BREEDING NEW WHEATS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17078, 29 January 1916, Page 6

BREEDING NEW WHEATS.

iThe scientific seed grower knows that many of the popular beliefs in regard to good seed are entirely erroneous..* or instance, there is a widespread notion that wheat seed grown at home is less efficacious than that produced some distance away on a different soil- B. ■&• Powell, in the "Country Gentleman remarks that the truth is that seed which has functioned well on home ground is safest until actual demonstration shows that imported seed is bettei. If there is any foreign variety that will give increased yields over established varieties the experiment stations should find it out by a series of tests. When we reflect that as many as 10W rather distinct varieties of wheat have been tried out by the United States Department of Agriculture and the several experiment stations since 1895, it is evident that few farmers can undertake the work of testing new varieties to any great extent. Plenty of men are actually and honestly engaged in seed growing and seed testing and-also in seed selling. With infinite patience and much expense they are engaged in the work of eliminating poor strains and keeping good ones, so that the general average of production may be increased. These are the men to 'buy from when it is necessary to buy—not those whose stories tickle the ear. Seldom do they advice change ot seed merely for the sake of change. Professor W. C. Latta, of the Indiana Experiment Station,.says on this subject:—"Standard varieties of wheat have, maintained their yield and qtialitv for fifteen years upon the same soil." And further—" Most of the new varieties have failed as a rule to do as well as standard varieties which have been grown here." The Maryland Experiment Station exchanged several well-known varieties of seed with the Kansas Experiment Station. The strains of seed were grown side by side in six double plots, with the conclusion that no benefit is to bo derived from obtaining seed wheat from a distant locality in the same latitude. Professor H. L. Bolley, of the North Dakota Experiment Station, after a careful original study, said:—" Failure often results from injudicious seed exchange." It is not then a question of latitude but of ancestors and soil. Good ancestors can be had in any climate, and good soil for crops can be built up wherever Nature has not placed a positive prohibition upon the raising of crops. Tt is not easy; it calls for exact knowledge, unremitting carefulness and a brain that does not Bleep on the day's work. He that is faithful to the corn will produce corn that is faithful to him.