SPRING WHEAT: CHANGE OF SEED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9125, 6 August 1888, Page 6

SPRING WHEAT: CHANGE OF SEED.

M CK this subject Mr. R. R. Hunt, manager of the Auckland Roller Mills, writes to 1- " Agricola." He says :—" I think an article n from you, re the advisability of a change of lfe spring wheat seed would do good now. I hear of persons buying from their neighls bours, and you know this is very bad policy ,f from a farming point of view. My only interest in writing is to make the farmers D successful in growing wheat. Till enough wheat is grown in the jNorth to supply ourselves, we millers cannot do very well, hence, it is our object to encourage i. farmers to make whent-growing pay. a "Agricola" replies as follows:—"As we 0 have now got into the month of August, the season when the sowing of spring 1 wheat commences, the time is opportune for calling attention to tho importance of j sowing only the best of seed, and seed, too, that has been raised elsewhere than in the district where it is about to be sown, unless, indeed, there are such differences of [ soil in a district that it is possible to get a ( change of seed, say from clayey to sandy , soil, or from a sandy loam to one of clayBut it would be better for seed to bo obtained from another locality altogether, , because, as all wheat-growers know, or should know, when an acclimated grain— , or one that has been grown for a number of , years in the same district—becomes inferior, which it is sure to do after a year or two, then other seed from remote distances, even if no better in quality, may with advantage be substituted for it, as a decided benefit invariably follows a change of seed. By the . knowing ones in these matters, it is claimed as a fact that wheat—in fact, nearly all seeds —become improved and more produc- , tive when raised upon a soil inferior to the '. one intended to be sown; and it is also . claimed that what is pro.iuced both in a colder and warmer climate will mature ! earlier. Now, to the unititiated it may seem a difficult thing to conceive how, when everything is congenial to a wheat, it should degenerate, or how it should thrive so much better in another soil or locality. But such is the case. And wheat-growers, taking advantage of this almost universal experience, try and manage to change their seed as occasion requires. And this notwithstanding the fact that the wheat they have been growing yielded splendidly, the sample also being Al. But it should be borne in mind that farmers do not always change their seed with a view ol improving wheat, but rather, as a rule, to prevent its degeneration." One writer puts the matter in this way : —"The time necessary for wheat acquiring the impressions of any given position seems not to have been det-ermined. Columella indicated a period of three, and Ellis fixed on two years, as establishing the impressions, but both of these writers allude more to a change of colour in the grain than to alterations in the properties of tho variety. Judging from the opinions, as well as from the practice of British farmers of the present tune, one year is considered suffiffient to impart the impressions of a situation, and it would appear that the obliteration of the impressions of the old position, and the acquiring of the impressions of the new position are thought to go on simultaneously, and at all events both alterations are considered to be accomplished during the growth of one generation of the plant. In carrying out this annual system of seed changing, the wheat which has acquired the impressions of a.clay soil, which is considered fa%"ourable to this grain, is sown upon sandy land, which is deemed unfriendly to the plant, and the produce is again sown upon clay—so in the ccurse of three years the grain will have acquired the impressions of clay, , sand, and again of clay, and be much in the same state as if no changing of t seed from one soil to another had ever ) taken place. But the farmer who follows ] this mode of wheat growing is perhaps not ( much wiser than the person who imagined , he obtained pork, with a proper mixture of fat and lean, by alternately feeding his f pig liberally one period and starving it the ( next. But in some localities, and more ( especially in wet seasons, many grains are ( found either not to be possessed of vitality, , or to produce a weak unhealthy plant, ami , in such cases a change of seed is beneticial. j Wheat may at all times be changed for ( grain which possesses greater vital energy, ] but to change seed merely for the sake of j change is an absurdity." | Enough, I think, has been said to show j the importance of a change of 6eed. And ( a≤ there is no great difficulty in obtaining ; such change, and the character of the seed ( sown may make all the difference between £ a payable and an unremunerative crop, c wheat-growers may thank Mr. Hunt for { calling attention to the matter just at the f proper time. f