QUANTITY OF SEED. 113 



account of the result, which my readers will receive with great 

 interest. The expense of dibbling by hand has been accurately 

 kept, and, as above, in point of cost, would show a great saving 

 in comparison with even the best machine. The increase from 

 a single seed has been in some cases most extraordinary, and 

 shows the prolificness may I not properly say the unstinted 

 beneficence ? of nature. I have myself counted, from a single 

 grain of wheat, ninety-live seed-bearing stems ; and I shall give 

 the account of another experiment, the product of which I saw. 



A farmer, B. King, at Eastbourne, Sussex county, on the 22cl 

 July, 1841, planted three grains of wheat ; and one of them pro 

 duced a root with upwards of a hundred ears. 



One grain, the shoots of which were divided and transplanted 

 twice, yielded, in 1842, three pounds twelve and three quarter 

 ounces of clear grain ; and the third grain, the shoots of which 

 were divided three times, yielded seven pounds fifteen ounces 

 and a half. The whole product of roots from this grain was 

 173; of ears, 3272; of grains, 97,028, and the weight as 

 above. Half an ounce of this wheat, carefully weighed, con 

 tained 382 grains. This was the product of one grain in one 

 season, which, according to what was required for the Horsham 

 experiment, would be sufficient, in the second year, to plant two 

 thirds of an acre. Of course, it is not to be expected that such an 

 operation as taking up and dividing the plants could be economi 

 cally practised to any great extent ; but it shows how very 

 easily and soon the seed of any valuable variety may be obtained 

 with a little pains-taking. Some of the most esteemed varieties 

 of wheat have been procured from the selection of a single head, 

 which showed in the field an extraordinary predominance over 

 its neighbors. This is understood to be the origin of the cele 

 brated Chevalier barley, which was propagated from a single ear, 

 found by a gentleman of that name in his field, and carefully 

 cultivated. By the methods adopted above, a single head of 

 v/heat might be made, in the second year, to furnish a supply for 

 acres ; and the means of speedily introducing a new grain into a 

 large district of country, might be transmitted thousands of miles 

 in a letter. Such are the facilities of improvement which a 

 beneficent Providence offers to those who are willing to use them. 



An experiment of a similar kind was made, some years ago, by 

 a Mr. Miller, and reported in the Memoirs of the Bath AgricuK 



