The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1917-09-19
'''''"' Y WHEAT GROWERS
L. 8. Department. Of Agriculture eau.
lions Farmers Against Extraya-
giant Claims Of Seed
Promoters.

A warning to American farmers
not to be misled, In their zeal for in
creased wheat production, into plant
ing abnormally high-priced seed for
which eytravagant claims are made,
has just been issued by the United
States Department of Agriculture.
wheat Is attracting, at the pres
ent time, greater attention than per-
haps ever before, owing to its COM
parative scarcity and high price and
the necessity of sowing large acre
age this fall" says the department
state. "As might be expected, there
fore, various persons are Offering to
the public, varieties that they de-
scribe as far superior to the kinds
now being grown. These varieties
are usually given some catchy name
and extravagant claims are made for
them.
IAN 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 Of
fee Department issued a fraud order
and their business came to stand
still. This type of wheat having
large, branched head has been offered
at high prices to the people Of this
country many times under one name
or another. Records concerning 1t
60 back more than a hundred years.
Just now another exploitation is
threatening under the name Titanic.
This type of wheat with branched
heads should be left strictly alone by
the farmers of the country.
"a favorlte scheme employed by
those having wheat for sale for which
they wish to obtain exhorbitant prices
is to claim that their variety requires
but small amount Of seed per acre.
A peck of seed, twenty pounds and a
half bushel per acre, are amounts fire.
quently 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 conditions is the seed
ing of as little as even As pounds per
acre of wheat advisable. On nearly
all of the. wheat lands Of the country
1t is more profitable to SOW from a
bushel to two bushels of seed per
acre than to sow less than bushel.
"The United States Department Of
Agriculture has shown in previous
publications that the claims of maxi
mum yields obtained from sowing one
or two pecks to the acre of the wheat
known as Stoner, Miracle, or Marvel
Gus are not substantiated by expert
ihCuto. Odlc luiCo III IuC case VI al
wheats for which such claims are
made are first to SOW as much as has
been found profitable with other var
ieties In the neighborhood, and sec
ond, 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 new
variety for an INSCRIPTIONS or unin-
formed promoter to claim yields four
or five times that of the average yield
of the country. Claims as high as Is
or more times the average yield have
been made in special cases. Such
claims are absurd and no one need
be misled by them. A well-bred var
iety In the section to which 1t is
adapted may yield few bushels
more than the varieties being CON-
monty grown. Very seldom, indeed
CdH d uOuuiinS vi Tie yiclu NC GA
pected.
Buying seed grown at a great dis
lance from home is another thing
that wheat growers should be on their
guard against No wheat grown and
bred for California conditions, for in
stance, no matter how good for Cali
fornia, has been found adapted to the
country east Of the Rockies. Cali.
fornia adapted wheats do not sue
coed east of that State. Neither would
the wheat adapted to the Atlantic
Coast or the Mississippi Valley sue.
coed in California. In short. home
grown seed should be used unless the
State agricultural experiment station
or the United States Department O.
Agriculture advises otherwise"