214 Our Farming. 



parties, who have had some and tried, each have written, and 

 wanted it all. I could sell ten times what I have right in that 

 section, where it has so long been tried. This, I think, is partly 

 because the seed conies from a good section, partly because the 

 Fultz is just the right variety for them, as for me, and more or less 

 because by careful selection and care my Fultz has not lost any- 

 thing. Perhaps this may sound a little egotistical, but why else 

 has the wheat become known in that neighborhood as Terry's 

 wheat, as it has? And why is there such a strife to get it, when it 

 could be bought in market for less money?- A sample was 

 obtained by the Experiment Station, and they wrote me to know 

 how it originated, etc. It is simply the old Fultz selected for 

 years. And now I must tell you how I select it. Not from the 

 bin where good and poor may be altogether, that is, wheat yield- 

 ing say forty bushels per acre, and that giving, perhaps, not over 

 twenty. Such places are to be found in all fields I ever have. 

 It is not all the very best. Wish it could be made so. My plan 

 has been to select, say, half an acre of the very best found when 

 cutting, and put the wheat in the barn by itself, and thresh by 

 itself, and take my own seed from this. Like certainly has a 

 tendency to beget like. If this best half acre was down badly 

 and wheat somewhat shrunken consequently, I would still use it 

 for my seed in preference to wheat that was very plump but did 

 not yield as much. I have tried lodged, shrunken seed (of course, 

 not very badly shrunken) side by side with the plumpest, and see 

 no difference in growth of plants. This seed is run through a 

 mill, and the smallest and poorest grains taken out, but is not 

 graded; that is, just the very large plump ones saved. I would 

 not like it graded. Did the largest berries grow on the heads 

 with greatest number on, suppose you, or on heads with few grains ? 

 Which do I want to breed up to? You see the point. Grading 

 might throw out the very best seed. Were it practicable to go 

 into the field and select the best heads from the best part of field, 

 then I would be ready to grade the seed and take only the largest. 

 Have you not noticed that thin wheat has larger grains sometimes 

 than very heavy wheat ? " In taking wheat from the bin and grad- 

 ing, do you get what you most want to propagate ? Now you can 

 see why I could not get all the cockle and chess from my wheat 

 by running through the mill. By grading it I could, but not 

 when saving the moderate-sized berries. The cockle and chess 

 were too large. Hence the hand picking. I am sure you will do 

 best to select the best spot in your field, and save your seed from 

 there, rather than take from the general bin. 



