. Agriculture and the farming business . show-ing the special qualities sought, are allowed to mature andthe grains used as seed for the next crop. This is themethod that Burbank has used in producing some of hismost wonderful results in plant breeding. In order to unite desirable characters in two varieties ofwheat, artificial fertilizing is sometimes resorted to. This isto say that ripe pollen is taken from the head of one plantand dusted on the stigmas of the head of another fromwhich the anthers have been removed. The uniting of twovarieties in this way will often produce striking results.
. Agriculture and the farming business . show-ing the special qualities sought, are allowed to mature andthe grains used as seed for the next crop. This is themethod that Burbank has used in producing some of hismost wonderful results in plant breeding. In order to unite desirable characters in two varieties ofwheat, artificial fertilizing is sometimes resorted to. This isto say that ripe pollen is taken from the head of one plantand dusted on the stigmas of the head of another fromwhich the anthers have been removed. The uniting of twovarieties in this way will often produce striking results. Itrequires several generations to fix the particular characteror quality of the wheat plant sought by the crossing of va-rieties. While it is possible to produce desirable varietiesin this way, by far the greater number of our most valuabletypes of wheat have been developed as the result of selec-tion. The United States Department of Agriculture and eachof the state collesjes of agriculture has a score-card for THE FARMING BUSINESS 129. 130 AGRICULTURE AND the judging of wheat. These differ some of course, but thefollowmg is a fair sample: SCORE-CARD FOR SEED WHEAT Minnesota Experiment Station StandardScore YIELD Weight per bushel 25 30 Points Uniformity 5 VARIETY Color 3 CHARACTERS Purity 10 15 Points Kernel Shape 2 Luster 5 VITALITY Plumpness 15 30 Points Germ 3 Odor 7 Weed Seed 10 MARKET Dirt and Dust 3 CONDITION Injured Kernels 2 25 Points Smut, etc. 5 Condition of Bran 5 100 Points Total 100 THE FARMING BUSINESS 131 CHAPTER VIOATS OATS are one of the worlds most most important graincrops. Like our other cultivated grains, the oat orig-inated in some wild ancestral form,—just when and how isnot definitely known. There is reason to believe that oatsare a later development than wheat or barley, and were notknown to the early Egyptians, Greeks or Romans. Origin of oats.—As a cultivated crop, oats were prob-ably first raised in central and northern Europe over terri-tory n
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