The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-05-25
FIGHTING A BREAD FAMINE.

Under the above caption F. D. CO.
burn, secretary of the Kansas depart
meIit of agriculture, had an article IN
recent issue of the Saturday Even
ing Post, which points conclusiveiy
! that the way is open for increasing the
wheat yield of the nation so that 1t Will
be commensurate with the demands of
the ever-increasing population OF the
future. Mr.. CohHfn recognizes the
force of the predictions of James ]. Hill
and others th2t at the present rate CT
increase in population, the ratio of the
production of foodstuffs, wheat espc-
cially remaining the same, within
twenty years a large part of the people
of the country will go to bed supperless.
He characterizes them as anything but
idle remarks On the contrary he con-
siders them the result of close observa-
ton and study by the shrewdest of the
shrewd, land" he says, they present
the most serious economic problem
facing the American as we'll the Euro
pean public" He points out that the
limit in wheat acreage has been pretty
nearly reached. Thus, but one solution
of the question is left. 1t is to make
every acre, cultivated give a larger
yield.
This can be DONE is the optimistic
answer of Mr.. Coburn, who is an op-
timist of the right sort because he al
ways knows whereof he speaks. THE
question of when it will be DONE" he
continues, depends on how soon the
bread producers realize the situation
confronting the bread consumers, ana
the method must be worked out to SUIT
aIfx ,ofn sc h,
different wheat sections. Kansas
has solved one problem closely
akin to this-so closely related that the
telling of how the state crept from one
of the lowest in wheat production to
the very top of the list is useful in in
dicating how the question of the bread
supply can be met This she did by
improving her own wheat yield, and
thereby making the greatest wheat pro-
ducing state in the union still greater.
1.-The Kansas Agricultural college IS
doing a great work in getting the farm
erS interested in a better agriculture.
1t is experimenting for the best meth
DDS of production. and is growing, Sc
| lecting and disseminating seed of the
| highest Z, AIDES. Then the Kansas col
| lege, unlike some others, does not hide
| it's light under a bushel, but spends
thousands of dollars a year to send its
! teachers out to tell the farming COM
munities what it has learned. what x
| has done and what it is doing.
AT the college station large area is
devoted to wheat experiments Hun
dreds of plots are sown to wheat, more
or less different in one respect or an
other, the teachers being careful 20
select for this purpose the most perfect
grains of each Sort Tests showed that
some heads produced 349 per cent more
t!-nn others in the same plot, and 46
per cent more than the average. See /
from the high-producing heads has
been sown. and such work and selec-
ton continued until there has been
isolated seed that produces in the
greatest prohigacy the largest. best
formed and hardest grains, such as
make the best flour. The college is now
producing and distributing considerable
quantities of such seed. In the insti-
tutes the farmers are shown how they
! can select the best grain, what grains
to reject, the Importance of removing
all inferior kernels, and how ex-
/ perience has proved that such selection
of seed increased the yields from the
same acreage from 10 to 40 per cent
THE Agricultural college has made
many experiments with different meth
DDS of farming. In Kansas the wheat
yield is 1879 bushels an acre. while IN
England it is 32.2 bushels and in Ger
many PSI bushels an acre. The soil of
those countries is naturally no richer,