SEED DIVISION. 53 



fertilized by its OTvn pollen. Au opinion has long prevailed that Tvet 

 weather injures the grain while it is in blossom. This opinion is erro- 

 neous, inasmuch as, in wet and very hot weather, fertilization is carried 

 on within the chaff. " Often in moist weather," says Mr. Maunde, of 

 London, England, "have I felt much interested when, wanting pollen, 

 I have held the straw and bottom of the ear in my warm hand for two 

 or three minutes, watching for a crop of anthers. Quickly the ripest 

 of them, stimulated by the warmth, would peep out from their seclu- 

 sion, and, gently rising, give me a chance of capturing them ere they 

 scattered their contents over the expectants beneath them. SometimeSj 

 on leaving these excited ears and returning to them after 10 or 15 min- 

 utes, I have found several anther-cases as empty as balloons, dancing 

 to the breeze, as if joyous that in my absence they had scattered every 

 pearl tl)ey possessed." 



In regard to wheat improvement. Prof. A. E. Blount, of the State 

 Agricultural College of Colorado, says : 



There are many ways of running wheat ont. Wheat after wheat in the same soil, 

 •without any regard to rotation ; iising seed taken from the eommon bin or elevator, 

 -svithont its being selected before thrashing; sowing imperfect shriveled grain, and 

 sowing the seed too late, all tend to degrade wheat and run it out. Soil run in wheat 

 year after year not only loses its elements for producing a A-alnable milling variety, 

 hut the grain itself sullers a rapid decline. By nou-selection and permitting a foul 

 and foreign seed to become mixed with them, our best wheats deteriorate as rapidly 

 as people densely packed in the poor quarters of th** city. 



The system I have adojited in improving and making better kind.s is as follows: 



(1) Procure the best standard varieties from all sections, generally from the pro- 

 ducers. 



(2) Sow at different times, and from the earliest ripe of the first crop select only the 

 best fur seed the next year. It is not dilScnlt to tell how a foreign wheat will suc- 

 ceed after the first crop ripens, nor is it a ditiQcult matter to select the best to sow 

 again. All that is necessary is observation and some i)atience. 



(3) Cross in line, of the first crop, the best samples — oneor two gr.ains in each head — 

 always using the stiffest straw and the most compact head as the mother plant. Cross- 

 ing is comparatively an easy operation. The time to do the crossing is quite difficult 

 to fix ; it can be learned only by experience. Crossing varieties that have the same 

 or nearly the same characteristics, not elements, produces much more valuable results 

 than using those of diverse peculiarities. "Out of line," as in stock breeding, the 

 " blood runs zigzag and crooked," generally producing scrubs in plants as well as ani- 

 mals. For inst.mce, smooth white varieties'should be used one upon the other, bearded 

 upon bearded, &c. Smooth and bearded white and red wheats can bo crossed upon 

 one another, but the selection of a valuable cross from the olispring is a work that has 

 but little value. The offspring will be as varied as a brood of chickens found follow- 

 ing a hen whose parentage is of all the breeds. If the "Australian " should be crossed 

 upon the "Defiance," some of the grain would resemble the "Australian " and partake 

 of its nature, some the "Defiance," while others would be "sports," or grain partaking 

 of the characteristics and elements of both mixed up. Among these " sports" are found 

 the best specimens to be bred up by selection. It requires three years — sometimes 

 more— "to fix" a wheat (free from its tendency to sport) or to make it a fixed stand- 

 ard that will not deviate from the course it has adopted. Selection only improves, 

 crossing changes the qualities. 



By way of improving wheats my work has been directed upon over 300 varieties of 

 seed obtained from almost every wheat-producing country in the world. Not a single 

 sample received but has greatly improved by being raised here. All have improved 

 in appearance, yield, and color, and over three-fourths in milling elements. So great 

 has been the change for the better in most of them that the product bears but little 

 resemblance to the seed received. The chemist, Clifford Richardson, at Washington, 

 has analyzed 84 varieties of these wheats; in 18dl, 33 kinds; 188-2, the same and 15 

 more, and in 1883-'84 the same with 36 new kinds. He says : " Among the individual 

 States Colorado wheats are certainly the best which have been produced in this coun- 

 try." (Report for 1882.) In his last analysis the milling elements have so improved that 

 he puts Colorado wheats first of all in the world for good flour. 



In addition to the report of the chemist, Colorado enjoys the reputation of produc- 

 ing more, for the past seven years, by 3 to 5 bushels' average, per acre, than any other 

 State or country, and of having taken more first premiums. 



