EXPERIMENTAL WHEAT GROWING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8147, 19 April 1887, Page 6

EXPERIMENTAL WHEAT GROWING.

(Canterbury Times,) Agriculture is so much, of an experimental business that no opportunity should be lost of gleaning information and facts from whatever country they come. A great deal of experimental work is carried on in Prance and Germany, some of the results of which are of the most valuable character. The improvement and the relative capabilities of the various plants of the farm are matters which have received the closest attention on the Continent. During last year some particularly interesting experiments were made in Prance with regard to therelativeyields of different sorts ot wheat. Two of these experiments were made by two large farmers on the borders of S witzerland. One of these made his experiment with Shir iff and red Scotch wheat, and he obtained, under similar circumstances, forty bushels of grain and seven tons of straw from the one, and thirty bushels of grain and six and a-half tons of straw with the other. The other of these two farmers tried five varieties of wheat, and he succeeded best with the squareheaded wheat, a sort well known in this Colony. The square-headed wheat yielded forty-eight bushels of grain and nine and a-half tons of straw, and the red Hallet sort yielded forty-seven bushels of grain, and the immense quantity of twelve and a-half tons of straw. Results scarcely less striking have been reported to the French National Society of Agriculture, from experiments conducted on a farm nob far from Paris. The area under cultivation was 230 acres, and the average yield 85 bushels an acre; but while the Golden Drop wheat averaged 52 bushels au acre, other sorts tried gave only 39 bushels an acre, and one variety did not exceed 27 bushels. In another case, as reported to the Academy of Sciences, highly favourable results were obtained from the squareheaded variety, and it is stated in the report that this sort proved itself capable of standing heavy manuring with getting laid. In Germany a good deal of attention has, of late, been drawn to the quality of the wheat as well as the yields. It has been found that there is a considerable difference in the proportion of gluten, the most valuable constituent of wheat, contained by the different sorts. Professor Heine has pointed out that the bearded Pivett, for instance, though a large yielding wheat, is deficient in gluten, and also that the square-headed is not among the most valuable sorts in that respect. A good yielding hardy sort, however, is generally the moot profitable to the farmer, as the extra value per bushel of a fine sort does not usually make up for difference in yield and increased risk in production. We have more than once had occasion to point out the necessity of our farmers being in possession of wider and more accurate information respecting the relative values of the different varieties of wheat grown in the Colony. Doubtless, as with breeds of sheep, there is no one sort the beat for the whole country. W o have an extraordinarily wide range of soil and climate, and coarser and hardier sorts are required in some districts than in others. The main question is what is the most profitable sort to grow under given conditions. The variety which would give the bestresulta in the way of profits, on a rich, alluvial flat would not necessarily do so on cold clay, or on land much above sea level. Some of our Agricultural and Pastoral Associations might do good and useful work by the systematic collection of information on this subject. In Great Britain it is a common thing for Associations to issue circulars containing questions to be answered by farmers to whom they are addressed. It involves no great expense, and in this way a large amount of tbe most practical and wide-reaching information is often obtained.