410 



THE WHEAT PLANT 



sidered that after this was made, all that was needed was to grow and 

 multiply the selected plant. 



Hallett, on the other hand, did not specially seek for exceptional 

 plants, but endeavoured to improve those already in cultivation, by 

 means of " pedigree " culture, believing that the good qualities of the 

 plant could be increased by this process, which consists in repeated 

 selection of the best plants in successive generations, and propagation 

 from these only. 



Beginning with a single plant or ear, he made an annual choice of the 

 most prolific individual, being convinced that as good effects of continued 

 selection would be secured among the crops as among the animals of the 

 farm. 



The grains from the chosen ears were sown singly in rows i foot 

 apart, the grains being deposited in holes i foot asunder in the row. At 

 harvest the individual plants were examined, and the best in respect of 

 their grain production, length of ear, or tillering power was selected for 

 further propagation. From this elite plant the best ear was isolated and 

 its grain sown, the plants produced being subjected to the same careful 

 scrutiny at the following harvest. 



By this process he considered that the good qualities of the original 

 selected plant were not only maintained but increased from year to year. 



The following are the results which he records after four years' selec- 

 tion of Red Nursery wheat : 



' Thus," he states, " by means of repeated selection alone the length 

 of the ears has been doubled, their contents nearly trebled, and the tillering 

 power of the seed increased five-fold." 



These figures only indicate an increase in the length and number of 

 grains of the finest ears in successive generations, but give no evidence of 

 any improvement in the averages of these characters. They may indeed 

 be taken to indicate nothing more than wider fluctuating variability in 

 carefully cultivated progeny of selected ears. 



Nevertheless, Hallett, who was an advocate of thin seeding, secured 

 some extraordinary crops of grain from his pedigree seed, in one instance 



