Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1871-05-05
The Laws of Grain Breeding.

AT late meeting of the st. Louis
Farmers Club, the subject of breeding
grain was discussed. We take the fol-
lowing:
Col. Coleman thought that the subject
for discussion, the selection and preser-
walton of seeds, was one of as much
Importance as any that could be consid-
cred by the club. He knew that farmers
generally did not appreciate the impor-
lance of selecting only the best seeds
for sowing and planting. 1t was just as
important, if they wished to obtain good
crops, to select healthy, well developed,
perfect seeds, as it was to select good
breeding animals if they wish to obtain
the best specimens of animals of their
respective breeds. Stock breeders 60 TO
great expense to procure the best ami
mails to breed from.
The will spend thousands of dollars,
and we might say thousands of guineas
In the old county for the best animal
that could be obtained in order to breed
from. Like begets like, he said, not
only in the animal but in the vegetable
world. Consequently, if we want to get
good seeds, good crops, paying crops,
healthy crops, they must have good
seed to obtain these crops from. He
was convinced that seed raised in the
best manner, having a proper soil, plen-
ty OF room, plenty of air and light, start
with more yigor, produce themselves
earlier, with larger returns, than seeds
which have been crowded, and which
were imperfectly developed.
This law of reproduction, the farmer
should understand, is as rigid, as mex
orable in the vegetable world as in the
animal world. He had do donbt it would
pay any farmer who was growing any OF
the grains, any of cerals, to lay off a GER
tain piece of ground for planting seed
for future sowing. Give them more,
air, more light, more soil to feed upon,
in order to make them healthy and
vigorous.
Where that space could not be given,
another plan was to 60 into the fields,
and selecting,.- for instance, for wheat,
the largest earliest heads, cutting them
out with a knife, or oats in the same
manner, or barley, or any other grain,
selecting the largest heads, the first ma
turing kernels, and earliest ripened
grain for future sowing. Persons had
told him, and written home, that they
had taken the larger end, the butt end
of an ear of corn, and planted the seed
from that end, and planted that at the
smaller end. They found that the corn
from the larger end will ripen three
weeks earlier than that of the smaller
end. AS farmers were sowing their corn
now, he would like them to marke the
experiment.
There was another matter in the Sc
lection of wheat. The early wheat al
ways brings the best price, consequently
the Alabama or Tennessee wheat is
shipped here, and brings a good price;
Wheat obtained from the South, and
sown in our latitude, would ripen a
number of days earlier than wheat
raised in this latitude a series of years,
or wheat obtained from the North. He
thought that wheat was an exception.
He had found by actual experience that
potatoes will not yield as big a crop from
seeds raised in this latitude. He did
not think potatoes were as well adopted
to this latitude as more northern one.
They would not have as good crop
from native potatoes as if they sent to
the North for seed to plant.
The speaker next referred to the
purifying and cleansing of seeds for
wheat, barley, oats and the like. He
said they should be run through fam
nall until every light, trash and imper-
feet, seed was removed. There was
another important consideration in re-
gard to wheat; that was that it should
be put through pickle of blue stone
and salt and lime. 1t should be washed
in that in order to kill and destroy the
fungs and certain insects that affect the
seed. Farmers who had tried those
rules had reported that they had saved
their crops by doing SO, that they had
ripened them earlier and had destroyed
the fungus that frequently injured the
wheat.