THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 99 



wheats than the English ought to be experimented upon 

 for obtaining prolific varieties; namely, the quickly- 

 growing Norwegian wheat, the Jersey three months' 

 wheat," or even Yakutsk barley, which matures with an 

 astonishing rapidity. And now that horticulturists, so 

 experienced in " breeding " and " crossing " as Vilmorin, 

 Carter, Sherif, W. Saunders in Canada and many others 

 are, have taken the matter in hand, we may feel sure 

 that future progress will be made. But breeding is one 

 thing ; and the planting wide apart of seeds of an appro- 

 priate variety of wheat is quite another thing. 



This last method was lately experimented upon by 

 M. Grandeau, Director of the Station Agronomique de 

 1'Est, and by M. Florimond Dessprez at the experi- 

 mental station of Capelle ; and in both cases the results 

 were most remarkable. At this last station a method 

 which is in use in France for the choice of seeds was 

 applied. Already now some French farmers go over 

 their wheat-fields before the crop begins, choose the 

 soundest plants which bear two or three equally strong 

 stems, adorned with long ears, well stocked with grains, 

 and take these ears. Then they crop off with scissors 

 the top and the bottom of each ear and keep its middle 

 part only, which contains the biggest seeds. With a 

 dozen quarts of such selected grains they obtain next 

 year the required quantity of seeds of a superior quality.* 



The same was done by M. Dessprez. Then each 

 seed was planted separately, eight inches apart in a 

 row, by means of a specially devised tool, similar to 

 the rayonneur which is used for planting potatoes ; and 

 the rows, also eight inches apart, were alternately given 

 to the big and to the smaller seeds. One-fourth part of 

 an acre having been planted in this way, with seeds ob- 

 tained from both early and late ears, crops corresponding 

 to 83.8 bushels per acre for the first series, and 90.4 



* Upon this method of selecting seeds opinions are, however, at 

 variance amongst agriculturists. 



