THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 83 



by what lie has styled " careful breeding." How far he 

 has been successful the result clearly shows. 



As a starting point, in the fall of 1857 he selected 

 two heads of " nursery wheat," coming as near as pos- 

 sible up to his standard of what a head of wheat should 

 be. The grains of these two heads were kept separate 

 and carefully dibbled in, one grain in a place, nine inches 

 apart. Of one head the best grain produced ten stalks, 

 with heads varying from seventy-nine to fifty-five grains, 

 or a total of 688 grains. The finest ten ears, selected 

 from the product of the other head, contained from 

 seventy to fifty-one grains, and a total of 598 grains. 

 Of the two original ears, one contained 43, and the 

 other 44 grains, showing a gain of from 30 to 36 grains. 



Next year the best head from the first-mentioned ear 

 was planted as before. From this the best grain pro- 

 duced 21 heads, containing from 91 to 55 grains per 

 head, or in all 1,190. The best random head of the 

 other ear was also planted ; but it was thrown out as 

 beino; evidentlv inferior to the others. 



From this, Hallett deduces the first proof of the cor- 

 rectness of his idea that careful breeding and cultiva- 

 tion was correct, and not the random selection of good 

 specimens. 



During the fall of 1859, the best head as above, con- 

 taining 91 grains, and the worst, containing 65 grains, 

 were separately planted. The best grain of the former 

 produced 39 ears, containing 2,145 grains ; but, owing to 

 the extraordinary season of 1861, they were so injured 

 by the wet that the two best ears, containing respectively 

 74 and 71 grains, were the only ones sufficiently unin- 

 jured to carry on the experiment ; so that the head con- 

 taining 74 grains was selected to carry on the experi- 



