VOL. XXVI.
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INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SEPT. 5,1891.
NO. 36
Improvement cf Wheat.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Unremitting diligence is the price of
material luxuries. The beautiful compensation principle seems to pervade the entire domain of all animated existence.
Well directed skill and industry are always crowned with a satisfactory reward.
To do something, to make something, to
give material substance a variety of forms,
to produce something useful out of that
which is useless is a consideration worthy
of our highest ambition.
There is an indescribable satisfaction in
doing something. There is a charm in industry. The man who toils through a long
summerday to catch .single fish experiences an enjoyment when partaking of his
frugal meal which he could never feel
were the same fish taken by other hands,
and the same is true of him who cultivates
the soil to secure his daily bread.
Were a field of wheat to spring up
spontaneously and we were not required
to break up the stubborn ground and cultivate it and put in it the well selected
seed, existence would not bring half the
pleasure which it now proffers so freely.
The all-wise Creator fore-saw that it
would always be better for every man,
woman and child to have somehting to do
than to spend their days in idleness.
Hence, if we would have fine wheat for
making excellent bread for ourselves and
children we mnst labor for it.
Wheat is one of the most excellent of
our cereal grains. Botanically, wheat is
one of the grasses, but from time immemorial the wheat plant has been cultivated
for its excellent and fine grain.
THE ORIGIN OF   WHEAT
is not positively known. Still there is
good reason for the belief that when the
Lord God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth (Gen. II, 1-5) wheat
was one of the finest productions of his
hands, and no doubt this esculent grain
constituted a good proportion of. the best
food of the antediluvians.
The fir3t allusion to wheat in the Sacred
History is in Gen. XXX :14, during the
Patriarchal age, by which we may infer
that wheat was raised by the servants of
Jacob, and when the Lord sent the destruc-
tivejplague of hail on the landof the ancient
Egyptians, Moses has told us in Ex. IX:32,
that the wheat and rye were not smitten.
In Numbers XVIII :12, wheat is alluded to
among the offerings of the Israelites. In
the days of the prophet Samuel and during the leign of David and Solomon this
grain is alluded to in such a manner as to
convey the idea that wheat was a grain of
great value and excellence.
In Psalms CXLVII, 14, the finest of the
wheat Is spoken of as one of the crowning
blessings which the God of Israel lavished
on his obedient poople, and when Solomon
dipped his graphic pen to portray the ex-
cellentgraces of the church, nothing would
convey a more impressive and exalted idea
of the beauty which he would describe
than a heap of wheat set about with lilies,
Solomon sent wheat to Hiram, king of
Tyre, when he was erecting the temple,
and in numerous other places in the Bible,
* from Genesis to Revelation, wheat ia alluded to in a manner which conveys the
idea that it was the finest of the cereal
grains and rendered the most excellent
food, not only for the poor but for the rich
and distinguished characters of the age.
There is another thought concerning
wheat worthy of special notice. It is that
the wheat plant flourishes in proportion
to the intelligence and condition of the
people, who cultivate the soil. This is especially true as to the condition of agriculture. If the agricultural department of
a nation is in a low state, but little or no
good wheat will be found there. Oathe
contrary, where the people are industrious
and well civilized and their agriculture is
■ta good condition, in most latitudes, good
wheat, either winter or spring wheat is or
may be raised with profit, provided the
climate is congenial to the production of
this cereal.
HOW   TO   PRODUCE    A   NEW    VARIETY    OF
The true way to obtain a new variety of
wheat is to go to the field of some excellent larmer who sustains a fair reputation
for raising superior wheat, when the grain
is ripe, and select a few of the finest and
largest heads.
You can sslect, no doubt, some heads
that appear to be quite unlike the great
proportion of the heads. The ultimate
product of these peculiar heads of grain
will be the new variety sought. If you select a few of the best in the field the result
will be only an improvement of the grain.
The aim should be to start with a pure
variety, if possible. Then prepare the
ground by thorough pulverization and
manuring as for a carrot bed and plant
about the middle of September. Mark off
the bed sixteen inches wide, then make
holes one inch deep, with the finger, six
inches apart in the row and plant one
grain in a hole. If the ground is rich,
every kernel will produce a stem that will
tiller so extensively as to occupy the entire row with large heads of grain. The
wheat should be cultivated and the weeds
kept down. Next season and the two following seasons, weed and reject every
head that appears a trifle different from
the rest of the heads.
