Wheat 43
, Once a farmer has secured a high yielding wheat of good
quality, he should keep it pure and continue to improve it.
This may be done by setting aside a block each year for seed .
purposes. The seed block should be allowed to ripen well _
and should have extra attention to prevent its becoming
damaged in any way. The seed for the general field should
be well screened wheat from this block, and the seed for the
seed block should- have extraordinary attention in the matter .
of screening. ·-Wheat does not cross pollinate as corn does,
but grains from other wheat may get mixed in from the
thresher and render seed impure. Care should be exercised
to clean out the thresher before starting on the seed block. .
One could well afford to go over thei seed block and cut out
the foreign heads. A
It is possible for the observant farmer to improve his
wheat crop through breeding by selection. Some of our
most productive varieties of wheat have been produced by
farmers without any special scientific training in plant ,
breeding. For example, Fultz, a red grained beardless
variety, originated by the selection of heads of this descrip-
tion that appeared as a variation in a field of Lancaster, a
red bearded variety. These selections were made in 1862 `
by Abraham Fultz, Mifflin County, Penn.
The writer heard Professor C. A. Zavitz, of the Ontario
— Agricultural College, give an account of the origin of
Dawson’s Golden Chaff, He said that it evidently started .
from a sport, that is a striking variation, such as is
liable to occur in any wheat field. Mr. Robert Dawson, of
Paris, Ontario, had a field of White Clawson wheat in 1881,
which lodged badly. While walking through the field he
found one plant standing erect, possessing a much stiffer
straw than the surrounding wheat, and of a different type.
He saved the plant and sowed the seed the next year.
` Finally a sample of the wheat was sent to the Ontario
Agricultural College, where it was tested along with other
varieties and foundto possess the stiffest straw and to give
the largest yield of grain. This is the simple origin of a