THE WHEAT PLANT 



Although the buds and branches originating during the tillering 

 period may, under favourable conditions, amount to a very large number, 

 unless the plants have ample space for development and the soil is in a 

 highly fertile condition, many of them are very weak and grow out into 

 slender straws with small ears. In the majority of instances all the 

 leafy " tillers " of a plant produce ear-bearing straws, but sometimes in 

 an ordinary crop, where the individual plants " tiller " very little, some 

 shoots die off even after they have reached a height of 3-6 inches. This is 

 most frequently observed in dry seasons when the adventitious root-system 

 associated with each shoot and essential to its nutrition has developed too 

 late or has dried up before obtaining an adequate hold of the soil. 



The extent to which tillering proceeds among the plants of a field 

 crop of wheat is comparatively small, the majority of the grains rarely 

 producing more than three or four fully developed straws. 



Schoute found that out of 2895 plants examined in a Dutch crop 



Relative Frequency. 



208 



no 



027 



0091 



0037 



0017 



ooio 



0014 



0003 



0003 

 0003 



63-7 per cent, or about two-thirds of the plants, gave one straw only, 

 while 95-4 per cent yielded not more than three straws each. 



The average number of straws per plant produced by 841 varieties, 

 including representatives of T. dicoccum, T. turgidum, T. durum, and T. 

 vulgare, grown in 1912-13 at Reading in rows 6 inches apart, the grains 

 6 inches asunder in the rows, was 5-4. 



7 varieties produced 1-2 straws per plant. 



34 

 137 

 163 



183 



J 33 



74 



5 



22 



38 



2-3 



3-4 

 4-5 

 5-6 

 6-7 

 7-8 

 8-9 

 9-10 

 over 10 



