180 



The Roots of the Wheat Plant. 



of 

 in 

 is 



prolific than usual, the fact being, that for many weeks the 

 ground was so hard and frozen that the natural enemies of these 

 creatures were starving-, such as birds, whilst the dormant insects 

 suffered compara- 

 tively little, and 

 were thus ready to 

 come forth in my- 

 riads in early sum- 

 mer. 



The foregoing re- 

 marks upon winter- 

 proud wheat, or 

 otherwise a poor 

 crop, explain the 

 action of feeding off 

 thin or improperly 

 tillered wheat by 

 sheep, a mode 

 farming which 

 some districts 

 atten(^d with the 

 most oeneficial re- 

 sults ; whilst even 

 the most unsparing 

 use of the scythe 

 we have seen to 

 work wonders from 

 a like cause. 



Now as the processes hitherto described are dormant or active 

 in proportion as the weather is colder or warmer, no sooner does 

 the open weather of spring commence than a renewed action sets 

 in in the grovvth of the wheat-plant. Many of the older fibres 

 die in the winter, but in the spring new rootlets are pushed out, 

 fresh fibrils branch from the fibres, and new buds are produced. 

 This action goes on until the central axis has considerably 

 elongated itself, when tillering ceases and the whole energy of the 

 roots is devoted to supply the plant now rendei'ed larger by 

 increased leaves and increasing stems, when tillering altogether 

 ceases, and the tillered stems, varying from 5 to 20, or even 

 more, according to circumstances, produce ears of grain, which 

 ripen pretty much at the same time. 



In oats, lateral branches start from the axils of the leaves above 

 ground, and hence tillered oats are mostly mixed with ripe and 

 unripe branches. 



These, then, are the circumstances usually attendant upon the 

 growth of autumn-sown — usually called winter-wheat — it now 



Diagram G. — A lengthened axis of growth. 

 a, a, a. Buds. h, b, b. rvootlets. 



