Newark post., 1914-09-16

Gan article from the Practical
Farmer by Professor A. E..
Grantham.)
How much wheat to SOW per acre
is often a puzzling question. While
some growers advocate certain
number Of pecks Of seed per acre
for all conditions, others claim that
their rate Of seeding is determined
by the conditions OF soil and sea-
son. The weather is an important
one, since the cost of peck Of seed
wheat is generally as much as that
of seed corn sufficient to plant a
whole acre. On the average farm
the cost of seed for an acre Of wheat
is about five times as much as that
for an acre of corn. rsn..aa
Several factors enter into the
question Of the rate OF seeding. 1t
is well known that wheat has the
capacity Of tillering or sending up
a number of stalks from each seed.
One of the factors, or conditions
which will determine the number Of
tillers is the time Of seeding. Early
seeding gives the individual plant
the opportunity to make larger
growth and of becoming better es-
tablished in the fall. Careful ex-
periments conducted by the Della
ware Station show that the number
of tillers per plant is directly re
lated to the date of seeding. Plant
ings made at inervals Of seven days
from he 10th of September until
November 1st give higher tiller-
ing average for the early seedlings,
and the number Of tillers per plant
steadily decreased as the seeding
was delayed. Of course, the very
early seedlings did not yield quite
so well as those sown the 1st Of Oct
ober, owing to disturbances by the
Hessian fly and other causes. Yet
the fact remains that early to med
ium late seeding produces greater
tillering.
Another fact which influences the
number of tillers is the fertility of
the soil. The experiments cited
above were carried out on soil we'll
fertilized and on The same soil with
out fertilizers. Where the fertiliz-
ers were applied the lateness of
seeding had less effect on lessening
the number of tillers. In other
words, on well fertilized land fairly
late seeding may be practiced with
out lessening the chances of getting
a full stand of wheat These fac
tors have a direct bearing on the
question Of the quantity of seed to
use per acre. On poor land some
what heavier seeding should be
made on fertile soil. Or, if the seed
ing is quite late more seed should
be used than where the sowing is
made in good time.
Still another factor influence the
rate of tillering and directly the
rate Of seeding, and that is the va
riety of wheat. The writer has had
under observation during the past
SIX years, more than one hundred
varieties of wheat. These wheats
have been sown in the ordinary
way with the grain drill in plats
side by side, and also planted in
hills 6 inches apart each way. At
least 200 plants of each variety
have been grown in this manner
from year to year. The varieties
were grown by this method, SO that
the individual plant might be stud
led with respect to tillering. At
harvest time each plant was cut
separately by hand and the number
of tillers or stalks counted. These
were recorded in a notebook. Later
the average number Of tillers was
computed for each variety. From
these studies it has been found that
certain varieties are much super
lor to others with respect to the
number Of tillers each plant pro-
duces. In general, the varieties of
wheat with short, stiff straw do
not tiller out so freely as the varie-