The Roots of the P/heat Plant. 



181 



remains to consider the difference in these respects in that so\Yn 

 in spring. 



In dealing with this question we must not forget that spri/iff 

 and autumn wheat are not specijically distinct, and that both the 

 one and the other may be sown in any month of the year ; a 

 subject upon which I have experimented again and again, and 

 thus given a spring wheat the habit of a winter one, and the 

 reverse. 



The following experiments with Red-Lammas wheat was 

 carried out by myself in 1851-2. A plot of 5 yards square 

 was drilled at 9 inches apart on the 14th day of each month 

 of the year: if, however, that fell on a Sunday the next day 

 after : — 



Table of the Growtli of Wheat in each Month of the Tear, 



The winter was mild and wet. All the samples were gathered 

 in August. The September, October, and November plots gave 

 the best samples. That sown in March, April, and May was by 

 far the worst of the series. Blight, both in straw and ear, was 

 most prevalent from December through the spring months. That 

 sown in June, July, August, and September was clean in the 

 straw, but the ears of the July sample, though they ripened, were 

 remarkably small. 



From this experiment we see that although our wheat sown in 

 the autumn months certainly succeeded best, yet that of the 

 spring months gave a yield ; and indeed winter varieties of wheat 

 are often not sown until as late as the latter end of February ; 

 and we must remember that if winter wheat be left until the 

 spring for sowing, it Ijchaves, in its rooting and tillering, mnch as 

 spring wheat ; and hence, then, the difference is merely one of 

 growth, and which may be described in a few words. 