In [a few years the identity of the
wheat will be established and the quality
of the wheat and its productiveness will
be so greatly improved that one bushel of
seed will yield several bushels more of
superior grain per acre than can be grown
on the same soil from ordinary seed.
After a valuable variety of wheat has
been established, if proper care be exercised in selecting the wheat from year to
year there is no more danger that it will
degenerate than that the Southdown breed
of sheep will run out when bred and
reared with care from year to year.
In an industrial point of view the propagating of a new, prolific variety of any
of the grains is of immense national importance. Any new variety which would
yield from one to four bushels of
additional grain per acre over the varieties in cultivation, would tend thus far to
raise the resources of our own soil. In
this direction an extensive and most inviting field is open to all cultivators.
Were the agriculturist to study more
closely the operations of the horticulturist
much benefit would result to all. Farmers, generally, not only undervalue but
wholly disregard what horticulture has
done for agriculture. The pleasure and
profit to be derived is so considerable that
the prapagation of the new varieties will
generally be amply rewarded for the time
occupied in selecting, sowing and reaping
new kinds of grain. Those farmers who
are anxious to improve the variety of
grain in cultivation, wheat, oats or barley,
should adopt the same means as those so
successfully followed by tho horticulturist.
The improvement of domestic animals
and birds has been mainly effected by
selections, and the same principles are
equally applicable for the improvement of
the various varieties of cereals in cultivation. This field of experiment is open to
all and the persevering may calculate
upon success where so much can be effected with even an ordinary amount of attention. The experimenter who possesses a
knowledge of the cereals and also of vegetable physiology is certain to reap a good
harvest.
DEGENERACY     OP     WHEAT,     CAUSE     AND
REMEDY.
It can not be denied that varieties of
wheat do run out and so do finely bred
domestic animals, if the proper care Is
not taken to keep them up.   If the farmer
were to use all kinds of scrubs and mongrels as breeders he would soon find that
those scrubs and mongrels never transmit
the excellent points of desirable form and
symmetry to their offspring with reliable
certainty; while pure bred animals never
fail in this respect.
The same holds good in the vegetable
kingdom, with seed wheat in particular.
When different varieties are sown in close
proximity, without care in selecting or
grading the best grains*, and the product,
which will be an impure grain, is again
used for seed, a pure variety of choice
wheat may be run out most effectually in
a few years. So that intelligent farmers,
who are only superficial observers will be
ready to affirm without hesitation, that
wheat does degenerate.
The cause of degeneracy and the remedy
may all be expressed in a few words. I
have hinted at the cause, namely; sowing
inferior and poorly developed seed. In
threshing several kinds together and continuing to employ such grain for seed from
year to year lie3 the whole secret of
degeneracy of varieties. If a pure variety
be kept by itself with sufficient care and
cultivation, on good ground, and the
grain never threshed with other wheat,
this purity of a variety of wheat with all
its excellent characteristics may be maintained intact, so long as wheat shall be
cultivated. There ia no uncertainty about
this suggestion. The idea is in perfect
keeping with the established laws of vegetable physiology. Cultivating any variety
of grain in a slip shod, slack, perfunctory manner will cause the best variety
the world ever knew to degenerate and
run out in a few years.
On the contrary, if the seed be selected
every season with the same care that the
originator of Meek's wheat observed
through a decade of years, generations
unborn, would cultivate the" same varieties that our fields now produce, without
the least deterioration in either yield or
quality of grain.
In producing new varieties of strawberries and Irish potatoes a certain kind is
often cultivated for several successive
years and sometimes abandoned as unworthy of further effort, in endeavoring
to establish a new variety. Therefore,
when farmers sow any thing and every
thing that is called wheat, and let it all be
grown together, whether it ripens early or
late, and cultivate it poorly at that, and
take no pains to sow the choicest seed or
to keep a good variety distinct, what can
any one expect but rapid degeneracy of
the grain?
