Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-09-30
PURE BRED SEED
MAKES BIG YIELD
PROF. r. A. MOORE DESCRIBES
WORK OF COLLEGE OF AGRl-
CULTURE.
GRAIN CENTERS ESTABLISHED
IN EVERY COUNTY IN
WISCONSIN.
Madison. Sent. 26.


The delegates to the Farmers Ma
tional congress were addressed yes
Iterday by Professor R. A. Moore of
1.-THE agronomy department of the uni
lversity on the subject of Grain Breed
ling for Seed Professor Moore spoke
as follows:
For many years Wisconsin farm
ers have paid considerable attention
to the breeding of special strains of
dairy cattle, the state has also be-
Icome noted for her fine herds of
lsheep, hogs and fat stock but no
where within our borders could we
find pure bred races of corn, oats,
harley and clover. The grains and
forage plants that are the very foun-
Idation of good live stock production
had been neglected.
THE grain breeding work in Wis
'consin was started in 1898 and up to
that time comparatively little work in
America had been done in the way of
breeding pure bred varieties of grain
in any great quantities. Professor
Hays of Minnesota, DR.. Hopkins OF
Illinois, and Professor Holden of Iowa
were our leading pioneer grain breed
ers and it was largely from these
men that Wisconsin caught her inspi-
ration
I'm 1898 Wisconsin had ceased to
be a wheat growing state and the dis
astrous effects of growing that single
grain crop were then practically OBJ
liberated and we had no desire to re-
peat it, consequently we turned our
attention largely to barley, oats and
corn.
"Our farmers were entirely de-
pendent upon our seedmen for seed
grains and grasses and these men
| furnished the only available seeds
which at the best were only scrub va
lrieties. Corn was sold in accordance
with the scoop shovel method which
| did not admit of careful inspection
and testing of seeds before planting.
| It was to better these conditions and
place the farmers and the seedmen
! of the state in position to secure
, pure bred grains instead of mixed
varieties that our work was inaugu-
rated. AS planned it involved the
following: breeding, testing and dis
! seminating.
"The breeding work has been car
ried on by selection and cross fertll-
lization. Two methods of breeding
were employed: the first by selecting
one hundred of the best heads from
one hundred of the best plants, while
the second method established two
years later started individual plants
from select seeds and by process OF
elimination secured the progeny OF
one plant from many hundred for
farther trial
THE breeding of pedigreed plants
is a slow and tedious process, but is
exceedingly interesting. The first
four wears of the work the person is
dealing with few kernels of grain,
not more than enough to SOW the
area of few square feet. The fifth
year we have but sufficient to- SOW
one square rod, the seventh ten
square rods and the eighth, one acre.
From this point forward the increase
is surprising. 1t swoops down upon
Won like an avalanche. From the
Iacre Mot we Jump to 26 acres and
from twenty-five in single year TO
/ $50 The next year we can SOW 81
600 acres. and the year following
t775.OO0. which will give a yield sut-
ficient to SOW the entire barley acre
age of the world.
"Tn Wisconsin this year no less
than $4,000 900 bushels of one breed
of barley have been grown. You VIII
find nearly whole townships growing
this distinct breed in preference to
all others. This select barley mas
given a yield of from three 10 ten
bushels Der acre above that OF It's
closest competitor, as reported oy
several hundred members OF the
Wisconsin experiment station. Inc
Oderbrucker barley is sim stra"eo
heavy bearded barley that is very
, high in protein, hence making II an
, exceptionally good feeding barley on
saccount of it's uniformity in size ana
constituent in kernel it also IS an
exceptionally good mailing and pearl-
t ing barley.
4 Method Of Dissemination.
, Through the operation of the WIS
consin experiment station, an organ
ization of young men who have taken
work at the college, barley centers
have been established in approximate
: " all the barley growing districts OF
/ the state. These young farmers were
: advised to grow one acre each from
= seed furnished by the station ana the
n following year SOW all SEED ralseu
Y and sell the crop for seed as far as
nossibIe to neighbors. The work mas
been pushed to the extent that there
are now approximately 1000 barley
: centers established, and the select
Oderbrucker barley is grown every
where throughout our state.
Il Corn Breeding.
"onr corn breeding work was be