116 



THE WHEAT CrLTUEIST. 



The Black-Sea Spring Wheat. 



This excellent variety of spring wheat was once one of 

 the choicest kinds of spring grain that has ever been 

 cnltivated in the United States. But slip-shod farm- 

 ing soon brought the Black-Sea wheat into disfavor. 

 Before it had been allowed to hybridize with other va- 

 rieties, it was considered an earlier variety than the 

 others ; and it succeeded comparatively well, if sowed 

 when it would be too late for other kinds to mature. It 

 has been sown as late as the 20th of J une in Eastern 

 l^ew York, and produced bright straw and a plump 

 berry. This has been much liked, because it may be 

 sown so late as to escape the wheat midge, and yet fill. 

 As the wheat midge does not rage so much now as for- 

 merly, it is not so extensively cultivated. 



S. Kieffer, of Jefferson County, ^s". Y., writes that 

 the Black Sea wheat is not so valuable to manufac- 

 tm*e into fiour for exportation, because it is not so white 

 and light, or soft to the touch of the finger, but makes 

 good bread, of a rather yellowish color. It never has 

 rusted or blasted with me, and I doubt if it has with 

 anybody else when sown within the month of May. I 

 have grown it upon interval land so rich that it lodged 

 and lay fiat upon the ground during the time it was 

 filling until it was harvested ; yet it was well filled, and 

 yielded thirty-eight (38^) bushels per acre. 



If this variety could have been kept pure, and the 

 seed improved from year to year, according to the di- 

 rections laid down in this treatise, farmers would have 

 had a variety of wheat that would now be a great na- 

 tional blessing. It is a glaring reproach to American 

 farmers, that they will allow choice varieties of wheat 



