THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 253 



Degeneracy of Wheat — Cause and Remedy. 



From time out of mind there appears to have been 

 a prevalent opinion among wheat-growers that varie- 

 ties of wheat deteriorate, becoming in a few years so 

 unproductive that other kinds are sought and culti- 

 vated. Allusion to this subject is made in Virgil, 

 penned more than two thousand years ago, and the 

 writer speaks of having seen the peasant grieve over 

 the degeneracy of his grain, where the heads had not 

 been culled with care from year to year. We have 

 always observed from boyhood that farmers have recog- 

 nized this fact, and when alluding to it have appeared 

 to acknowledge that there is no remedy for it. When 

 writers have alluded to varieties of wheat cultivated in 

 different parts of our country, they have almost inva- 

 riably mentioned kinds that once nourished, but "for 

 some unknown cause have degenerated." The English 

 Agricultural Society, several years ago, issued circulars 

 desiring information on this subject. 



It cannot be denied that varieties of wheat do run 

 ont. We well remember when a boy, that a kind of 

 winter wheat called Red Chaff, or Bald Wheat, was 

 cultivated quite extensively in that part of the State 

 where we were living ; but in a few years farmers dis- 

 continued raising it, because, they said, u it had run 

 out." The same was true of the White Flint, Beaver 

 Dam, Wild Goose, and Hutchinson Wheat, most of 

 which yielded well when first introduced ; but after a 

 few years failed to return remunerating crops. The 

 identity of the variety appeared to be gone. The heads 

 were df various colors, and the kernels small, of differ- 

 ent and varied forms, and the yield was less and less 



