LEADING ARTICLES. 



6q7, 



FIELD. HIVE AND ORCHARD. 



A RAINLESS WHEAT. 

 In the Nineteenth Century, Dr. Wil- 

 liam Macdonald gives an enthusiastic 

 account of the work done by the South 

 African Union Department of Agricul- 

 ture, of which he is chief. The problem 

 of securing a suitable wheat which can 

 be successfully grown on the dry veldts 

 has been satisfactorily solved by the cul- 

 tivation of the durum wheats. The writer 

 gives the following interesting details: 



Ripe durum wheat in the fields looks like 

 br.rley, and one is apt, on seeing it for the 

 first time to confuse it with the latter cereal. 

 It is usually fairly tall, witli broad, smooth 

 leaves, the heads are heavily beaded, the 

 kernels large and very hard, Jiaving less 

 starch than the common types, and varying 

 in colour from a light to 'a reddish yellow. 

 The grain of the finest durum wheat is large, 

 very hard, whitish, and slightly transparent! 

 Durum wheats are grown both as spring and 

 winter wheats. To ensure success they should 

 be sown on moisture saving fallows, "and the 

 growing wheat should be lightly harrowed to 

 renew the soil-blanket and so retain the soil- 

 moisture until luirvesb time. 



The work carried on at the Lichten- 

 burg Experimental Farm is of the 

 greatest value to South Africa and other 

 Dominions. The most notable results 

 which have been accomplished are in the 

 direction of dry-farming, and Dr. Mac- 

 donald says : " We have shown : — 



(1) That by our system of tillage we are 

 able to keep the soil seed-bed moist for a 

 whole year. This means that, so far as mois- 

 ture is concerned, we can plant a crop at any 

 season — a most important matter \\\ South 

 Africa. This result has been attained by the 

 use of moisture-saving fallows, deeply 

 ploughed, constantly harrowed, and kept 

 covered with a dry-soil blanket, which checks 

 evaporation. 



(2) That it is possible to grow dry-land 

 winter wlu>at and to harvest it before the 

 sea. son of i-ust. 



(3) That drilling, as might be (wpected, is 

 far better than broad-casting, saves .seed, 

 places the grain in the moist seed-bed, and 

 gives a more even growth. 



(4) That thin seeding, for wh(>at 30 to 4.") 

 lb. per acre, gives larger returns than more 

 laviush sowing. This is due to the fact that 

 each individual plant lias more moisture, sun- 

 light, and food if given ample si)ace. 



(5) That the durum wheats have given tlio 

 best results. They are the wheats which have 

 extended the wheat belt into the most arid 

 regions of Western America. 



(6) That the durum wheat— .l/)!///"— has 

 been grown under our dry-farming .syst<'m 

 without a drop of rain falling upon it from 

 seed time until harvest, which provt>s the 



efficacy of the raoisLure-saving fallow, and is 

 a record in modern agriculture. 



THE HONEY FLOW IN HEE LAND. 



S. L. Bensusan has a simply delight- 

 ful nature article in the Pall Mall Maga- 

 zine. 



Year after year, he sa\-s, I sit by my 

 hives and watch the stream of workers 

 pouring out and in, the company on the 

 alighting-board waiting to help the 

 heavy-laden ; the resin-gatherers coming 

 m from the chestnut trees by the river- 

 side with their store of reddish propolis 

 that serves a dozen purposes of the hive. 

 There are others that return bearing 

 nectar, to deposit in one of the hexa- 

 gonal cells, which must not only be 

 filled, but properly evaporated, tinc- 

 tured with formic acid, and finalh' 

 sealed down before it is ready to serve 

 its economic purpose. Yet it is not the 

 nectar-gatherers, nor the bearers of pro- 

 polis, nor the burly, laz\-, happy drones 

 that hold the watcher ; it is the pollen- 

 gatherers alone that can do this. They 

 fly slowly, as though the labour of col- 

 lecting and carrying the store were al- 

 most as much as their frail frames can 

 endure ; sometimes they come to rest on 

 a branch of the old apple tree. 



You cannot mistake the source of some 

 of the treasure, for the blossoms have 

 their own story to tell, not in words, but 

 in colour. The pollen bags stand pro- 

 minently on the hind legs of the bee. 

 Apple pollen is of delicate }-ellow. 

 Blackberry is grey green, the dandelion 

 " fringing the dusty road with harmless 

 gold " yields a gay orange-coloured bur- 

 den to the bees' market baskets. 



EXPERIMENTAL FRUIT CULTURE. 



Spencer Pickering contributes to 

 Science Progress his third article on the 

 work done at Woburn f^ruit Farm, Eng- 

 land. 



The article deals with the experiments 

 conducted to find out the action of grass 

 on fruit trees. Though opinion differed 

 on this point among growers, the experi- 

 ments show that in practicall}' every case 

 grass has a very deleterious and some- 

 limes fatal cffcci. " The only case in 

 which, in our particular soil, the action 

 of grass seems to be modified is when 



