Single Seed Selection. ^^^ 



cirrumstances, and so by all means encouraging them to produce 

 the very best results. 



Durmg the last few years several valuable experiments have 

 been carried out on the same lines. Professor Zaviz, of the 

 Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, Canada, directly tested the 

 effect of heavy as compared with light seeds, and averaged the 

 results of the six years' trials. For oats the large seeds produced 

 an average of 62 bushels per acre, as compared with 46.6 bushels 

 per acre from small seeds. Barley showed an increase of 3.4 

 bushels (53.8 large seed, 50.4 small); spring wheat in eight years 

 an average increase of 3.7 bushels (21.7 to 18) ; and winter wheat 

 (six years), 6.5 bushels increase (46.9 to 40.4). 



Perhaps even more interesting were his experiments with 

 single grains. One grain of black Joanette oats carefully selected 

 as the best of thousands was sown in the spring of 1903. In the 

 harvest of 1905 its descendants produced 8748 lbs. of straw and 

 3439 lbs. of grain. That is to say, the progeny of one grain pro- 

 duced in the third harvest over 100 bushels of corn and nearlv 

 four tons of straw ! Similar results have been obtained with 

 various kinds of barley and wheat. 



Nor are these experiments the only ones on this subject. In 

 Sweden Dr Nilsson at Svalof appears to have realised the im- 

 portance of single seed selection, and is said to have produced 

 valuable strains of barley. Herr Rimpaw at Schlanstedt in Ger- 

 many has produced strains of rye which have not only spread 

 through North Germany but have invaded France. There are 

 also valuable experiments made by Learning, in the United States, 

 in the selection of single seeds of Indian corn. Then, again, 

 as regards peas, Mr Arthur weighed an equal quantity of large, 

 medium-sized, and small peas. He found that both the yield 

 per acre and of seeds per plant was much superior in the case of 

 the large seeds, although onlv one-half the number of peas had 

 been used. 



Even more interesting perhaps are certain experiments with 

 the seeds of trees. Dr Engler and Herr Cieslar compared the 

 growth of coniferous seedlings grown from large and from small 

 seeds, and found that those from the large seeds were taller and 

 much more vigorous. Another authority found that the average 

 weight of pine cones from the northerly parts of Sweden was less 



