THE STEMS 

 AVERAGE NUMBER OF STRAWS AND EARS PER PLANT 



77 



seeding. In the case of good land, especially where it is well supplied 

 with available plant food-materials, thin seeding often results in the pro- 

 duction of the same number of straws per square yard as that obtained on 

 a thickly sown field, the tillering process making good the loss in plants 

 which thin seeding entails. 



Where the land is in poor condition and the grain thinly sown, how- 

 ever, tillering does not make up for the loss of plants, and there is reduc- 

 tion in the number of straws per acre. 



The following results were obtained in 1914 with a dense-eared 

 variety of wheat sown in the previous autumn on poor soil, which had 

 carried a crop of wheat during the three previous seasons, without the 

 application of manures of any kind : 



On soil in such poor condition as this, where the rows were six inches 

 apart, the number of straws produced by each plant was about the same, 

 whether they stood i, 3, or 6 inches asunder ; only when the rows were 



