Seed Wheat. 



I. Our Seed Wheat. 



The differences in yield arising from the use of seeds of different sizes,* and the conse- 

 quent gain to farmers through the proper grading of seed wheat so as to secure for 

 seed only that which is best, led to a desire to ascertain the precise quality of the 

 seed wheat being used in this State. Accordingly arrangements were made for collecting 

 samples in various parts of the State at sowing time, the samples to be as far as possible 

 the ones actually being sown. 



The task of collecting these samples was entrusted to Mr. E. D. Butler, and it was 

 carried out carefully and systematically several hundred samples being collected, to 

 each of which was attached a statement showing the locality in which it was being 

 sown, by whom it was being sown, and the name of the variety. Each sample consisted 

 of about five pounds of grain, though in some cases there was somewhat less, and in a 

 few cases more. 



These samples were graded in the same manner as the samples that were used as the 

 basis of the article entitled " The Grading of Wheat, ' published in the Agricultural 

 Gazette, Vol. VIII, p. 855, that is to say the December number, 1897. The same sieves 

 were again used, and the sizes of the grain were the same as then secured, and similar 

 illustrations were again prepared as the result of these siftings. It is, therefore, 

 sufficient to allude to the methods then used ; and to reproduce here some of the 

 illustrations prepared in explanation of that article. See Figs. 2, 3, and 4 to 10. I was 

 careful to use as far as possible the same methods as before, in particular because it 

 was from similar gradings that various sized seeds were obtained for the experiments 

 made to ascertain precisely what are the relative yields from large and small seed 

 growing under similar conditions for a series of years ; experiments whose results are 

 presented in the second part of this article. 



3-25 



3-00 



275 



2-50 



2-25 



2-00 



Tailings. 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 5. 



Fig. 6. 



Fig. 7. 



Fig. 8. 



Fig. 9. 



Fig. 10. 



Figures showing the actual size of the grains belonging to each grade yielded by the sieves shown m 

 Figures 2 and 3. The proper grade numbers are placed above each illustration. 



An attempt is made in the above illustrations to show the sizes of the grains 

 that result from the grading done with the sieves shown in Figures 2 and 3, but these 

 illustrations are somewhat deceptive because of the nature of the wheat grain. If the 

 reader will examine a shrivelled grain, such as is figured at C, D, Fig. 1, he will at once 

 remark the fact that its outline is large in proportion to its actual weight. This is owing 

 to the shape and structure of the wheat grain, a shape that prevents it from being SQ 

 placed with reference to the observer that its contour will adequately represent the loss 

 of substance due to shrivelling. The actual differences in size are also obscured by the 

 assemblage of the grains. If the reader will bear these facts in mind in looking at the 

 above seven illustrations, he will derive a more correct impression. Grains of these seven 

 sizes are also shown in Figs. 14, 20, 21 and 22. The actual variation in the size of the 

 grains derived from a single ear of wheat is well and accurately illustrated in the 

 woodcut, Fig. 11, which was prepared with great care to illustrate this point. 



Of course the sizes of the meshes here used in the sieving are purely arbitrary, but 

 they are the result of considerable study of the question of the range of variation in 

 the grain of wheat, and, in the absence of any recognised standard, have served the 

 purpose of the present and other investigations. 



Method of Examination. 



After the samples collected by Mr. Butler were graded, the weight of each of the seven 

 resulting grades was taken, and, with a calculating machine, reduced to its percentage 

 of the whole sample from which it was taken. Each sample, therefore, gave a result 

 like the following : 



* See the second part of this report 



