The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-08-28
Ghe @armer.
BIG WHEAT.


From the Wilmington, Del, Ploughshare.
The Messrs Dupont, whose farms almost
adjoin this city on the northwest, this year
harvested about $50 acres of the finest
wheat east of the Allegheny mountains, if
not in the country. They have five good
sized fields covered over with golden shocks
and they expect to thresh not less than
5000 bushels of wheat, most Of which will
be in that clean and wholesome condition
which is necessary for profitable seed.
This extraordinary wheat product is the
result Of about five years of painstaking SUI
pervision of the seeds. When the work
was first begun by Dr. R. P. Greenleaf in
1881, he counted and weighed each seed
that went into his precious garden plot.
Some of it was planted foot apart and
sent out 20, so and even 80 stools to
grain. Other seed was planted 6 inches
apart, and it stooled 30 and 40 blades right
along and covered the patch as thickly as
the best field sowed bushel and a half to
the acre. But the product from these ex-
periments was even more surprising. The
experiment was made on patch about an
eighth of an acre in extent, and yielded at
the rate of 80 and even 128 bushels per
acre. The heads carried from SO to 60
grains each; and the stools which were the
growth of single grain of seed, yielded
from 200 to $500 grains each. These
figures are the result of actual counting,
and demonstrate the extraordinary pains
taken by DR.. Greenleaf in starting his
work. He used the Fultzo- Clawson, Rog-
ers, Surprise, Tuscan Island Mediterranean,
Fultz and Clawson varieties in his first
seeding, of which the Surprise did the best
and the Tuscan Island Mediterranean the
poorest. The next year DR.. Greenleaf Sc
cured few pounds of Canadian Reliable
and repeated the experiment. The varie-
ties were kept clear of each other, all poor
seeds were picked out by hand and none
but the best grains were employed for re-
production. The $50 acres harvested this
year, the bulk of which is the Canadian
Reliable, is the outcome of the care and
patience and wise application of the last
five years.
William Wayne, the foreman of the
Dupont farms, is an excellent farmer, hav-
ing earned his position, as is the case with
all of that firms preferred employees. He
was born in Christiana Hundred and was
bred on the soil which he is now managing
SO wisely. Most of the Dupont farms have
good staying qualities and the resources of
the firm are such that prudent expert
menter can command almost any amount
of aid But the fruitful fields just reaped
were seeded under all the possible condi-
tons of too wet and too dry and too early
and too late. There was much to seed and
the season was variable, being very dry in
its beginning. One of these fields, on the
Green Hill farm, which bore a splendid
crop of Fultz-C lawson, both as to straw and
grain, was too wet when seeded, and the
ground to-day shows the effects of its un-
timely cultivation last Fall 1t is baked
and cracked notwithstanding the moist sea-
son Just closed.
Where the condition of the ground per-
mitted all of the fields were carefully cul-
tivated, carefully fortified and the seed
carefully selected and seeded. Not over
bushel to the acre was sowed anywhere and
in several fields three pecks were made to
do. But whether bushel or three pecks,
the result appears to have been uniform.
The fields were uniformly full, even and
heavily-laden. There was very little straw
under five feet and some of it reached the
prodigious height of 6 feet 10 inches.
Only in one patch was the seed put in by
grain. This was of Scotch variety, big
headed and beardless. The grains were
set foot apart and stooled between 30 and
40 blades and the heads carried from A to
So grains piece. 1t is hardy grain and
DR.. Greenleaf, who introduced it, wants to
see field of it next year.
Perhaps the best field in the lot was on
the Louvere farm in Brandywine Hun
bred, a 30-acre field with southern slope.
One-half of it was of the Diehl-Mediterra-
mean, and it was of selected seed. 1t is
red-headed wheat, unusually stiff straw,
which enables it to stand up under almost
any load or strain, and all the winds of
May and June failed to beat it down. 1t
stood as even as water, unbending nothing
except its head, which is square, having
four rows of grains instead of two, as in
the common wheat. The variety is said
to grow about AZ feet high, but this field
was foot higher, and the grains we're un-
usually large, round, plump and reddish
like the old Mediterranean, of which it is
a cross. This wheat easily yields 40 bush
els to the acre, and it will reach so bush
els on the Louvere farm. The Diehl-Med-
iterranean, or Hybrid Mediterranean, as
some call it, is very hardy wheat, and
can be sown as late as Thanksgiving day.
1t suits admirably for cold, wet, heavy
soil. Red Russia covered part of this
field. This is new beardless wheat from
the fields of Russia and is noted for its
hardness. 1t reached over five feet, and
the four rows of the heads were swelled
out in unusual proportions
The most marvellous patch on the Du-
pont farms is 4-acre lot of Egyptian
wheat, which is a splendid white chaff va
riety, with beard almost twice as long as
its head; four rows of grains and straw
that averaged in this patch over 81 feet.
Three pecks were sown to the acre and it
stooled magnifcently; some of the heads
carried 68 grains each DIR. Greenleaf has
''great expectations from this wheat for
it is as hardy as it is majestic, and the flour
is said to be of the rarest white. In ap-
pearance it is-certainly the queen of wheats,
and is worth trip from one end of the
State to the other to see. The Canadian
Reliable or Canadian Wonder Wheat, was
introduced three years ago by DR.. Green
leaf and it has fulfilled his expectations of
a. hardy, prolific and easily acclimated
wheat. 1t grows in almost any kind of
soil and is wholly Indifferent to the blasts
that have blighted 50 many promising fields
of wheat in the Peninsula. Those who
have used it, both in Delaware and Penn
sylvania, doubt whether it can be killed by