SELECTION' IN GRAIN-GROWING. 359 



Thus in the increased size alone we get an increased crop of forty to 

 fifty per cent. 



The saving of seed from such a practice is immense. The wheat 

 area of the United States is not less than 40,000,000 acres, and the 

 average seeding is very much higher than two bushels per acre. But, if 

 these figures be taken as a basis, we shall not err on the wrong side. 

 To plant grain at the rate of one berry to each square foot would be 

 equal to 43,560 grains per acre of 4,840 square yards, or less than two 

 English quarts. This shows that the farmers of the United States 

 have it in their power to reduce their consumption of seed- wheat from 

 80,000,000 bushels to 2,500,000. Good seed-wheat ought certainly to 

 be worth a dollar a bushel out West, and is worth very much more in 

 the East ; but on this showing we have a possible saving of $77,500,000 

 in seed only for the wheat-crop alone. One dollar and a half per head 

 of the population is worth attention. 



The roots of wheat sown in August become by the middle of Octo- 

 ber so developed as to render it quite safe from lifting by the frost, 

 and attacks of wire- worm would be almost unknown. If winter wheat 

 were all drilled by the 10th of September, the entire fall would be at 

 the farmer's disposal for clearing the land and sowing spring crops 

 early. The crop could not become winter-proud, or be laid by the 

 summer rains. The harvest would be from two to three weeks earlier. 

 The harvest being over at least a fortnight earlier, would be of immense 

 advantage in clearing the land. Seasons are frequently most unfavor- 

 able to late-sown cereals, but they are scarcely ever so to early-sown 

 ones. On well-farmed lands, on the common practice, the average 

 contents of the wheat-ears must be from 20 to 30. Were it grown on 

 Major Hallett's system, the average contents would be, at the very 

 least, from 40 to 60, and far more likely from 60 to 90 ; for under 

 such a system so small an ear as one of 40 grains is quite the excep- 

 tion. And this increase of the contents of the ears would be obtained 

 without any diminution of their number ; the crop, in fact, would be 

 doubled where now fairly good farming yields 30 bushels to the acre. 

 These promises are not illusions, since a good many men in European 

 countries, and in the United States also, have accomplished great 

 results in agriculture by the application of commonly accepted princi- 

 ples of science. Major Hallett has himself grown 216 bushels from 

 three acres with one bushel of seed, or 72 bushels to the acre ; and over 

 a whole field 82 bushels of barley, weighing 57 pounds to the bushel, 

 from only two gallons of seed per acre. 



In reference to the point of time of sowing, it must be borne in 

 mind that the rate of growth for wheat during the different months 

 in England is as follows : 



Wheat sown on September 1st comes up in 7 days. 



" " October 1st \ _ . I " " 14 " 



November 1st t In a mild \ << 21 



December 1st ) aUtUmn ' I 



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