Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1909-05-01

to market rather than save it for
sowing The same care should
be taken when the separator is
hauled from one farm to another
not only to prevent mixing var
ietieS of wheat, but also to pre-
vent the spread of smut from
inoculating the seed wheat from
the threshing machine that has
previously threshed Smutty
wheat.
The farmer is not apt to mix
varieties by careless storing,
since he will have only one i'm
proved variety. and this he will
easily keep seperate from the
common crop. Most farmers
are rather too careless in not
carefully cleaning the tanning
mill when changing from one
variety of wheat to another 1t
hardly seems necessary to men
ton the Importance of carefully
sweeping out bins and cleaning
all sacks into which this pure
wheat is to be stored
Toproduce the best seed wheat
it should be well graded and
only the heaviest and plumpest
kernels sown The seed grain
should be graded and famed to
remove weed seeds, if for no
other reason. Again, it is
usually necessary to fan grain
simply to remove dirt, chaff and
pieces of stems that would great
ly interfere with the uniform
distribution of the seed in plant
ing. Also, the inferior plant
produced from inferior seeds
may act as weeds, especially in
fertility, actually taking the
moisture and the plant food
from the larger and better devel-
oped plants, thus reducing the
yield and injuring the quality of
the grain produced.
Harvest the wheat when it is
fully matured. Immature seed
is apt to be Shrunken and def
Gent in vitality. On the other
over-ripe it begins to deterioriate
in quality and may lose some of
it's vitality. Do not allow seed
wheat to become damaged by
rain. Shock well Immediately
and thresh from the field as
soon as the grain is dry, or put
the wheat into stacks or barns
for protection. Perhaps more
wheat is injured in quality after
ho ruoSt hxv ny, fayoro L,1a xunatIor
and from careleSSneSS in hand
ling than from any other source.
The stacks should be well built
to protect from the rain, and
after the wheat is put into the
stack or barn it should be left
for several weeks until after it
has passed through the sweat
before it Is threshed. Whether
to cap shocks or to leave them
uncapped is the question. I'm
less wheat is well set up and
carefully capped the caps are
apt to blow off and the shocks
are then more exposed than if
the bundles were originally set
in open shocks. | perfer. how
ever, to carefully shock and cap
rather than to set in long shocks
or round shocks without caps.
1t may be necessary to go over
the field occasionally after wind
in order to replace caps that
have been blown off. Do not
make the shocks too large. Ten
or twelve set up with a single
cap carefully broken and spread
is better than a large shock with
two or three caps.
If wheat farmers will practice
the plan of growing and saving
seed wheat as suggested above,
the average yield of wheat may
be increased several bushels per
acre and the quality and purity
of the grain may be improved.
There will be greater de-
mand this summer for improved
seed-wheat than ever before, and
it is important that the farmers
who are now growing pure wheat
may keep it pure. The farmers
who grows any wheat will find
it profitable to deliver that in
marketable condition.