WHEAT 45 



year on a larger area. By the third year, there should be 

 enough seed to plant a small field. 



In selecting for rapid improvement, it is much more 

 important to choose the best plants than to pick out the 

 largest grains or the best single heads. 



Hand selection of the best plants, even without separate 

 breeding rows, will improve the variety and increase the 

 yield. Hunt expresses the belief that the most promising 

 means of increasing the yield is by selecting to increase the 

 number of spikelets on a spike. Breeding should also be 

 directed towards increasing the size of grain and the re- 

 sistance to rust. (See 58.) 



SOILS, ROTATION, AND FERTILIZERS 



48. Soils. Wheat thrives better on a clay or loam 

 soil than on one that is sandy. Most suitable of all is a 

 lime soil, if it also contains considerable clay. 



Wheat does not thrive on acid soils. Hence, the acid areas so 

 often found among the sandy soils of the Gulf States should be 

 avoided for this crop, or else limed with from 1000 to 1500 pounds 

 of slacked lime per acre as a preparation for wheat. Liming 

 is best done through the grain drill, several weeks before the seed 

 are planted. When applied on the surface, lime should be well 

 harrowed in. 



In choosing a field for wheat, wet, undrained spots should be 

 avoided. The crop is less likely to suffer severely from rust if 

 grown on upland than if sown on lowland completely surrounded 

 by higher land and from which field there is consequently no air 

 drainage. Yet, bottom lands of suitable character in favorable 

 years afford large yields of wheat. 



In the northern part of most of the Gulf States are found many 

 soils suitable for wheat, after they have been somewhat improved 



