1879.] NOTES FROM THE PAPERS. 19 



and in the neighbourhood of the bunch. Mr Macagno's experiments simply- 

 proved the correctness of the views entertained by all Grape-cultivators, that a 

 healthy development of the foliage of the Vine is absolutely essential to the 

 production of fruit of good quality. 



A curious fact, says one of the London dailies ('Globe'), is recorded in con- 

 nection with some experiments lately made, by direction of the Paris Accli- 

 matisation Society, with some grains of wheat received from Japan. Very 

 little spring sowing of wheat takes place in France, and as the small land- 

 owners who till their own land single-handed are frequently occupied in vari- 

 ous avocations during the day, they have very little opportunity for paying 

 proper attention to their farms at seed-time. The uncertain weather, again, 

 prevailing in October and November, is a great drawback to all agricultural 

 operations, and especially to such as are conducted in this desultory manner, 

 often, indeed, forcing the agriculturist to sow the inferior "spring" or "sum- 

 mer" wheat when he has been unable to prepare his ground for the more desir- 

 able "winter" variety. A suggestion, however, from a correspondent in Japan 

 has resulted in the discovery that Japanese wheat, planted in April or May, is 

 ripe and ready for the harvest quite as early as European-grown wheat sown 

 some five or six months earlier, and that the yield is equally large with that 

 produced from any of the varieties of European wheat. The great advantage 

 derived from the cultivation of the corn in question is in the additional time 

 available for ploughing and preparing the land, instead of these operations 

 being performed hastily under the uncomfortable and disadvantageous circum- 

 stances of wet, uncertain weather. These benefits would be thoroughly appre- 

 ciated in such a climate as our own. In cases where labour is abundant, the 

 additional period thus available before seed-time could be probably turned to 

 account in the cultivation of other crops in the interval; or, if this is not 

 done, the land would benefit by lying fallow for three or four months longer 

 than would otherwise be the case. Unfortunately, no particulars are given to 

 enable any opinion to be formed as to whether the "Japanese wheat" is a new 

 variety of corn, or whether its characteristics have been developed in European 

 wheat by any peculiarity in the soil, climate, and position of the locality 

 whence the particular specimen referred to was derived. We give the facts, 

 however, as they are reported by the Paris Societe d' Acclimation, in the hope 

 that any benefits that may be derived from the alleged discovery may be fully 

 realised in this country. 



At one of the late Chrysanthemum Shows in England, a misguided young 

 man, but "a young man of great promise," nevertheless, with a more accu- 

 rate conception of the capacity of the judges than of the vigilance of his 

 opponents, constituted flowers up to the standard degree of excellence by 

 parting and pinning two or three inferior flowers together. The judges awarded 

 him the first prize (!), but another exhibitor, more suspicious than his neigh- 

 bours, made a critical examination of his opponent's flowers and discovered 

 the fraud, at which stage of the proceedings that "young man of great 

 promise" disappeared from the scene, feeling no doubt that he had not the 

 fortitude to receive the shower of compliments that awaited him as a "dresser 

 of florets of flowers," but we should say his services will nevertheless soon 

 be secured elsewhere. The "manufactured " blooms were removed to the Secre- 

 tary's chamber, and there, amidst a crowd of righteous exhibitors and bystanders, 

 with the hair of their head standing erect, no doubt, like that of Sandy 

 M'Grattis when he saw the ghost, the awful nature of the offence was revealed. 

 One of your contemporaries has, it appears, received more letters on the sub- 



