The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 21, 1916, Page 8

UT of its own calamity, the fail- ure of its wheat crop because of rust, North Dakota has already i perhaps developed the germ of its delivery. - ‘Such an enthusiastic fore- _ cast would not be made by the ‘man who is most responsible, and ‘indeed it may not prove to be true, but there are enough farmers now growing “Bolley’s rust resisting 'wheat” to testify to this one great quality—that it does resist rust. ; * Who dubbed it “Bolley’s” is one of the historic "points lost, as so many such boints are in the beginning of things. . At the college where Professor' Bolley developed it, this wheat -now made . famous by the failure of 1916, was known simply as D-5. There was a whole series of ‘D’s, from 1 up to 12, and samples of them, after weathering Pro- fessor Bolley’s peculiarly virulent attempts to kill them off with rust, were sent out to farmers with suggestions for trial. All the other numbers perished, (and that is a story in itself, which may be published some day) except D-5. = - MANY REQUESTS NOW COMING FOR BOLLEY’S WHEAT ".Now the story of how it has run the gauntlet of the rust deluge of 1916 is . teaking out and requests are reaching the A. C. for small quantities of this ‘wheat. No one need be disappointed. * In the past the college authorities have been somewhat chagrined by well-inten- tioned people who sold seed with the proud recommendation that it came from the North Dakota Agricultural college, el only to find that it didn’t live up to i expectations. i The trouble was the growers did not have authenticated seed. It had passed through the hands of several different farmers, become contaminated, degener- ated, or perhaps in some cases had been dishonestly labeled. But the college has { 8 list of the reliable growers.of D-5 and ki i this will be supplied: to all purchasers as soon as it-has been verified ‘for the Present season. ? ."Farmers who wonld keep. their samples separate and carefully gather seed have’ not been numerous, but - several ‘years® ago James Murdock of Wimbledon and 8ome -of ‘his neighbors were forced to notice how well this particular grain 8rew in the presenceé of rust'conditions and saved zll their seed, increasing their ¥elds ‘until now there are thousands of & bushels.” Two or -three growers are’ lmp;vn who have several thousand bushels gt The wheat was found so valuable in its resistance to this fatal disease, and’ melded so well a good hard kernel that it 'spread from the vicinity of Wimbledon, essenden - and - Jamestown to South Dakota. and, it is believed, to parts of Mimmesota: - The - department is ‘riow.. engaged in following out the chain of ' purchasers, and when these have all been ascertained their names will be furnished “to" all inquirers. - o BE ~ LARGE QUANTITY IS Sy AVAILABLE FOR NEXT YEAR' Therg,-_ig,g‘lmu guqhwy,apailable for ..-seed for next season, and in any case _ there will be enough of ‘it fo gain wide :‘ ;Bp“lléy"s ,.:.i'fl.ist. resi somg; even withstood his fierce onslaught 3 Yhese 408 ext yodr. hoos. ":?é‘%fi it W corne Siboigh by esistant wheat di science against the foes ¢ Experimental fields in the Agricultural college farm where Professor Bolley ca__rriéd on his .tests to pr\_)gluce “D,—5‘,”’now famous as The Story of Bolley’s D-5, Which May Prove Salvation of Wheat Industry distribution and give hundreds of farm- ‘ers an opportunity to get a start if they wish.- The college has. no supply on hand. It only produces a few' bushels each season, and this is not the quality that the grain attains when it is trans- planted to newer fields free from the scourging which it gets annually at the hands of Professor Bolley. Just a word about the methods that seem to have strengthened in D-5 the power to live safely in the prese:nce of rust. ; About 15 years ago Professor Bolley was sent to Russia jointly by the United States government and the North Dakota Agricultural college as “agricultural explorer” to discover a variety of flax that would resist wilt. He went into the out of the way sections of Russia- in - the region of Turkestan and the Caspian sea, and visited the flax and grain fields. It was no joy junket, but a matter of walking -through = the fields, - talking through™ an interpreter with the peas- Dakota farmers cheated good wheat crops this year. “ eventuallly furnish insurance worst of the crop hazards in this state. i ants, questioning them about ltheir crops, and seeing .for himself what they were doing and what they were growing. BOLLEY PICKED WHEAT IN RUSSIAN FIELDS . The flax work -afterward became celebrated, and is credited by some with having saved the flax industry of this country..' But the wheat - work that developed ‘out of the visit. was whollya sideline, and would=‘not have occurred were Professor Bolley not a “crank” on: wheat and all that pertains to it.