The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1879-02-13
TOPICS FOR FARMERS.
Hybrid and Improved Wheats.-P

TOPICS FOR FARMERS.
Hybrid and Improved Wheats.-Per- ]
IONS often ask, How are new or hybrid '
varieties CT wheat and other grains pro-
iuced? 1t is done, says the Floral
by mixing the pollen of one
are in bloom; that is, fertilizing one
variety with the pollen of another pos
sessing some valuable and desirable
qualities.
This act of communicating the pollen
of another is done in various ways.
The simplest way is to plant, side by
side, the two kinds which tits desired to
cross, so that the pollen of one will
reach the other. Another way is to |
carefully cut off the head of one variety
and dust it over another when they are |
in bloom. Still another way is to take
a feather or fine brush and lift the pol !
len carefully and sprinkle it on another
with which you wish to cross.
To get improved wheat of a particu-
lar variety, similar course is to be pur-
sued as in improving breed of cattle or
horses-the principle is the same in both
cases-the best specimens are to be Sc
lected with which to propagate.
Go to the wheat field, seek the best,
most thrifty and healthy stools, having
the largest number of stalks, with
largest, fullest heads, and most plump
grain; plant this, and when it npens
pursue the same course with it as before;
and so On, year after year, until salts
factory results are obtained, and this
will give highly improved, reliable and
valuable pedigree wheat. This is not
the same as new or hybrid variety, but
is a variety highly improved by the
pedigree management. ,---
Excessive Use of Mineral Manures.-
When guano was first introduced en-
thusiastic advocates of this fertilizer
recommended it as so much better than
| other manures that it must in. time en-
tirely supplant them. These theories
have not been verified by the facts, and
have from the first been opposed by the
hard common sense of the great mass of
practical farmers. Guano is used not as
substitute for but to supplement barn
yard manure. If such extravagant
claims had not been made for it at first,
it would have aroused less prejudice and
been more used now than it is. An
English landlord, in his enthusiasm
over the newly found guano, remarked
to his tenant that the time would doubt
less soon come when the manure for an
acre would be taken out in the vest
pocket. He got his answer. very
promptly: "Weel, when that time
does come 1 have nae doubt that the
crop will be ta'en home in the coat
.pocketp' The experience of many
American farmers of the exhaustion of
soils by successive, cropping, without
other manure than guano, furnishes a
sadly instructive commentary on this
| remark. 4 -5s..skFxs.zi!i 81 lz+ssz.s-e s;is
3 In some sections of the country there
is danger of repeating with phosphates,
or other concentrated mineral manure,
the experience with guano.- The trouble
with gtano is that it is not a complete
4 fertilizer. 1t does. not return to the soil
all the fertility which the crop takes
from it. Guano does so probably more
perfectly than phosphates, for it con-
tains not only phosphate and nitrogen,
but some potash and lime. So far, it is
4 Ieless liable to exhaust. the soil than any
! one of these fertilizers applied alone
(. Of some elements certain soils probably
! contain an almost inexhaustible supply,
and in any system of manuring we may
omit these without detriment; but as q
rule, soils long cropped are generally
deficient in phosphorus, and the phos
J pilates may be applied without limit
AS for nitrogen I know no sell, not q
barnyard, which will not be benefited
by its application in available form fol
Immediate use. We are not going out
of the way in applying superphosphatel
to wheat crops in Western New York
The almost uniformly favorable results
, prove the need of this fertilizer. But i
will do no harm to know precisely wha
{ we are accomplishing by this policy
We are supplying phosphoric acid ant
, lime to. enable us to grow large whea
! crops and thereby exhaust the soil O
s nitrogen and potash. Some phosphate
E contain these elements in small quanti
. ties and some do not-but' it woul'
= hardly be called superphosphate whicl
y contained potash and nitrates in propol
ton to the phosphoric acid which it ful
nishes. 'fs s- s''@-E
y On some soils there seems to be littl
I benefit from the use of phosphate
p These soils are of two classes-one i
IL | WulCu ObHcI cICulCu0o VI tuc WucdG CIO
g (mainly potash) are so deficient that th
It supply of phosphates will not perfet
y the plant; the second more rarely,
J which the soil is SO rich in phosphate
8 and other elements that the addition
8, more will do little Or no good. Sand
A. soils are often of the first class
il heavy dressing of ashes, leached or III
y leached, or of German potash salts, wi
lie restore the balance, and after this v
m do not doubt that superphosphates wi
ID benefit such soils as much as it does OF
es clays. -, - ..,-,.'... - '-.~f