Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1917-09-21
WARNING To WHEAT GROWERS

A warning 10 American farmer.
not to be misled, in their zeal for in.
creased wheat production, into
planting abnormally high-priced seed
for which extravagant claims are
made, has just been issued by the
United State Department of Agrieul.
ture.
Wheat is attracting, at the pres
| ent time, greater attention than per-
haps ever before, owing to it's COM
parative scarcity and high price and
the necessity OF sowing large acre
age this fall," says the department
statement. As might be expected,
therefore, various persons are offer
ing to the public varieties that they
describe as far superior to the kinds
| now being grown. These varieties
are usually given some catchy name
and extravagant claims are made for
| them.
An example of this kind is the
| Alaska, or Seven-headed wheat that
was exploited few years ago. The
hackers of this wheat did not get
very far with it, however, as the
post office department issued a fraud
order and their business came to a
standstill. This type of wheat hav-
ing large, branched head, has been
offered at high prices TO the people
of this country many times under one
name or another. Records concern
ing it go back more than a hundred
years. Just now another exploita-
ton is threatened under the name
Titanic This type of wheat with
branched heads should be left strict
ly alone by the farmers of the
country,
"A favorite scheem employed by
those having wheat for sale for
which they wish to obtain eXorbitant
prices. is to claim that their variety
requires but a small amount of seed
per acre. A peck of seed, 20 pounds
and a half bushel per acre, are the
amounts frequently mentioned. OF
course the claims of maximum yields
from these small seedlings are not
substantiated by fact. Only on dry
lands or under very special condi-
lions is the seeding of as little as
even Az pounds per acre of wheat
advisable. On nearly all of the
wheat lands of the country it is more
profitable to SOW from bushel to
two bushels of seed per acre than to
SOW less than a bushel.
The United States Department of
Agriculture has shown in previous
publications that the claims of maxi
mum yields obtained from sowing
wheat known as Stoner. Miracle, or
| Marvellous are not substantiated by
| experiments, Safe rules to follow in
! the case Of all wheats for which such
claims are made are first to SOW as
much as has been found profitable
with other varieties in the neighbOr-
| hood, and second, not to pay high
| prices for the seed
Radical claims of high yields are
made for some varieties of wheat. 1t
is not uncommon in advertising a
new variety for an INSCRIPTIONS or
uniformed prom otter to claim yields
four or five times that of the aver
age yield of the country. Claims as
| high as l : or more times the aver
| age yield have been made in special
cases. Such claims are absurd and
no one need be misled by them. A
| well-bred variety in the section to
which it is adapted may yield a few
bushels more than the varieties be-
| ing commonly grown. Very seldom
indeed, can a doubling of the yield
| be expected
Buying seed grown at a great
that wheat growers should be on
their guard against. No wheat grown
and bred for California conditions,
| for instance, no matter how good for
| California, has been found adapted
| to the country east of the Rock IS.
! California adapted wheats do not
| succeed east of that state Neither
would the wheats adapted to the
Atlantic Coast or the Mississippi Val
ley succeed in California In short.
| homegrown seed should be used un-
Less the state agricultural experiment
station or the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture advises other
wise"