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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SELECTION IN GRAIN-GEOWING. 



By JAMES CHEESMAN. 



THE principle of selection has long been appreciated by stock-breed- 

 ers, and they have largely profited by the application of its teach- 

 ings. As applied to the growth of cereals it has not found a very wide 

 acceptance, not having had time to force itself on the attention of the 

 average farmer. The founder of the practice of selecting grain for 

 seed is Major Hallett, F. L. S., Brighton, England. In 1861 he planted 

 ten grains of wheat, from a variety known there as Bellevue Tala- 

 vera wheat, which up to that time had been sown as a spring wheat, 

 and was declared to be quite incapable of withstanding the frost of 

 winter. Nine of the ten plants from these grains were killed by the 

 severe frost, but the other plant, although from the same ear, remained 

 as healthy and vigorous as any of the winter varieties of wheat by 

 their side. From this surviving plant seed has been selected and 

 grown year after year as a winter wheat. Close observation shows 

 that in the cereals, as throughout nature, no two plants or grains are 

 exactly alike in productive power, and hence that of any two or greater 

 number of grains or plants one is always superior to all the others, 

 although the superiority can only be ascertained by actual field tests. 

 It may consist in several particular characteristics, as power to with- 

 stand frost ; prolificness ; size and character of ear ; size, form, quality 

 and weight of grain ; length and stiffness of straw ; powers of tiller- 

 ing ; rapidity of growth ; and many others. 



Throughout continued observations and experiments, extending 

 over twenty years, the grower has found only three instances recorded 

 in which there were two ears on a plant containing an equal number 

 of grains, and one of these related to the Bellevue Talavera wheat, 

 which must be considered quite exceptional as to variation. In both 

 the other instances there was only a low stage of development, the 

 equally finest two ears of each plant containing but 59 and 49 respect- 

 ively. In every case where the plant presented an ear containing GO 

 grains and upward the next best ear was of less contents than the 

 finest one. In twenty such instances taken consecutively and without 

 omission, and referring to seven varieties of wheat, the -average differ- 

 ence between the contents of the first and second ears was seven and 

 a half grains. The difference in four of these instances was only 

 one grain, but in other four it amounted to from seventeen to nine- 

 teen grains. The superior productive power of a grain over that 

 of another may consist in a greater number of ears upon the plants 

 it produces, or in their individually containing a greater number of 

 grains. 



