GRAIN CROPS 43 



SELECTION OF GOOD SEED 



Pure Seed. — It is well worth while for farmers to raise 

 only pure varieties of grain, or grain that contains no other 

 kind or variety of seed. Seed of Blue Stem wheat should 

 be free from oats, rye, and barley as well as from other 

 kinds of wheat. Pure seed grain may be secured by pur- 

 chasing a small amount of pure seed and using care in 

 growing it so that it will not become mixed; or, if one prefers 

 to start with the seed on the farm, one may go through a 

 small patch of grain when it is headed out in the field and 

 pick out and destroy the other kinds of grain, thus getting 

 a small patch pure, from which a start in pure seed may 

 be made. 



As a rule the very best seed that one can get for the 

 main crop is from grain that has been grown on the farm 

 for several years and that has given good yields. Such 

 grain, when graded and cleaned, so that only the very best 

 is saved for seed, usually gives excellent seed. 



The two general principles by which grain can be graded, 

 separated or cleaned of weed seeds, by the use of the fanning 

 mill, are by size and shape of kernels or by weight. 



To Remove Weed Seeds.^ — Most weed seeds may be 

 removed from grain by running the grain through a fanning 

 mill. The large weed seeds are separated from the grain by 

 dropping the grain through a sieve that is too fine to let 

 the weed seeds through. The small weed seeds are taken 

 out by running the grain over a sieve that is too fine to let 

 the grain through but coarse enough to let the small weed 

 seeds through. The weed seeds that are lighter than the 

 grain may be blown out. Sometimes the fight grains, like 

 oats, may be separated from heavy weed seeds by blowing 

 the grain out of the weed seeds. 



There are some weed seeds, like cockle and wild vetch, 

 which are about the same size and weight as wheat, that 

 are very hard to separate from that grain, while such 

 weed seeds as wild oats are very hard to separate from 

 oats and barley, as the seeds are quite similar in character. 

 When such weed seeds are present in grain and can not 

 be removed with a fanning mill, a small amount of seed 

 free from such weed seeds may be secured by hand picking 



