T72 DISCUSSION ON WHEAT: 
Selection of Seed. 
Within the past fourteen years a large amount of experimental work has 
been done to determine the influence of different selections of seed upon 
the resulting crop. For the wheat experiments, fresh seed was taken each 
year from the general crop of grain grown in the large fields. The results 
therefore represent simply the one year’s influence from seed selection, but 
the experiments were repeated from season to season so as to secure a good 
average of conditions of soil, temperature and rainfall. For the large 
sample, none but well-developed seeds were selected; for the small sample, 
none but sound, plump and comparatively good seeds of small size were 
used; for the shrunken sample, none but shrunken grains of good size were 
selected ; and for the broken sample, none but seeds which had been broken 
by the threshing machine were included. The selections were made with 
great care by the use of sieves and then by hand-picking the seeds. A 
quantity of the large, plump grains sufficient to sow a plot twenty-five 
links square was carefully weighed out and the grains were then counted. 
A corresponding number was then taken of the small, the plump, the 
shrunken and the broken seeds. The different lots were sown upon plots 
made as uniform as possible. The following table gives the average results 
obtained from the various selections of both winter wheat and spring 
wheat :— 
| Average Annual Yield of Grain per Acre (Bushels) | 
| Crops Number of Large | Small | Shrunken Broken 
Years Tested Seed | Seed | Seed Seed 
Winter wheat 6 | 469 | 404 | 394 3 | 
| Spring wheat ait 8 | 21°7 | 10 | 16:7 — | 
The results of the twelve separate tests made at the Ontario Agricultura] 
College with winter wheat show an average increase in yield of grain per 
acre of 65 bushels from large, as compared with small seed; of 78 bushels 
from plump, as compared with shrunken seed; and of 35°6 bushels from 
sound, as compared with broken seed; in sixteen separate tests with spring 
wheat, of 3°7 bushels from large, as compared with small seed; and of 
5 bushels from plump, as compared with shrunken seed. 
In the average of five years’ experiments with winter wheat, seed which 
was allowed to become thoroughly ripened before it was cut produced a 
greater yield of both grain and straw and a heavier weight of grain per 
measured bushel than that produced from grain cut at any one of four 
earlier stages of maturity. 
Occasionally in Ontario the rains are so abundant at the time of 
harvesting the wheat crop that the grain becomes sprouted more or less 
in the shock or even before it has been cut. As the crop dries, germination 
is checked and the grain hardens. It is often a question as to whether such 
grain which has thus started to germinate is as valuable for seed purposes 
as that which was secured without becoming sprouted. In each of two 
different years very careful germination tests were made at the College 
of winter wheat which was out during wet weather and which became more 
or less sprouted. Several varieties were used each year. The average 
percentages of germination were as follows: Seed which showed no outward 
sign of germination, 94; seed slightly sprouted, 76; seed considerably 
sprouted, 30; and seed badly sprouted, 18. It will therefore be seen that 
sprouting injures the grain a great deal for seed purposes. When the grains 
are badly sprouted, fully four-fifths of them decay in the ground; those 
which do germinate afford very uneven plants. 
