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Show I AGRICULTURE 1 "MIRACLE WHEAT," ITS OBITUARY. OBIT-UARY. A few weeks ago an article, clipped from the Saturday Evening Post, appeared ap-peared in this paper under the hcad- ' fng, "A Miracle in Wheat." The editors edi-tors have been busy since trying to explain to cverybodly how it hap-, hap-, pencd. The week after the article ' appeared wc came out and apologized in the most humble terms, and the week following that wc apologized again, for fear you would forget wc had apologized the first time, Ever sinci the appearance of the offending article wc have clipped and run everything every-thing wc could find in current agricultural agri-cultural literature in an attempt to undo our error, The subject "Miracle Wheat" is possibly growing tiresome. Wc plead for only one more hearing. Every agricultural paper, virtually, in the cn-t cn-t re -country, has in a more or less perfunctory way, taken a rap at "Miracle "Mir-acle Wheat." Wc d'o not think that any of them have got directly at hc cause of the whole trouble. The trouble is not so much the wheat, i is the advertising the wheat got at f the hands of the "Post" man. Wc I hav-: forgotten Iris name; it is possib-t possib-t ly just as well. There is nothing in i a name anyway, but there .would be f a great deal that is interesting in sce- ing that fellow's pedigree. The Dci-' Dci-' crot Farmer stands ready to wager anything from its stenographer dowi to its overdraft that if you would run ', that fellow's pedigree back a few generations gen-erations you would find Ananais ' tacked on somewhere. Ananais need not be at all ashamed) of the rclation- ship cither. Of course the young man cannot acquire the amount .of distinction his noted kinsman ac-i ac-i quired, there is too much opposition thcic days, but wc would feel sorry i for the old gentleman if his grand' I offspring had the same oyportunitiii L he had. Put the two bide by side and f you would think Ananias was tongue- tied and had a hair lip. A long time ' ago and even occasionally now, wi 1 hear in song, not necessarily music, ' about somebody referred to as "Bon-i "Bon-i nic." It ran something like this, "My Bonric lies over the Ocean, My Bon-f Bon-f nic lies over the Sea," etc. You may have heard it. Geographically "Bonnie" "Bon-nie" was not a bad liar, but we stand ready to put our friend of the "Post" up against even "Bonnie." Wc publish herewith a reply to the "post" article by a man as capable of handling the subject as any one in the West. The following article is from the pencil of Mr. F. D. Farrcll, Government Expert in charge of the Epcrimcnts in Plant Breeding and Dry Land Agriculture, at the Ncphi Station. With this article, The Dcs-crct Dcs-crct Farmer humbly begs leave to pas3 on to the undertaker, something wc hope is good and dead. We .faithfully .faith-fully promise to never regurgitate the subject again. The following isMrv Farrcll's article: "The article entitled, A Miracle in Wheat, appearing in the Saturday Evening' Post, is but another of a large .number of agricultural fairy talc3 which arc published from time to time in the popular magazines of the (country. The author, like other ' persons guilty of what has been dubbed 'agricultural yellow journalism,' journal-ism,' writes entertainingly enough, but displays an amazingly reckless disregard for scientific truth. "In the first .place, all sane wheat producers .know that whest is not m j the habit of producing 'miracles.' j They realize that, while many good , things in agriculture are obtained moro or less accidently, yet the farmer farm-er is usually wise if he adds the proverbial pro-verbial 'grain of salt' to stories of a 'miraculous' nature. "The author of this, particular bit of sensation states, as one of the 'miraculous' powers of 'Alaska' wheat, its ability to produce 222 bushels per acre. Let us consider this one statement; state-ment; First. This wonderful yield was calculated, or is said to have been calculated, from the yield of seven pounds of seed. In the arid section, 1 seven pounds of seed would cover about one-tenth :acrc if planted at the ordinary rate. If planted at a lower rate per acre it would cover more ground, each plant would have a greater space in which to obtain food a;id water, and the yield would, -of course, be somewhat greater. Wheat plants given a space of 12 inches each way have been made to produce as high as 60 heads per plant; but "the same wheat planted at the ordinary rate produced only 5 to 15 heads per plant. This is an important consideration consid-eration which the author of the 'miracle' 'mir-acle' article did not mention. Second. If the seven pounds of seed sown at the ordinary rate in thi arid West three pecks per acre it would be impossible for the plants to obtain enough water to produce the yield reported. Considering that it was sowik at the usual rate, wc have to consider the following facts: It requires about fifty tons of water to produce one bushel of wheat in this section. (It may require some-wlut some-wlut less in Northern Idaho, where the 'Miracle' is said to have occurcd; but the difference would not be very great.) Two hundred twenty-two bushels would therefore require 11,100 ' ton3 of water. Now one inch of rainfall rain-fall adds to the soil about one hundred hun-dred thirteen (113) tons of water per acre. To produce on one acre 222 bushels of grain, then, wc should have 1 to have about ninety inches of water in the soil during the growing season and all of it would have to be avail- able to the plants. Under the 'best system of water conservation, the soil loses from 3 per cent to 5 per s, cent of its water by evaporation an . amount that doesn't in any way assist f in plant production. This additional afact would increase the water requirement require-ment of the 'miraculous' yield to about 100 inches. When wc consider that the average annual rainfall in the arid West is but from 10 inches to 20 inches, and when wc know that there is a positive limit. to the quantity quan-tity of water that a soil will retain, wc sec at once that the 'miraculous' yield is impossible. And yet the author au-thor of the joke states that the wheat 'yields up to 222 bushels to the acre ' This story of agricultural wonder is about as creditable as 'Jack in the Bean Stalk.' Jack, you will remem-bcr, remem-bcr, had a variety of very tall-growing beans. "The article in the "Post" is.replete with a variety of amusing stretches of the imagination; but as they arc nearly all very much like the 'yield dream' they need not take up space. ! in discussion. jl The 'miraculous' Alaska wheat is I u simply the old and fairly well known I t 'miracle wheat' so-called, possibly, because of its peculiar composite 1 , head, as each stalk bears one main central spike and several , branched spikelets or secondary heatls. Boton- ically, i is known as Triticum com-positum, com-positum, and as such has been known for years. Somc'ibotanists regard it simply as a 'sport' and do not accord it the dignity of a separate species. A small quantity Of this species or 'sport' was grown this year on the Ncphi sub-station. It is inferior in almost every particular. 'It yielded low, the stalks were weak and it lodged easily; the germination, too, was low only about 20 per cent. Now the Utah farmers should know these facts, and! nob rush into the nets that have been cat in some states cast of here by "Vfgficultural wonder' sharks. It is reported that farmers in Colorado have paid as high as twenty dollars per bushel for this 'Alaska wheat.' The farmcrs of this state should have in mind the fact that the Utah Experiment Station and the U. S. Department of Agriculture arc conducting some extensive experiments ex-periments with wheat and other grains in the state, and that when ; superior type is dfscovcred or produced, pro-duced, here or elsewhere, the station will not be slow in advertising the farmers regarding it. That is one of the reasons why the farmers have an experiment staMon. "At any rate, if any farmfirs musv try some of the 'miradc," they would be wise to limit their purchase to about ten cents' worth, and not be beaten out of forty of fifty dollar; each. The wheat will be tried' carefully care-fully at the sub-station, and if it should prove to be valuable contrary con-trary to this yqar's result the farmers far-mers will be duly informed." |
