WHEAT CULTURE. 



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Varieties that carry heavy straw should also have a preference. Some 

 wheats have a very thin, '* shelly " straw which gives a light bodied chaff 

 that makes no weight in the bag. Heavier straw cuts better, and produces 

 more weight, and the chaff has more body. 



This question of varieties does not receive anything like the amount of 

 attention it should, especially in districts where wheat is not largely 

 grown for hay. There are districts where the value of particular varieties 

 is fully appreciated, but there are others where it has yet to be learned, 

 and where farmers will find it well worth while to consider the subject 

 more than they have done. Farmers in the Riverina, for instance, are 

 prepared t>> pay high prices for >rrd of Warden, Zealand, and Firbank, having 

 proved their suitability tor hay, hut in the West and North-west it will pay to 

 study the Department's recommendations and, where hay is desired, to 

 grow Firbank (which is one of the best), or one or other of the varieties 

 that are recommended by the Department for that purpose. 



When to Cut. 



The crop is at the best stage for hay a few days after it is in flower. 

 This condition is best, because at this stage the plane contains its maxi- 

 mum amount of nutritive qualities, and at the same time the nutriment 

 is evenly distributed throughout the whole plant. This is as it should be 



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Culling and Stooking. 



for hay-making purposes, for when preserved as hay the whole of the plant 

 is to be eaten, and not only the ears. It is, therefore, better that 

 the whole of the nutriment should be evenly distributed throughout 

 the plant, rather than that one portion should be excessively nutritious 

 whilst the remainder is of little or no value as a food. Though the crop at 

 the flowering stage contains the maximum amount of nutritive qualities, it 

 has not reached the stage when it will produce the greatest weight of hay. 

 The dry matter in the plant increases until it is mature, and because of this 

 some farmers refrain from cutting the crop until it has passed the flowering 

 stage, in order to get a greater quantity of hay. They gain the extra 

 weight at the expense of the feeding-value and colour. 



