Nov. 



1909. 



Dart's Imperial Wheat. 



69) 



of an\-, and certainly is the easiest on the lamb. An objection raised 

 to it is, that if they are held over as grown sheep, wethers castrated 

 this way will be staggy. This stagginess is very slight, and! is hardly 

 worth considering ; very little more can be noticed than is apparent on other 

 lambs when marked at the advanced age. 



Lambs on such good milkers as cross-bred ewes, when sired by the 

 early maturing black- faced rams, and the ewes are well fed, are ex- 

 tremely sappy and forward at an early age. With them there is only 

 one way to save checking and losses, and that is by marking all ram 

 lambs once a week, if at all possible. 



The use of antiseptics on tiie knife, and also on the purse of lambs 

 before making anv incision, is a wise precaution, and well repays the 

 trouble. 



"DART'S IMPERIAL" WHEAT. 



We have great pleasure in presenting to Victorian farmers a portrait 

 of Mr. Thomas Dart, of Nhill. the originator of the above well-known 

 wheat. As this wheat has established such a high place amongst the 

 varieties grown in Australia for its prolific yield, ihe community is deeply 

 indebted to the original grower, 

 and the recognition of this fact 

 some time ago led to a move- 

 ment in the Nhill district to 

 present Mr. Dart with a mone- 

 tary testimonial. He, however, 

 declined to receive anything of 

 the sort, and consequently the 

 movement was not proceeded 

 with. Mr. Dart is still hale 

 and hearty at the age of 73 

 years, 71 years of which have 

 been passed in South Australia 

 and Victoria. 



Mr. Dart gives the following 

 account of how he came in pos- 

 session of this wheat : — 



I was stripping a very 

 rusty crop at Lucindale in 

 South Australia in 1882. 

 Noticing a nice looking root of 

 wheat I stopped the machine, 

 got off and examined it, and finding it quite free from rust I pulled it 

 up and gathered 44 perfect heads from the one plant. The same year 

 I removed to Kiata in Victoria and sowed it there, but not with very 

 encouraging results, as the cattle got in and partly destroyed it. By per- 

 .severing with it I managed to gather 13 lbs. weight that year. The 

 following harvest my chief trouble was with the rabbits and 1 only gathered 

 45 lbs. that year. In 1885 I sowed it again, but the rabbits found it out 

 once more, although I was often around the plot at midnight. However, 

 I stripped it with the machine and got 3 bushels. The following year I 

 sowed this on 4 acres of fallowed ground with better results, as 16 bags 

 each containing 4.% bushels were stripped and cleaned. As a matter of 

 fact only about 3 acres were stripped, as two swaths around it were cut, 



MR. THOMAS DART, NHILL. 