Degeneracy or running out of varieties
is the natural and certain result of such
bad management. In the selection of the
seed and the cultivation of the crop to
which we have alluded we never hear that
a good variety of Indian corn has degenerated, until it has been planted near
other kinds with which it has been allowed to mix, and if the same care were
exercised In selecting the very best kernels of a well established variety of wheat
for seed, and keeping the grain separate,
in a secure place, we should have the unbounded satisfaction of seeing our wheat
fields produce, not only larger heads,
plumper kernels and heavier grain in
much greater abundance, but no signs of
degeneracy would appear, even were the
same kind of grain raised in one locality,
generation after generation.
Historians inform us that the same varieties of good wheat are now grown on the
fertile soils on each side of the river Nile
in Egypt, with no signs of degeneracy,
that were raised there a thousand years
ago. Instead of there being a natural
tendency in wheat to degenerate, if it is
cultivated as it always should be and
none but the best seed put in, there would
be a manifest tendency to improve from
year to year.
Every experienced wheat grower will
acknowledge this. Only those farmers
who never select their seed with care and
fail to tend the wheat properly, will doubt
it. James Ri_ey.
Thorntown.
Should the   Government  Loan to  Farmers?
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Why    not  to    farmers    as   well    as
to banker*  and  corporations"?   Land security   is    the    safest     that     can   be
had, so there need be no drawback on account of security. But is it constitutional?
It has not been proven  otherwise as yet.
Mr. Brown, of Morgan county, seems to
have gotten the idea that as the Government is in debt, it would be a poor show
to attempt to  borrow   money  of it.   He
says  if he   were to start  out to borrow,
he   would    not    go   to   those   already
in debt.   We presume he is right as far as
individuals are  concerned.   First  let  us
understand how this  debt  was made and
how easily  lt could have been liquidated.
The Government called  in the non-interest bearing treasury  notes  and issued interest bearing bonds to  get money.   How
unnecessary this was.   Now let thegovern-
ment undo its work  by issuing treasury
legal tender notes and pay the debt.   Now
this out of the way and  the Government
out of debt,    the farmer  comes  up for>
loan.   Let the Government  loan  him the
money at the  same  rate, it  does  to the
banks and take a first  mortgage as security, which is the best that  can be put up.
But says one the country would be inflated.    Not so.   The  measure  provides
that when the circulation reaches $10 or $50
per capita, we cease loaning until it is less;
in short keep it  normal, (enough but not    -
too much).   This would do away with the
National Binks as banks of issue, and the
bankers would have  to cease their speculating off the  wealth  producing  classes.
The Morgan county farmer  also says that
that part of the  country  is so exclusively
agricultural that  he  and  his neighbors
have sold thousands of  feet  of oak  and
hickory timber.   By this we  suppose  he
means that they failed to produce enough
on    the  farm   to   meet    expenses,  and
had to sell their timber to   make  np  the
deficiency, or call in part cf their loan.
He says if farmers wer<- to cease using
machinery, etc., there would soon be an
exodus of laborers from the factories.
True, but would not farmers use more
machinery, etc., if they had money to buy
with ? The man that hired Mr. Brown to cut
his four acres of grass, could buy
a machine of his own if he had the money to
do it with, as would thousands of others,
and the Peffer land loan would supply
this deficiency and enable him pay out on
his farm, and hire it improved, and get
necessary machinery to operate success-"
fully, thereby giving work to farm laborers and machines. Therefore we deny the
assertion that it would be class legislation,
as the manufacturer would be benefited
by the farmer using his machinery, the
merchant would be benefited as hewould
sell most of his goods, and in fact every
class would be benefited except the man
that had money to loan; hence there is no
class legislation about it. We doubt not
but Mr. Brown is one that has money to
loan as he says there are plenty of farmers
there that have money to loan, and it is
hard to keep it out at 6 per cent interest,
thus fully explaining why "there are not- '
more than one in a hundred of the real
working, successful farmers in his (Morgan) county, that would favor the scheme.
Most assuredly the man that has money
to loan will naturally oppose a 1 per cent
or 2 par cent interest law, and Mr. Brown
would oppose the scheme of course, if he
has money to loan. But a majority of the
farmers have to borrow, hence from the
farmers' standpoint, we answer the question : Yes, the government should loan
to farmers. Mr. Brown is certainly not
informed on the beauties and benefits
there are involved in the question,
i    w_w.r_ n. _*_Moa 2*REE_jAN#
Howard Co.