•October 24, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



593 



or " sick." The question of yield I shall not 

 -touch upon further than to say that the only in- 

 stances which have come under my observation 

 where a total crop failure has occurred (and 

 which could not easily be accounted for by 

 -weather conditions or attacks of recognized 

 <iiseases, insects, etc.) have been on new lands. 



It is certainly a common idea of millers 

 -that the quality of wheat has steadily dete- 

 riorated in most localities where it has been 

 gro-wn for many years; but one can not be 

 ■expected to receive as conclusive a popular 

 opinion unsupported by evidence. As Pro- 

 fessor Bolley says, "In late years there has 

 been a vast amount of talk about cereal crop 

 ■deterioration " both in regard to quantity and 

 quality. But " a vast amount of talk " is one 

 thing, and scientific proof quite another. 



He asks : 



Why is it that fertile wheat lands do not pro- 

 duce wheat of rea-sonably normal quality? 



Further on he refers to 



the evident rapid deterioration of the quality of 

 grain which invariably accompanies the first few 

 years of cropping upon the new land areas. In- 

 deed, in some of the newer great wheat-producing 

 regions the most fertile new lands do not produce 

 wheat now either in yield per acre or in quality sim- 

 ■"ilar to that which adjoining lands did when first put 

 under wheat culture. Commonly, the new lands at 

 first, even though of light texture, and of low 

 chemical fertility, are expected and usually do 

 produce grain above the ordinary average as to 

 quality in color, form and milling texture, but, 

 very soon, the yield per acre and the quality drops 

 off to such extent that the millers complain bit- 

 terly. 



Ag'ain he refers to the " low yield and invari- 

 able deficiency in quality." Further on occur 

 these words : 



In spite of these directions [by our best agri- 

 culturists] the wheat soon becomes soft and shows 

 ■all of the peculiar characteristics which we find 

 named in the literature of the chemical laboratory, 

 or in the milling tests of wheat as previously indi- 

 cated, "white-bellied," "piebald," or shrivelled, 

 "bleached and blistered, "black-pointed," in fact 

 all the qualities of deteriorated grain. 



Where farm manure is applied, he says : 



There may be increased yields, with vital deterio- 

 ration in quality of seed produced. 



I am not sure of the exact meaning of the 

 word vital in this case, but presume that it 

 means hereditary. 



1 hope I am not one of those who are " too 

 cocksure of their scientific principles," but I 

 certainly disagree with Professor Bolley and 

 venture to bring forward a little evidence for 

 my views. 



It is a fact that " piebald " or " yeUowberry " 

 wheat, which is counted of poor quality by 

 millers because of its softness, is often pro- 

 duced (in Canada) on newly cleared land. 

 Some years ago when searching for very soft 

 (i. e., low grade) wheat in Manitoba, I was 

 obliged to go to new land, on which the first 

 crop was being raised. There I secured an 

 extremely poor (though plump) specimen of 

 Bed Fife wheat, so soft that an ordinary 

 miller would almost refuse to buy it. That 

 this is a common occurrence is proved by a 

 large number of examples, and I venture to 

 say that every careful student of wheat in 

 Canada will agree with me on this point. I 

 have never seen any wheat grown on old land, 

 in the great spring-wheat areas of Canada, as 

 soft as some of the samples from new lands. 

 Without being able to quote specific proofs, I 

 believe it is true that these new lands gradu- 

 ally by cultivation become altered in their 

 texture so as to produce wheat of harder 

 grade, i. e., superior wheat from a miller's 

 point of view. In other words the actual 

 process is one of gradual improvement and not 

 of degeneration. I believe that the popular 

 idea of " degeneration " (which is prevalent in 

 eastern Canada) is due, in so far as there is 

 any truth in it, to the farmers growing infe- 

 rior varieties, which are supposed to give 

 larger yields than Red Fife when grown on 

 partially exhausted soil. 



That wheat is not growing poorer in quality 

 on this farm or in the Ottawa Valley is clearly 

 shown by the excellent samples produced this 

 season, and indeed in most seasons since 1902, 

 which was a soft wheat year. If there is any 

 tendency to gradual change it seems to be in 

 •the direction of improvement. I fuUy expect, 



