282 THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 



for seeds to produce others of their kind, superior to 

 themselves ; for it is not practicable for animals or plants 

 to transmit to their offspring excellent characteristics 

 and qualities which they never possessed, and which have 

 not been common to their progenitors. 



Excellent wheat may be raised from shrunken kernels 

 of inferior size, by selecting the best grains for seed for 

 several successive seasons. Yet the improvement in 

 grain the first season will be hardly perceptible. Wheat, 

 as well as Indian corn, will hybridize when different 

 varieties are grown in close proximity ; and, though a 

 mongrel grain may yield as many bushels per acre as a 

 pure kind of seed, still such seed will not be so good for 

 producing another crop as if the grain had not been 

 mixed. For this reason, mixed grain should be rejected 

 for seed ; and none sowed except such kinds as have 

 been grown with great care for several successive 

 seasons. That farmer who practises selecting his seed 

 wheat from year to year, as most people gather their 

 Indian corn which is designed for seed the next season, 

 will always raise more bountiful crops of better grain 

 than he could produce on the same soil, with cultivation 

 equally as good, by using seed that has not been saved 

 with special reference to a future crop. When a large 

 crop of wheat is all thrashed together, the grain of the 

 small, half-ripe heads is by no means suitable for seed. 

 For this reason, many farmers meet with great disap- 

 pointment in their crop of spring wheat. They sowed 

 poor, half-ripe, shrunken kernels, with the confident ex- 

 pectation that the yield of new grain would most 

 assuredly be of a superior quality. 



If seed wheat is only of a common quality, with many 

 inferior kernels among the grain, before seed-time, the 



