LABORATORY EXERCISES 



173 



SCORE CARD FOR SEED WHEAT 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 



1. Secure samples of as many kinds of wheat as possible, and learn 

 to identify them. Note differences in weight, size and shape of kernel, 

 hardness of kernel, and color. 



2. Secure samples of wheat from several farms; compare weight, 

 color, amount of weed seeds, amount of dirt, purity of sample (that is, 

 is it one pure variety or a mixture?), size and variation of kernels, 

 presence or absence of smut. 



3. Secure an average sample of wheat; weigh out carefully one or 

 two ounces; count the kernels, then determine the number in one pound, 

 in one bushel. Find how many kernels per square foot there would be 

 if 1M bushels were sown evenly on an acre of land. If possible, count 

 the number of plants found growing on one square foot in a good field 

 of wheat. How do you account for the difference? 



4. Visit several fields of grain just as they are heading out. Find 

 a head of wheat that is smutted; pull up the plant on which the smutted 

 head is growing, and carefully examine all of the heads on the plant, even 

 if you must split the stem open to find some of the heads that have not 

 yet appeared. Examine several smutted plants in this way. Are all 

 of the heads of a plant usually smutted, or are only part of them? 

 Does not this indicate that the infection came from the seed instead of 

 spreading in the field? 



