WHEAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1273, 22 April 1876, Page 18

WHEAT.

In growing wheat the first selection of seed cannot be too carefully looked to. Select the variety that haa the character of being best suited to the nature of your soil and your locality, and procure this from a healthy district. It is quite possible, notwithstanding, that your first crop may have all the appearance of a failure ; now, however, is your time to begin your improvement on the seed you have purchased. When the crop is quite ripe, and not sooner, select the best ears you can find, and from these pick the plumpest and finest, choosing for this purpose the plants that have tillered out best at the root. This selected seed ought to be sown on land which is in firstrate order, and by repeating the process for a year or two the improvement is very remarkable. By carrying out the practice of hand-picking a few bushels each year, the purity of the variety, and its constitutional peculiarities, are preserved and developed. The belief is rapidly gaming ground that selection rather than change of seed is the better plan, and that the chances of a profitable crop depend as much on the seed as on anything else ; and a very common variety, if healthy, may, by attention and careful cultivation, be made to rival some of the most lauded kinds. As a general rule, I would say, do not depend upon seed raised at a distance, just because it has been so. If, after all your pains, you find that the variety you have got does not very unmistakeably improve under the system of selection, then try another kind, and make a change in toto, following out the same idea as at first. One or two experiments made on a small scale will convince anyone of the soundness of the principle here recommended. From what has been said, however, it is not to be supposed that a change of seed is not often desirable, and, if intelligently made, beneficial ; but to cultivate carefully and grow from your own picked seed, appears to be the surest method of ensuring a continuance of firstclass crops. It is of very great importance to sow wheat very thin where it is intended to secure or save seed from it, more particularly as the experiment ought to be performed on rich ground, on which thin sowing should always be practised. In this way the individual haa room to become developed in all parts, and thus produce a more vigorous grain.