The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-08-19
Improvement Of Wheat.

certain rules and observing the natural
laws that govern vegetable growth,
wheat can be made to double the length
of the head, increase the grain 100 per
cent, its powers as much, and its quality
will be so greatly improved that one will
hardly recognize it as being the same
kind after three years improvement.
So said Mr.. A. E. Blount, of Colorado,
in paper on the improvement of cereals,
read before the convention of agricul-
turists at Washington.
In the improvement of wheat Mr..
Blount adopts nearly the same rules and
laws that govern stock men in breeding
in-and-in. The pedigree system does
not in his opinion create new varieties;
it only improves. The system of cross
breeding is the better of the two, Mr..
Blount thinks, but one must be ac-
quainted with the character, habits, ele-
ments and strength of the two varieties
to be crossed before breeding in order to
know what properties to develop and
what habits to discard. After the cross
is effected, the same knowledgeis neces-
sary, but it must be exercised with
greater force and discrimination and
with severer tests, that the offspring con-
tanning the better qualities may be
nourished and the worthless rejected
Improvement of wheat in this line taxes
the sharpest eye and calls\to the work
chemical skill that one may know what
properties are being dealt with; it is
attended, in a word, with patience, care
and skill.
All the offspring brought out by cross
breeding that have no fixed color or form
are rejected and those possessing desira-
BILE qualities are again tested. Some
times an experiment can be satisfied in
three years by the wheat becoming
" fixed;" again it takes four and even
ten years to combine all the properties
in their proper proportions. Mr.. Blounts
notebook shows that some varieties will
easily cross one upon another, but will
not cross anotherupon one. For instance,
foreign wheats cross readily upon ours,
but ours fail to effect a cross upon them.
In making new wheats by crossing,
Mr.. Blount advises that a strong female
be selected as to stalk and blade, and as
to the grain strong male. In other
words, the female should have strong,
stiff straw, well glazed, and good milling
properties, and the male should be pos
sessed of the same qualifications, with
grain that has at leasttwelve to fourteen
per cent. gluten. In all this work, es-
pecially in that pertaining to the i'm
provement of wheat by the pedigree sys-
ten, there is one serious drawback not
noticeable alone in the cereals, but in all
improved vegetables and seeds. Every
advance forward in the line of improve
ment opens the door to a ruinous deteri-
oratiOn-that is, when highly improved
grain is put into the hands of the COM
mon farmer, who never cares from what
source his seed comes: how it is saved,
or of what kind it is, retrogression is
certain. Neglect and bad management
at that crib, as well as at the stock-pen,
always stand prominent. The most
highly improved and finest grain has a
tendency to revert to the original.
In the system of cross-breeding the
deterioration is not so rapid. Crosses
when once fixed retain their good quail
ties many years, even when badly
handled. In proof of what has been OBJ
tanned by the experiments of scientists
and others, Mr.. Blount suggested an ex-
animation and test of the flour of to-day
from the hard wheats like the Fife, De-
tiance, Russian, Mexican and Pringle's
e. Arnold's hybrids. and the flour of the
old Mediterranean, Diehl, Genessee and
others, of 1850.
The experiments of Europe and our
own country have proven, it appears,
that thirty pounds of wheat, the country
over, is enough seed for an acre, if sown
at the proper time and in the right way.
So far as the cultivation of wheat is con
cerned, Mr.. Blount's experience shows
that, on an average, one cultivation will
produce enough more grain to pay for
the extra labor twice over.
Up to the present date there are in the
United States over three hundred and
fifty varieties of spring and winter
wheats. Among all those that have be-
come standards are found typical and
genuine grain, true to the name. This
genuine grain, Mr.. Blount explains, is
always found in the largest stools-those
that come up evenly together and ripen
uniformly. The farmer is advised to
select these and sow on choice land, cul-
tivate, harvest and kept to be again
sown, cultivated and harvested by him
self, so that no interference and no mix
ing can take place. In this manner may
be brought about q wonderful improve
ment.-N. Y. World.
WE see an article in the papers about boy
inventors. We hope they will invent a boy
who won't whistle on his fingers and yell on
the streets at night-N y. Post.