180 THE POSSIBILITIES 



Hallett's experiments : a process of selection, in 

 order to create new varieties of cereals, similar 

 to the breeding of new varieties of cattle ; and 

 a method of immensely increasing the crop from 

 each grain and from a given area, by planting 

 each seed separately and wide apart, so as to 

 have room for the full development of the young 

 plant, which is usually suffocated by its neigh- 

 bours in our corn-fields.* 



The double character of Major Hallett's 

 method the breeding of new prolific varieties, 

 and the method of culture by planting the seeds 

 wide apart seems, however, so far as I am en- 

 titled to judge, to have been overlooked until 

 quite lately. The method was mostly judged 

 upon its results ; and when a farmer had ex- 

 perimented upon " Hallett's Wheat," and found 

 out that it was late in ripening in his own 

 locality, or gave a less perfect grain than some 

 other variety, he usually did not care more about 

 the method.f However, Major HaUett's suc- 



* It appears from many different experiments (mentioned 

 in Prof. Garola's excellent work, Les Cfrtales, Paris, 1892) that 

 when tested seeds (of which no more than 6 per cent, are lost on 

 sowing) are sown broadcast, to the amount of 500 seeds per 

 square metre (a little more than one square yard), only 148 of 

 then* give plants. Each plant gives in such case from two to 

 four stems and from two to four ears ; but nearly 360 seeds 

 are entirely lost. When sown in rows, the loss is not so great, 

 but it is still considerable. 



t See Prof. Garola's remarks on " Hallett's Wheat," which, 

 by the way, seems to be well known to farmers in France and 

 Germany (Les C6r6ale8, p. 337 j. ,s 



