198 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Voigt & Co., of Grand Rapids, imported six bushels of wheat from 

 Buda-Pest, Austria, and had it sown in Kent county. So far as heard 

 from the results are full of promise. But we need to go farther and 

 search wider till the very best is found for Michigan farmers. 



HOW TO RAISE THE GRADE OF MICHIGAN WHEATS. 



While we are hunting for the best wheat, what shall we do to raise the 

 grade of wheat in our State and make the best of present conditions? 

 Much can be done in this way : 



1. Of the kinds now grown in the State, cultivate only the best. It is 

 poor economy to save expense by using cheap seed. I have already 

 spoken of the Buda-Pest, and Dawson's Golden Chaff, which will soon 

 be widely scattered in the State and available for all. These should be 

 introduced at the earliest date. Occasionally a new variety of great 

 promise springs up. Thus an apparently new kind of wheat was raised 

 last season in the town of Gaines, Kent county, which was said to have 

 given an average crop of 42 bushels per acre on 40 acres. The farmer 

 called it White Clawson, but Mr. Voigt, who called my attention to it, 

 says it is not White Clawson, and Robert Gibbons, of the Miehigan 

 Farmer, agrees with Mr. Voigt. It is a bald white wheat, with a stalk 

 and head resembling White Clawson, but the berry is very hard and 

 flinty, the cut section of the berry clear and glassy and without the 

 starchy appearance of White Clawson, and in chemical composition it 

 differs greatly from Clawson. Knowing nothing of the history of this 

 wheat, but satisfied that it was not White Clawson, I have given it the 

 provisional name of Corinth Clawson, from the name of the village near 

 which it was grown. Prof. Smith tried to get some of the wheat to test 

 on the College farm, and disseminate through the State if it maintained 

 its high reputation. He wrote repeatedly to the farmer, but got no reply, 

 and finally sent Mr. Crozier, who got a small quantity of the seed, which 

 was sown here. Most of the Corinth crop was sold for seed in the 

 immediate neighborhood, and it is probable that the seed can be obtained 

 in that vicinity for next fall's sowing. 



2. When promising sports appear, like the single stool of wheat that 

 gave us the White Clawson in New York, and the Dawson's Golden Chaff 

 in Canada, test them thoroughly and cultivate them if they promise well. 

 The Dawson's Golden Chaff, on the experimental farm at Guelph, gave 

 an average yield of 48.7 bushels per acre for four years. 



3. Keep the seed pure, and thresh all the seed wheat with the flail. I 

 have spoken of the mixing of wheat by the threshing machine. Another 

 evil is that rye is thus becoming mixed with wheat, and no process of 

 screening will separate rye from wheat, but the presence of rye in any 

 considerable amount will ruin wheat for production of a high grade 

 flour. A farmer in Genesee county always threshes his seed wheat with 

 the flail and has kept his White Clawson pure and "as good as it was 

 twenty years ago." Much of the running out of wheat may be due to 

 mixing seeds. 



4. Try the best foreign varieties raised in a climate similar to our own. 

 When in Washington last August, I visited the Department of Agri- 

 culture in search of any foreign varieties of wheat for our farmers in 



