310 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



square ; in the case under consideration there was only one kernel 

 to each twelve inches square. 



The quantity of seed that it is most judicious to use depends 

 very much on the quality of the land. The richer the land, the 

 larger the growth of the individual plant, and, consequently, the 

 fewer the plants required to occupy the land. Wheat multiplies 

 itself very largely, by sprouting at the crown ; and under the best 

 circumstances, a single seed may result in a stool of from fifty to 

 seventy shoots, each bearing a perfect head of well-filled grain. 

 This process of multiplication is called " tillering." It can only 

 take place under favorable conditions. The too close prox- 

 imity of other plants, and the checking of the root growth by 

 stagnant water, or by an unfavorable subsoil, will arrest it ; — so 

 that a field which has not been too heavily seeded can never bear 

 too many shoots, — no matter how rich it is, — nor can it bear a 

 full crop unless both the mechanical and the chemical condition 

 of the soil are such as to conduce to a sufficient continuation of 

 the tillering process. 



WINTER WHEAT.- 



The great drawback in the raising of winter wheat is found in 

 the liability of the plant to be killed by frost. As winter wheat is 

 a perfectly " hardy " plant, this winter killing is never the result 

 of the direct action of the frost on the plant itself, but rather 

 on the soil. If wheat is deeply rooted, a single hard freezing of 

 the soil, by its lifting effect, actually breaks the upper part of the 

 plant from its lower roots, and so greatly injures it. The worst 

 effects are produced, however, by the repeated freezing and thaw- 

 ing of the soil. Thus : a hard frost lifts up the soil, (and carries 

 the plant with it,) then comes a warm sun which thaws the upper 

 soil and allows it to fall back to a lower level, leaving the crown 

 of the plant out of the ground ; the next frost takes a fresh hold 

 on the plant and raises it again ; another thaw leaves it still 

 higher ; and thus the process goes on until the crown is so far above 

 the ground as to be exposed to the action of the weather, entirely 



