Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1909-07-30

hours in looking over the expert
ment station and farm of Washing
ton State College has the faintest
idea of the wonderful amount of
work tnat is being done there. We
hear of the experiments that prove
to be highly successful but we know
nothing of the days and weeks and
months and years spent in scientific
research before these experiments
are far enough advanced to be given
to the public Much has been sale
and written about the nybrid wheats
produced by the college experiment
station staff but none of us have
the faintest idea what it costs to pro-
duce those varieties of wheat which
promise to revolutionize wheat grow
ing in the northwest. When we read
of hybrid wheats' we think no more
of the name than if it were blue
stem, club, Red Russian or any
other variety. We do not stop to
think that from four to ten years
were spent in producing that variety
of wheat and that the work was
done by men versed in scientific
knowledge of plant life.
On the college farm today there
are more than 1000 selections of
wheat growing. Each selection was
| N o1n nv hn dc no; ri l.
ed from the fields or plats and their
characteristics studied Two we'll
know varieties of wheat, each hav-
ing certain good qualities are taken
and crossed. This is done the
same as in animal life, as Poland
China and Berkshire hogs, or Perch
eron and Clydesdale horses, each
parent giving some of its character
istics to the offspring. Club wheat
is the best known variety of wheat
to stand up after it is ripe and it is
desired to get the stiff straw quail
ties of the club wheat. Bluestem is
the best milling variety. having the
greatest amount of gluten and bring
ing the best price in the markets
Red Russian is one of the best yield
ing varieties, but it lacks the stiff
straw and the milling qualities of
the club and the bluestem How to
tget a grain that combined the good
Qualities of all these varieties was
the problem which confronted the
station and nearly | ) years of ex-
perimental work in crossing the var
ieties has resulted in new varieties
which are fixed" which means that
they are so firmly set that they will
not retrograde to either of the par
ent varieties. The College farm has
produced new varieties numbering
up in the hundreds. few of these
varieties combine the good qualities
of the best varieties of the wheats
known in this country and are now
being grown iii marketable lots
These are known as hybrids Nos. 1913
and 1928, the former being a red and
the latter being a white wheat.
These numbers give some idea of the
vast amount of the work, as the
varieties produced run from No
up, and the varieties mentioned are
by no means the highest numbers.
They are simply two varieties which
have been proven to have good yield
> ing; good milling and good standing
qualities. Estimates made and re.
cords kept of yields of these varie-
: ties show that they average from
to / bushels per acre more than
the Red Russian; stand as well as
? the club and are almost as good as
> bluestem in point of gluten.
But wheat is by no means the
only experimental work along this
line. c. w. Lawrence, the station
cerealist, who probably knows more
about grains than any other man in
this section, having spent six years
in hybridiZing wheats and other
grains, has charge of this work. Mr..
Lawrence has half a dozen different
= plat fields, each containing a great
nun Der of different plats. One sec
, ton near the college barn has nine
plats of oats; 46 different plats of
barley and AZ different plats of
, wheat Each has a different variety
or a different stage of a certain
: cross Each plat Is two rods square
and the wheat is planted in rows,
. Is inches apart. These are called
increase plats" and were planted
from seed produced from these
crosses" and the seed produced by
these plats is planted in fields and