159 
American Agriculturist, September 6, 1924 
Early Fall Crop Notes 
Whe at Varieties Recommended—-Curing Tobacco 
T HE New York State College of 
Agriculture in a recent release calls 
attention to varieties of wheat that are 
showing up better in A. A. territory. 
Among the red wheats Forward is un¬ 
doubtedly the best yielder, according to 
the college, and should supplant other 
varieties of red wheat. It is beardless, 
resistent to smut, has a stiff straw, and 
has good milling qualities. 
Of the white wheats Honor and Junior 
l Vo. 6 take first rank. Honor is a selection 
from Dawson's Golden Chaff and the latter 
is of the Gold Coin type. Both are stiff 
strawed and beardless and are recom¬ 
mended as the highest yielders of the 
white wheats. 
Using varieties of wheat such as these 
is growing blooded grain just the same as 
is the growing of blooded live stock by 
breeders of pure blood cattle. However, 
few grain growers have put this into 
practice. By - selection, wheat can be 
made to grow tall and spindley or short 
and rank. However, the plant breeders 
at the State College realize that these 
qualities are not desirable and have 
developed those varieties named above 
which are considered best adapted to 
New York needs. In buying these 
varieties be sure that the seed has been 
field and bin inspected. Crop specialists 
at the college will undoubtedly be glad to 
aid anyone buying this stock. 
Vegetables Going to Seed 
Prematurely 
By I. W. Ingals 
ARKET gardeners and truck grow¬ 
ers in practically every county of 
this state have sustained considerable 
losses due to an abnormal tendency of 
celery, cabbage, beets and kohlrabi to 
go to seed prematurely this year, ac¬ 
cording to Prof. H. C. Thompson of the 
vegetable gardening department at the 
New York State College of Agriculture. 
' In some cases in western New York 
losses of both early and late celery and 
cabbage through going to seed amounts 
to 25 per cent, of the crop. This per¬ 
centage is so unusual that many growers 
have been alarmed and have reported 
to their local farm bureau office or have 
communicated directly with the state 
college for an explanation of this condi¬ 
tion and for information regarding control 
measures for future crops. 
Growers are asking why their plants 
are producing more seed stalks than nor¬ 
mally and have been at a loss to under¬ 
stand why bien¬ 
nial plants, or 
those requiring 
two years growth 
to produce seed, 
are behaving like 
annuals and are 
producing seed the 
first year, making 
them unfit for 
market. 
"It is fairly well 
known,” said Pro¬ 
fessor Thompson 
“that plants go to 
seed when started 
very early in the 
season. There are 
several important 
factors that ordi¬ 
narily cause a 
biennial plant to 
Produce flowers 
and seed the first 
year. One of the 
more important 
factors causing 
the abnormal be¬ 
havior this year is 
due to the low tem¬ 
peratures during 
the spring, which 
induced reproduc¬ 
tion. 
“Ordinarily the 
following factors have been held to be 
responsible for the premature develop¬ 
ment of the seed stalk of biennial veg¬ 
etables; starting plants early in the winter, 
poor seed especially lacking in vitality, 1 , 
and a checking of plants due to freezing 
drying or anyi other condition retarding 
development. 
“However, experiments which have 
been carried on for the past five years 
by the vegetable gardening department 
have shown that the earlier the seed was 
sown the earlier the plants went to seed 
and the greater was the number of seeds 1 
stalks developed. These experiments 
have also shown that the effect of with¬ 
holding water and checking the growth 
of plants when they are small, delays 
the development of the seed stalk be¬ 
cause such plants require a longer time 
in order to develop sufficient leaf surface 
to manufacture food enough to maintain 
growth and store a surplus for seed-stalk 
development than do similar plants not 
checked in growth. Plants not crowded 
in flats have a higher percentage of seed 
stalks than those where the growth was 
checked by crowding. Freezing appar¬ 
ently delays the development of celery- 
seed stalks because checking growth at 
this stage materially delays seed-stalk 
development. 
“Plants started in December and Jan¬ 
uary produce seed stalks in May, June 
and July regardless of the treatment they 
are subjected to in early life, while plants 
started considerably later do not nor¬ 
mally produce seed stalks and are not 
stimulated to 'do so by any of the treat¬ 
ments tested, except that of subjecting 
them to relatively low temperatures, but 
not freezing, for two weeks or more while 
they are small. 
How My Father Cured Tobacco 
W. H. Davis 
IFTY years ago my father, Daniel V. 
Davis began growing tobacco. A few 
years later he decided that there are 
better days than others for harvesting 
tobacco in order for it to cure up nicely 
and have a rich “waxy” and heavy body. 
To find the way to tell these days ahead 
was a hard job, but he was finally suc¬ 
cessful. 
For some reason my father kept this 
information a secret from everybody even 
his own family until a short while before 
his sudden death last November two 
years ago. In August of that year he 
called a visiting sister and myself to the 
table where he was 
doing some writing 
and explained it 
all to us. 
I desire to pass 
this information to 
as many tobacco 
growers as possi¬ 
ble. In explana¬ 
tion let me say 
that tobacco has 
an oily substance 
which is its natural 
possession. It has 
a sap (water) like 
other vegetation. 
When the sap rises 
it runs the oil out 
through the pores 
of the leaves on the 
principle that oil 
and water do not 
mix and oil being 
the lighter, is 
pushed out by the 
sap. Tobacco har¬ 
vested in this 
state will be , light 
and “chaffy ” when 
cured. There be¬ 
ing only (water) in 
the tobacco this 
evaporates in cur¬ 
ing and leaves the 
(Con. on page 168 ) 
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