seventy-five bushels of Dawson's Golden 

 Chaff, and sent it for trial into different sections of our State, and when 



