ARTIFICIAL FRUCTIFICATION OF WHEAT. 



87 



The following is the mode recommended when this sys- 

 tem is proposed to be carried out on a small scale of a 

 few acres, the grains being dibbled singly in holes not ex- 

 ceeding 1^ inch deep: 



50. Artificial Fructification of Wheat. The discoverer 

 of this mode is a Frenchman, by name M. Hooibrenck, 

 and his theory is that, in ordinary circumstances, natural 

 fructification of the wheat is so feebly carried on and out, 

 that artificial fructification should be adopted where greater 

 products are demanded. The process by which M. Hooi- 

 brenck proposes to effect this artificial fructification is as 

 follows ; Across the field of wheat he stretches a cord, to 

 which are attached pieces of wool, some of which, at inter- 

 vals, are smeared with honey. These pieces of honey- 

 smeared wool, being in contact with, the ears of wheat, 

 render, or are supposed to render, the stigmas glutinous, 

 and to favour the adhesion of the pollen to them. By the 

 movement of the cord, the pollen, which is taken up by 

 the pieces of wool which have no honey smeared upon 

 them, is given out to the smeared pieces, and by them to 

 the stigmas, coating these, so to speak, with pollen, and 

 thus artificially impregnating them. A strict investiga- 

 tion into the physiology of plants tends, however, to make 

 it, we think, abundantly clear that, imposing as this theory 

 of artificial fructification is, there is, in reality, little we 

 should say, rather, no^-need of it. Nature does her work 

 sufficiently well, in this department at least, to need 

 no help from man. Is it, indeed, in view of the fine re- 

 lations which exist between plants that the process of fruc- 



