The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1905-03-11
GRADING SEED GRAIN.

I do not advocate sowing badly
shrunken, weak seed grain, and very
few of you will have to do that
even if you use seed from your own
neighborhood-if you will grade it
up with a tanning mill. It will pay
you to screen out the poorest half
of the wheat you use for seed, even
when you use wheat grown in q
good season. If you do not think
it will amount to anything, try it
with a fine sample of wheat and
measure a thimble full of the grain
from each side of the tanning mill
and see which pile has the most
berries in it. You will find that
you have increased the size ofyour
seed and that it will pay you we'll
for the trouble. This year, when
your wheat is shrunken by reason
of the rust attack until some of it
is too thin and shrunken to be fit
for seed, screen out the poor ber-
ries until you have only the plump
est third or fifth of it and use that
for seed. In that you will get seed
which will have a good growing
strength and it will keep you in
stock of a kind which you know is
a good yielder and which has given
you agood grading crop in the past.
BREED WHEAT LIKE LIVESTOCK.
The principle which you are US
ing is the same as you have been
accustomed to all your life in breed
ing livestock. It is the same proc
S as saving your best heifers and
COWS, and Of securing the best bull
that you "A find. Ii you have a
poor strain of wheat, get a good one
and then grade your seed each year
by screening out the smaller half of
the kernels and you will improve it.
Have a piece Of ground that is in
good condition in every way and
particularly IL that is free from
weeds, and SOW the very best Of
your wheat upon it to grow seed
grain for the next year. That is
the way to make a pedigreed wheat.
and the way to keep a good strain Of
wheat. Seed wheat will not run
in North Dakota if you ham
die it in that way.
GROW SEED ON FALLoW, CORN OR
POTATO GROUND,
Your seed should be grown upon
fallow, corn or potato ground of the
year before to avoid volunteer grain
the previous crop springing
up among it and. forming a mixed
sample of seed. Durum or maca-
roni wheat readily becomes mixed
with bread wheat and a heavy loss
results, as the miller cannot manu-
facture the mixed grain into -four
to good advantage, and, in conse-
quence, the price of it is reduced on
the market. This is a good season to
get the fife and blue stem seed out
Of the durum OF macaroni sample as
the common wheat was shrunken by
rust SO badly last year that it can
be readily screened out by the use
of the tanning mill. After you get
it clean, keep it free from adj
SELECT HEAVY BERRIES FOR SEED
Some people think that screening
out the small berries will make the
wheat run into softer or lower grad
ing kinds, and it may have that
tendency. You can avoid that effect
by throwing wheat from the open
palm a distance Of twenty to thirty
feet upon a tight floor. You will
find that the heavier berries will go
further than the lighter ones, and
by taking the outer rim Of the re-
sulting pile, you will improve the
grade Of your seed.
Many inquire whether a wheat
weighing fifty-6ve pounds to the
bushel is not fit for seed. I cannot
tell without seeing the sample.
Some wheat which is too badly