414 



The Review of Reviews. 



we must never forget the fundamental fact that 

 it costs less to grow the same amount of wheat 

 on an acre than it does on three acres. At !!ie- 

 wheat farm at Sawbridgeworth wheat has been 

 grown continuously since 1861 on the same land, 

 returning a clear average profit of ;^"3 per acre. 

 A VViUshire farmer on a once poor soil has suc- 

 ceeded by an ingenious system of manuring and 

 cultivation in raising his average wheat yield to 

 over five quarters, and the oat crop to not less 

 than ten quarters per acre; while on another 

 farm, which not long was heathland, still more 

 remarkable yields of wheat — an average of 

 nearly seven quarters — are obtained chiefly by 

 means of a carefully carried out system of wheat 

 breeding and seed selection. Many show farms 

 in France, Belgium, and Germany yield as much 

 as nine quarters of wheat without adding more 

 than 10 per cent, to the cost of production 

 necessary on the ordinary farms yielding half 

 that amount and less. The ideal of the new 

 agriculture is a yield of eighty bushels, or ten 

 quarters, per acre. 



now TO PRODUCE MORE WHEAT. 



How is this to be accomplished? In the past 

 it has been done by manuring and careful atten- 

 tion. In the future it is probable that it will be 



considered stupid to use any but pedigree and 

 selected seed, while it is not at all unlikely that 

 such seed will not only be specially and indi- 

 vidually planted, but also replanted. Prince 

 Kropotkin gives some remarkable instances of 

 wheat breeding : — 



At the first International Exhibition, in 1851, Major 

 Hallett, of Manor House, Brighton, had a series of verj' 

 interesting exhibits which he described as " pedigree 

 cereals." liy picking out the best plants of his fields, 

 and by submitting their descendants to a careful selec- 

 tion from year to year, he had succeeded in producing 

 new prolific varieties of wheat and barley. Each grain of 

 these cereals, instead of giving only two to four ears, 

 as is the usual average in a cornfield, gave ten to twenty- 

 five ears, and the best ears, instead of carrying from 

 sixty to sixty-eight grains, had an average of nearly 

 twice that number of grains. 



He even exhibited at the Exeter meeting of the British 

 Association three plants of wheat, barley and oats, each 

 from a single grain, which had the following number of 

 stems : wheat, ninety-four stems; barley, no stems; oats, 

 eighty-seven stems. The barley plant which had im 

 stems thus gave something like 5,000 to 6,000 grains Irom 

 one single grain. 



Two different processes were thus involved in Hallett's 

 experiments ; a process of selection, in order to create new 

 varieties of cereals, similar to the breeding of new varie- 

 ties 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, sc as to have room for 

 the full development of the young plant, which is usually 

 suffocated by its neighbours in our cornfields. At this 





■s«£X:^'..-'>^ •** i 



H ;y ,;d e pIa^r k 



A'ith KENSINGTON GARDENS represent about 



' ONE SQUARE^MILE 



On tliii enough FOOD could easily be produced 



^^WllTOR 6 PERSONS 



■■■■~i 



": ^'1^'.:^^ 



Under present conditions areas of this size (620 acres) only produce food for some ISO persons 



instead of 600, 



