NOTES AND NOTIONS FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1354, 10 February 1898, Page 5

NOTES AND NOTIONS FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS.

(Specially Written and Compiled for the New Zealand Mail.) DEPTH WHEAT BOOTS PENETRATE. The value of deep cultivation, which does not necessarily mean deep ploughing, should be realised by all farmers. It is important in connection with almost every kind of crop that is grown, and with none is it more desirable than in the case of wheat. Many growers, who have succeeded, owing perhaps, to some peculiarity of the season, in obtaining occasional good crops from shallow-ploughed or, perhaps, only scarified land, may be heard asserting that deep cultivation is not necessary, because the roots of the wheat plant do not penetrate deeply. This is entirely wrong (says the Australasian), and shows only a superficial acquaintance with the characteristics of the plant. As a matter of fact, wheat is provided with two sets of roots, one set feeding near the surface, while the other penetractes to a great ■ depth if responsible facilities are afforded for doing so. Storer, an American authority, in dealing with this phase of the subject, mentions the experiences of a farmer who had occasion to lay down tile drains at a depth of 3ft, in a field that had produced a crop of wheat the year before. -He noticed that every spadeful of earth thrown out of the trenches was full of wheat roots. How much deeper than the bottom of the trench the roots went the farmer did not try to determine. At the time of these observations the land was dry, and there had been no rain for a month, but at a depth of 3ft the soil was fairly moist, and at 2ft there was a good supply of capillary dampness. It is plain from this that there is no cause for surprise that wheat should habitually stand drought well, especially on clayey loam. 1851 Shubart, a German farmer, made measurements of various roots, which he washed out from the soil of fields where crops were growing. He found that the roots of wheat grown in September extended to the depth of 7ft Rhenish, in a subsoil composed of sandy loam, while in a somewhat stiffer subsoil they went no deeper than 6ft. In other trials wheat sown at the end of September had roots 3ft 2in long at the end of April, and that sown at the end of October haf roots 2ft llin. The soils in these cases were stiff loams. Rye sown at the end of August in in deep loam had roots 3ft to 4ft long m November of the same year, although the leaves of the plant had only reached a height of about lft? At the same time rye that had been sown four weeks later had roots from 21 in to 27in long, and leaves 4in to 6in high. SELECTION OP SEED WHEAT. We take the following from the 1896 “Year Book" of the Washington Department of Agriculture:—“Many experiments made in recent years show the advantage of using large and vigorous seed in growing various field and garden crops, but it is only lately that attention is being given to the use of such seed in wheat-growing. At present experiments are being made at several different places to test this point 'with reference to wheat, three grades of seed—small, medium and large being U3ed. Too much attention cannot be given to this subject. Many choice varitif s have been developed by selecting from a field certain unusually good heads, planting the grains of these separately, and thereafter selecting the best each year. It has been satisfactorily proved that the old idea that rust-shrivelled grains give as good returns as large, healthy ones is erroneous. About the year 1876 a somi-bard, red variety, known as Grass wheat (probably an Odessa sort), became quite popular in Northern Kansas, and was widely used for ten or twelve years thereafter. However, as the variety was adapted for either fall or spring sowing, and the spring-sown crop was always inferior to the fall-sown, the consequence was that two grades were produced from the one variety. As the fall-sown crop brought the better price, it became the practice to sell all the winter wheat and use the worst of-the spring crop for fall seeding. It was claimed that this practice made no difference in the quality or quantity of the winter wheat, but about 1888 Grass wheat began losing favour among wheat-growers, having lost much of its originaTgood quality, and finally gave place to Turkey, Fultz, and other varieties. Now, there is no doubt that the deterioration of this variety was due, in great part at least, to the constant use of the very inferior shrivelled spring gain for -fall seeding. other- varieties are probably due mostly to similar oases. However, even under the best treatment, it is a pretty [well-established faot that certain varieties, when introduced into new localities, will in time change quite materially in quality of grain. , This is especially likely to be the case with hard pQrthem wrty whoa transferred to w,mvv

and moistef southern latitudes. Probably the only remedy in such cases is to make an occasional fresh importation of seed. The matter of seed selection i? of such vital importance that probably nothing would be of more benefit to the wheatgrower than the establishment of special small seed plots of, say, one to five acres, from which to select seed each year. The followirg plan is recommended: —At harvest time cut from a good field a strip of the best portion, first eliminating all rye and other foreign heads and large weed seeds. After threshing the wheat from this strip, grade it by means of a fanning mill with special sieves made for the purpose, so as to obtain only the largest and most vigorous grains. Use the best grade of wheat both for sowing the small plot and for the general crop .the next s eason. The next year use none of the field crop for seed, but after grading the wheat from the small plot, as before, use the very best of it for sowing the small plot, and all the remainder for sowing the large field, and so on year after year. In this way seed is never taken from the general crop, which cannot be given the same care as the small plot, and there is a constant selection of seed, which is more and more rigid every year. Moreover, there is no extra labour involved, except the small amount required for grading the seed each year." YOLK IN THE FLEECE. Yolk is only a substance which exudes from the glands of the sheep’s skin and so covers its entire surface that the skm, to the eye, will have a shiny and glistening appearance. It saturates the wool, so to speak, through its entire length, and gives it a bright, lustrous appearance when present in sufficient quantities, and it is intimately associated with strength of fibre. When we shed the wool with the hands this oily substance adheres to them, and this will follow to some extent though we but grasp the wool on its outer surface. Yolk also influences favourably the handling qualities of wool as regards softness, pliancy and elasticity, and these qualities are all present in a marked degree in firstclass wool, whatever the breed to which it belongs. The amount of yolk vary considerably in individuals of the same flock. At other times it varies materially with the season of the year in all the individuals of the flock. And in other instances the requisite amount of yolk is absent, not only in all the individuals of one flock, but in those of every flock kept, it may be, within a somewhat wide range of country. It should also be noticed that the individual animals which lack yolk in the wool are usually ill-doers in proportion to the extent of the lack, and on the other hand, where yolk is most abundant, that is to say, within a reasonable limit, the best conditions as to thrift and well-doing a¥e found. And this will hold true of flocks as well as of individual animals. This close, and it may also be said inseparable, relation between lack of yolk in the wool and lack of thrift in the animal naturally leads to [the enquiry as the cause of either or of both, and it begets the suspicion, which is doubtless well founded, that the cause which produces the one will also produce the other. It is now generally conceded that lack of yolk in the wool arises from insufficient nutrition, or, to seek the cause a little nearer the foundation head, from sluggish digestion. And this is what we should [expect, since the amount of yolk exuded from the skin is in proportion to the activity of the circulation; circulation is active in proportion as nutrition is active, and in proportion as digestion. If the wool is well nurished which covers the parts of the body remotest from the centres of digestion, in this fact we have a guarantee that the other parts of the system not so far from the centres of digestion will bs well nourished.— Farmer and Stockbreeder.