Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-25
AGRICULTURAL.
NATTER PREPARED SPECIALLY FoR
THE RECORD UNION"
Experimet ting on the Farm-The Choice
OF Horned stock for the
Dairy or Farm.

agriculture btauOoElll OpcTdliOn WIZ w
not believe in improvement and progress
who believe that their ancestors-their great
grand father, grand father and father were
on q par with the best farmers OF to day, and
that the farmer Of the next century will be
travelling in the same grooves that the farmer
of the present day is travelling. These people
ridicule all experiments in agriculture, laugh
at all experimenters as visionary and theoret-
icaI play farmers. These old fogy farmers.
it is true, are passing away; their num-
bsrs are at this time much less than they
were one hundred years ago, and the
old fogy Of to-day has two ideas to the old
fogy of the last century but there are still
too many old fcgys yet, and too many
who in theory are above the charge of old
fogyism, but still 10 practice are but one re.
move from the old fogy of century ago.
The old farmers were not readers, but the
present generation Of farmers are becoming
readers, and some of them are learning to
think about what they read, and thinking is
the next thing to acting upon ones thoughts.
One thing is certain, that the old-time preju-
dice against agricultural papers and agriculs-
urai writers is passing away, and the farmer
of the present time is considered stupid and
ignorant man if ne does not keep up with the
general agricultural literature of the day.
But we are all too apt to be satisfied with
reading and talking of experiments of others,
and too much inclined to leave all experiments
on the farm to those we are pleased to call
scientific farmers. We are always too busy
or too poor to make any experiments our
selves to-day, but live in the hope that next
month or next year we will have more
leisure or more means, and then we are re-
solved we will become scientific farmers our
selves, and will teach our neighbor farmers
how to improve their crops, their stock, and
their general management of the farm.
Now, the truth is that every farmer who
raises wheat or barley, or any other grain,
should be an experimenter. He should, in
addition to his field crop, from which he
expects to secure profit on his investment
of money, time and labor, have an expert
mental crop on smaller scale, from which
he may obtain soma hints of value which may
guide him ia the management of his field
crop another year.
When we reflect that our present wheat
which is the main subsistence of all the mod
ern civilized nations-was originally wild,
uncultivated grass, producing an Indifferent
and unpromising seed of single variety, and
that all the present varieties have sprung
from this wild seed through accidental or in
territorial experiments, we ought to be able to
see promising field for still greater improve.
ment, and to be stimulated to constant ex-
periments. All observanb wheat-growers
must have noticed in their fields now and
then bunch or stool of grain growing more
rapidly and vigorously and maturing earlier
and producing plumper grain than the gen.
eral product of the field. All must have
observed that among the red varieties there
is now and then a stool of white or amber
colored grain of a different shaped berry,
and among the white varieties now and then
a stool producing a lighter colored grain of a
distinctive appearance and characteristics !;
and SO among any particular kind of wheat
that there will now and then appear few
heads of apparently different kind of wheat.
Sometimes these different punches stools
may have themselves come from a stray seed
of another kind that has been mixed with the
seed sown, but very frequently they are
sports, and if selected and kept separate
and sown in an experimental plat
may lead to greatly improved varieties.
If each farmer when he observes these sp rts
among his wheat would mark them, and if
on maturity they were to be found to promise
an improvement, save the seed and SOW it
separately in his experimental plat, is is not
almost certain that our present varieties Of
wheat would be greatly increased, and that
general Improvement OF this valuable grain
would be greatly and rapidly increased? 1t
is by no means improbable that the present
yield Of wheat can be doubled by simply car
rying on a system of careful selection of seed.
Suppose thousand farmers Ia California
should adopt and annually carry out the sug-
gestiops above for the term of dozen years,
who does not believe that the result would be
greatly increased yield Of wheat per acre
in the State, and probably greatly improved
quality also9
The same remarks are as applicable to bar
ley, to oats. rye, and in fact to all kind of
grain, as to wheat. Particularly can corn
be improved by selection not because corn
is any more susceptible of improvement than
wheat or the other small grains, but because
being larger grain, and grown in a different
manner and cultivated more while growing,
il is more easily examined for sports or for
samples of special excellence. The history of
corn is more thoroughly known than that of
wheat, being of more recent discovery, and
the improvements from the original have
been more fully recognized and recorded
The original corn discovered is said to have
had the ear on the top, where the tsssel is
now located, often the ear and tassel seeming
united in the growth; but by cultiva-
ton and selection the present form
has been fixed, each stalk having
a tassel at It's top and ear coming
out of the stalk lower down. Then it was
observed that some of the stalks were in
clined to produce two ears, one large and well
developed, and the other q mere nubbin or
half.fo1med ear. By careful selection of
seed from the ears growing these double
bearing stalks variety was soon established
bearing two ears nearly every stalk, and
by following up this selection and cultiva-
ton, we have fixed varieties bearing from
two to four well developed ears on each stalk.
Then we have the eight-rowed corn-that is
corn with eight rows OF kernels on each ear
with twelve and even sixteen rows on each
ear We have the large white, the large yell
low, the Southern dent, the gourded seed,
and various other varieties, besides the
numerous varieties of sweet corn, the pop
corn, and the red corn. All these have come
from the wild corn grown in the form of a
wild grass il South America. If corn has been
thus improved by experiment and by selection,
in the past. with but little care or experiment,
how much might it be improved by careful
experiment and observation by thousand or
more intelligent farmers, working with
special design to Improvement? The same
remarks are applicable to every product of
the farm-to the various kinds of grasses and
forage plants, and to all the vegetables and
roots used for food for man OF beast all have
been greatly improved, and all are still cspa.
bic of greater improvement when expert
mented with with special purpose In view.
Is not every farmer interested in this i'm
provement of the produce of the farm of
every kind?
1t has been we'll said that the man who
makes two blades of grass grow where only
one grew before, is benefactor of mankind
A few individuals have gained the distinc-
ton of benefactors by experiments with some
of the special crops that make up the pro-
ducts of the farm. DR.. Goodrich, of New
York, turned his attention to the improve
ment Of the potato, being induced to do SO in
consequence of the diseases that threatened
the destruction of this valuable tuber,
and the result Of a few ex-
periments was the production of half .
dozen new and valuable varieties. The
Early Rose is one of those new varieties. If
DIR. Goodrich had done nothing more during
his life than to originate this new potato he
would have been richly deserving of the