68 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 Feb., 1916. 



because experience has taught him that the selected seed will return an 

 increased tonnage over the unselected seed. 



Selection applied to the Wheat Crop. 



If such results apply to root crops, why not to wheat? As a matter 

 of fact, similar improvement may be obtained with cereals. As a root 

 crop, however, is generally of far higher value than a cereal crop, and as 

 the rental for onion land is invariably much higher than for wheat land, 

 the incentive and the necessity for systematic production of prolific types 

 is greater in the case of the onion-grower than with the wheat-grower. 

 But even with the wheat-groAver, costs of production are rapidly rising, 

 and necessity, sooner or later, will compel him to increase the net profits 

 per acre. 



One of the surest and unfailing aids will be the bestowal of adequate 

 care on the preparation and selection of the seed. His fourfold task in 

 this direction will be — 



(1) To find out the varieties of wheat best suited to the local 



conditions. This can be done by experimentation. 



(2) Grow these varieties on the cleanest and best worked fallows. 



(3) Grade the seed each year with a suitable grader, and sow 



only the best grade of seed. 

 (4)Adopt a definite policy of systematic selection for improving 

 the prolificacy of the chosen varieties. 



An important and necessary task for every progressive farmer is to 

 make himself familiar with the leading types of wheat grown in the 

 State. Soil conditions fluctuate so widely in different parts of the 

 State, and even on parts, of the same farm, that it is not possible to 

 indicate, except in a general way, the varieties that would be suitable 

 to any specific locality. Moreover, new varieties are continually coming 

 into cultivation ; hence each farmer should be an experimentalist, and 

 carry out tests on a small scale with the leading wheat varieties and any 

 new types that come on the market, with the object of determining in a 

 practical manner the varieties best suited to his conditions. It is not 

 uncommon to find the difference in yield between two varieties of wheat, 

 grown on the same farm under identical conditions, is sufficient to pay 

 the rent and interest on the land on which the crop is grown. 



The necessity for grading the seed has already been alluded to. 

 There are still a number of fanners who believe that small shrivelled 

 grain is as good for seed purposes as full plump grain. The result of 

 the following test may assist in undermining this belief. Last season 

 firsts and thirds Federation seed from a centrifugal barrel grader were 

 sown alongside one another under identical conditions at the Rutherglen 

 Experiment Farm in plots 30 chains long and one chain wide. Though 

 sown late in June, the yield from the first grade seed was 26^ bushels 

 per acre, while the third grade seed yielded only 20f bushels. The 

 expenses of production were the same in both cases, yet the prime grain 

 gave an increase of 5^ bushels per acre. 



Some Results of Selection. — So far as raising the prolificacy of seed 

 by systematic selection is concerned, the evidence obtained at the Experi- 

 ment Farms is convincing. Thus, at Longerenong, selected Federation 

 seed has given increases of ]2 per cent, to 25 per cent, in yield over 



