1920.] 



History of a Grain of Wheat. 



627 



One of these wheats, 4 'Yeoman," has given phenomenal crops 

 on soils to which it is suited, and, while it is probably the heaviest 

 cropping wheat generally grown, it yields flour almost up to the 

 quality of the best Canadian. On many Eastern county farms 

 the introduction of Professor Biffen's varieties has raised the 

 average yield of wheat by at least 10 per cent. Many years of 

 patient work are required before all parts of the country are 

 provided with ideal varieties of wheat as regards their cropping 

 power, the strength of their straw, their resistance to disease 

 and the milling quality of their grain. 



Wheat v. Weeds. — In spite of its vigour wheat when left 

 to itself cannot stand up against the competition of weeds. At 

 Rothamsted a wheat crop was once left unharvested to sow itself 

 without further cultivation, and by three years the wheat had 

 entirely disappeared in the grassy wilderness that had sprung up. 

 But though wheat is thus dependent upon cultivation, no other 

 plant possesses an equal capacity for producing a crop upon all 

 sorts of soils, even upon the poorest. At Rothamsted upon one 

 of the plots wheat has now been grown for 77 successive years 

 without any manure, and it still yields about 12 bushels to the 

 acre, which is approximately the avearge crop of all the w T heat 

 lands of the world. The adaptability of wheat is seen from the 

 way it has become the crop for breaking in the wilderness. In 

 the newer countries — South and North America or Australia — the 

 settler upon virgin land always begins by taking a succession 

 of wheat crops before he resorts to mixed farming. In the 

 Argentine, for example, the wheat belt has crept across the 

 country with each wave of settlement, being followed in very 

 many cases by a sowing of lucerne (alfalfa) upon which the 

 cattle are raised. 



Manuring of Wheat and the Problem of Lodging. — By inves- 

 tigation, particularly by the Rothamsted experiments, it has long 

 since been settled what manures are required for wheat. The 

 chief trouble in this country is to get the wheat to stand up upon 

 the richly manured land. In fact the main limitation at present 

 upon the yield of wheat on the good soils is the liability of big 

 crops to lodge. This problem of lodging affords a varied field of 

 investigation, because so many factors have to be considered. 

 On the one side we may attack it by breeding varieties with stiffer 

 • and shorter straw; on the other hand time of sowing, width of 



rows, and spacing of the seed requires consideration, together 

 with methods of cultivation. More knowledge is required of the 

 manures which will correct the tendency to go down, and there 



