Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-02-01
NOVELTIES IN GRAIN.
startling Results Obtained in Wheat
and Germ Production.
few Varieties Brought by Patient
Work to the Farm Test" I'm tho
United states-some In
teresttuR Facts.

Not very long ago Sir William Crookes,
president of the British association, as
serted gloomily that by 1881 the world
would not produce enough wheat to go
round. His argument was that there is
just SO much wheat land upon the globe,
and that the wheat-eating races are in
creasing beyond the limit of future sup
ply.
But Sir William forgot the inventive
ness of the Yankee; and the American
editor who responded that if a steady
price of a dollar a bushel was guaranteed
America would take the contract to sup
ply what was needed was not far wrong.
The wheat lands may be limited, but the
future possibilities of wheat itself are
also to be reckoned with, writes Priscilla
Leonard, in Youths Companion.
Man has been raising wheat for un-
counted ages, and corr for centuries;
yet the grains themselves have changed
very little under cultivation since our
first record Of them But to-day chemis-
try and biology have taken a turn toward
agriculture, and wheat in Minnesota
and corn in Illinois have been the sub
jects of marvellous and successful ex-
pertinent.
Ten years ago, for instance, the Min
nesota state experiment station took up
the idea Of producing new wheats. 1t is,
in the beginning, a French idea, Mons.
Henri Vilmorln having done some fine
experimenting.
Il Tho A MARKHAM xunrbarc hAuo a1randU
produced some startling results. They
began by artificially cross-breeding va
rious wheats. To do this, we are told.
the ex%perimenters went into the bios
soming wheat at four o'clock in the
morning, transferred the pollen of n
sort to the flowers of another, tied the
heads so treated in tiny bags of tissue.
to keep out insects or birds, and marked
them with record tags. When these
heads of wheat matured the seed grains
were harvested, registered and planted
by themselves.
Some of the infinitesimal crops turned
out poorly, some encouragingly. Out
of the hundreds of wheats thus bred
some eight or ten showed marked adj
vance. These were sowed and reaped
until there was enough seed to give out
to farmers to use in open field trials"
It takes about ten years of patient
work to bring each new variety to this
farm test" But the results justify the
labor. In most cases these new wheats
yielded at least two bushels more to the
acre than the standard wheat, and were
vigorous and healthy. In one case,
where the average yield was Is bushels,
the new Minnesota No. 1853" yieldeds42
bushels-a result which ought to cheer
Sir William Crookes' heart.
Meanwhile, in Illinois, the agricultural
college at Urbana has been working
away On corn, by selection and careful
breeding. The Illinois experimenters,
as one report puts 1t, have been "outwit-
ting and reforming nature" They have
aimed, not only at increasing the yield,
but at controlling the elements of the
kernel itself. They have succeeded in
growing corn with less or more oil, or
less or more protein, at will.
Corn oil is SO important an element
that one manufacturer has offered five
cents d bushel more for every extra one
per cent. Of oil in the corn. Over one
per cent. has already been added, and a
further advance is looked for; while five
per cent. OF protein has been added to
another variety.
A corn register" is now established In
Illinois, where the pedigrees of the diff
ferent new varieties are registered pre-
cisly as p~edigreed animals are recorded.
An increase Of ten bushels an acre is
prophesied-which would mean $50, 000,-
600 more for Illinois on her yearly corn
crop, just as Minnesota and the Dakotas.
with the new wheat, can hope for $22,-
0 $1,000 more annually.
1t all sounds like a fairy tale. But 1t
has been done step by step, with almost
incredible painstaking;, and 1t Is no
more marvellous. after all. than the de-
velopment of an American Beauty"
J from the original wild rose. Who knows
what wonderful wheats the twenty-flrst
century may see? If the farmers boy of
to-day finds the farm outlook stupid,
the dullness must be more In himself
4h.- a.. 49, o1.s.blJl4Ao~ 20 : Arto,1k,,~n d