SELECTION OF SEED-WHEAT. 17 



afford a marked contrast to the general average of ear in 

 the same field. We have never yet walked carefully along 

 the side of a field of wheat and it is generally towards the 

 outer lines, where the grain is exposed to light and air, 

 that attention should first be paid but we have seen ears 

 which in value far surpassed others by which they were 

 surrounded. There can be no doubt that if this careful 

 supervision of our wheat-fields were given each season, not 

 only would the best samples of any given or recognised 

 variety, but samples of new varieties would be obtained. 

 The marking of these would be a work doubtless of some 

 trouble, and so also would be their gathering and the plac- 

 ing of them in proper packets or bags ; but in one sense it 

 may be said that business is a trouble, and yet no man 

 thinks of neglecting his business because it is so. In 

 gathering the selected ears a careful description of their 

 peculiarities should be drawn out and kept for after-refer- 

 ence, along with one or more of the ears. The ears selected 

 for the purpose of raising produce in the following season, 

 should be carefully cleaned and laid aside till the period of 

 sowing. A plot of land should then be selected and laid 

 out in subdivisions, and one or more of these allotted to 

 the sowing of one particular variety. It will add much 

 io the, value of the experiments, and greatly, we may here 

 remark, to the pleasure of the experimenter, if he will keep 

 an accurate record of the " behaviour," as engineers say, of 

 the produce of each plot the dates of sowing, of brairding, 

 blooming, and ripening. While writing these remarks on 

 a subject in which we are specially interested, and in the 

 carrying out of experiments in connection with which we 

 have derived much pleasure, we have come across a few 

 remarks in a contemporary journal bearing so closely upon 

 the subject, that we shall do our readers good service in 

 making them here. The article is one on the propagation 

 of hardy and prolific varieties of our cereals ; and in point- 

 ing out how this may best be done, the writer has the 

 following : " But there are limits to the beneficial in- 

 fluences of such improvements j and the ascertained produce 



