182 THE POSSIBILITIES 



of an appropriate variety of wheat is quite 

 another thing. 



This last method was lately experimented upon 

 by M. Grandeau, Director of the Station Agro- 

 nomique de 1'Est, and by M. Florimond Dessprez 

 at the experimental 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 



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

 at variance amongst agriculturists. 