- = - As he walked through the fields of the Russian peasants, that season stricken ‘with rust as never before, they told him, he noted many isolated heads of bright, well . plumped ‘and ‘well stooled wheat that .showed no injury from the fungus growth. He gathered these one by one: as . he had - opportunity, and upon his return brought with him something like 500 heads' of ‘this rust resistant ‘wheat. The-'seed was planted in the r“sick’: garden at the Agricultural college and given a severe. .dose of rust,. .In fact Bolley : tried= to kil “it;, with™ # ‘He éiffgdefl"fimtably-vfi’th’%fofit of it, but seasons, until he began to believe he had A handful ‘of wheat picked near the shof;as Vof - the Caspian sea in Russian Turkestan furnished the seed by means of which a dozen or more North best. . somewhat darker “found ‘a strain ‘of grain that would actually resist rust. AN ‘BOLLEY’S FIENDISH EFFORTS TO KILL HIS OWN WHEAT The-way he worked was this: Out in the sick garden he had a thrifty hedge of barberry shrub, the ancient and always reilable friend of wheat rust. On - -this pretty and harmless looking hedge- plant the first stages of the rust thrive best. : i Bolley’s barberry bushes had plenty of it.” Wheat was planted next to this and beyond it in the sick garden. That closest died every season, and all of it “*was _infected “every season. If ' the weather was a little too dry he would spray the wheat at night to give the moisture and coolness necessary to make Tust produce itself by the millions of spores. 3 He took infected barberry bushes and . infected wheat plants. He did every- thing he could to handicap wheat in the race with rust and then he'expected the rust demon and raised - This wheat may against one of the wheat to win. And it did. Rust would lodge upon it but could not sap its vitality, ‘After- it had lived through eight seasons of this kind of treatment, ‘he cautiously (in 1911) selected a few - good samples of from one-half o two - bushels each;. and sent them out to about- a dozen farmers who he-thought . would cooperate in' determining what it wasworth. - - +They were asked to make trials of it - and report, but it was difficult to get full reports, and while the départment knew “that th | as being - grown “from season: to_season'if did not history of it until later. ~-were sent out with'the explanation’ tha they'were not-recommended for anything ‘except ' their ability to .produce good yields in the presence of Tust that killed oheryaTletles il St BOLLEY’S GRAIN IMPROVES . - * IN FARMERSFIELDS = - & The farmers who reported uniformly spoke of its power to produce well _ regardless of rust. It was found to-pro- "1 ., duce & superior quality and quantity of ' “grain under such conditions. Grown outside of the college . Sick area it pro- - dueed%%a" fi?im"ar“ ‘berry, plump and red, " 80 " accustomed elevator, took it to ‘another, * they will appear more pronounced when. .careful tests “Bolley’s rust resistant wheat.” points on the blossom ‘end of the kernels —that is some of ,it did—showing its diseased origin, but these seemed to dis- appear as the grain penetrated to new land. Evidence pointed to the probabil- ity that when it reached soils suitable for durum wheats, a light sandy semi- arid soil, it would improve in quality. As the quantity increased, the farmers began to take it to the elevators, and it was gladly received by the buyers. For two or three seasons it was bought with- out discrimination, mixed with the other grain and milled or reshipped to the eastern markets. 2 : Not until ‘the growers began to. give it a name of their own, “Bolley’s Rust Resistant,” - and to “grow it in large quantities was there any trouble. Then suddenly the elevators, acting on orders from Minneapolis, - slashed a - straight reduction of 20 cents per bushel in' the grain, : A Why this was done was not known, but it gave a severe setback :to' the grain, and some farmers began. to wonder whether it was worth while to continue growing it. But -in spite of this™ arbi- trary cut, the grain produced so well that it was in big demand for seed by farmers who had suffered from rust, and it continued to spread, the growers gladly sacrificing the price for the more it certain and larger yield. o One farmer who had gone strongly to & D-5 and could not market it -at his & and by calling it another name, leaving i off the “rust résistant” feature, sold it & as a variety of fife and got a good price,’ &5 much better than if he had praised it as_ N the famous rust resister. - MILLING TEST SHOWS IT’S A GOOD BREAD WHEAT There have been some milling tests of the D-5 at the Agricultural college mill, and it has been found a good bread ~wheat, though not quite the equal of well known bread varieties. It is really a durum wheat. It produces a slightly darker flour and seems to lack volume of loaf when baked. = So far, however, these defects have been very slight. Whether a greater variety and number of samples are tested, or less pronounced remains to be proven. - i ; : ; The demand for this grain has become So_ insistent this season that President ' E. F. Ladd of the college has arranged for an extensive test of it to prove its milling ' quality before " giving it the college O, K. The college #uthorities, including Dr. Ladd, believe that it is unduly discriminated against, just as velvet, chaff and the common durums were.