308 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVEKY. 



Mr. Hallctt also states, that the improvement in the sixth generation 

 was even greater than in any of the others. " Thus," he continues, 

 " by means of repeated selection alone, the length of the ears has been 

 doubled, their contents nearly trebled, and the tillering power of the 

 seed increased five-fold." By " tillering," we should perhaps mention, 

 is meant the horizontal growth of the wheat-plant, which takes place 

 before the vertical stems are thrown up, and upon the extent of which, 

 therefore, depends in a great degree the number of ears which the sin- 

 gle plant produces. 



" During my investigations," says Mr. II., " no single circumstance 

 has struck me as more forcibly illustrating the necessity for repeated 

 selection than the fact that of the grains in the same year one is found 

 greatly to excel all others in vital power. Thus, the original two ears 

 contained together eighty-seven grains ; these were all planted singly. 

 One of these produced ten ears, containing 688 grains ; and not only 

 could the produce of no other single grain compare with them, but the 

 finest ten ears that could be collected from the produce ofthe whole of 

 the other 86 grains contained only 598 grains. Yet, supposing that 

 this superior grain grew in the smaller of the two original ears, and 

 that this contained but 40 grains, there must still have been 39 of these 

 86 grains which grew in the same ear. 



" Let us now consider whether pedigree in wheat, combined with a 

 natural mode of cultivating it (as above), can produce a number of 

 ears equal to that usually grown per acre under the present system. 

 In order to ascertain this we ought to know the number of ears ordi- 

 narily grown from seven or eight pecks of seed ; but there are really 

 no data upon this point. It has, however, been considered as about 

 equal to. the number of grains in a bushel, or under eight hundred 

 thousand, which is about one ear for every two grains sown. I will 

 then compare the numbers grown in 1861 upon two pieces of land, 

 only separated by a hedge, where the two systems "were fairly tried, 

 the same ' pedigree wheat ' being employed as seed in both cases. In 

 the one instance, six pecks of seed per acre were drilled November 20th, 

 1860, and the crop, resulting in fifty-four bushels per acre, consisted, at 

 its thickest part, of 934,120 ears per acre. In the other instance, 4-| 

 pints per acre were planted in September, in single grains, one foot 

 apart every way, and the number of ears produced per acre was 1,001,- 

 880, or 67,760 cars in excess of those produced on the other side of the 

 hedge, from more than twenty-one tinics the seed here employed. 

 Now, as an area of a square foot is more than amply sufficient for the 

 development of a single grain, it is clear that thin seeding is not ne- 

 cessarily attended by a thin crop." 



It would appear from this, that thin seeding and early sowing are 

 both beneficial ; and that an immense saving may be made in the quan- 

 tity of wheat used annually for seed. It is reported further, that the 

 wheat, when thinly sown or planted, grows so strong in the straw, that 

 while his neighbors' wheat was laid down by a heavy storm of wind 

 and rain, Mr. Ilallett's stood up as strong as before the storm. 



TRANSMUTATION OF "SPECIES" IN THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 



\ 



It has been repeatedly asserted that oats have been converted into 

 rye, barley, and even wheat ; but the " fact " has been always scoffed 



