1865.] 



Agriculture. 



645 



Mr. Lawes, of Kothamsted, has reported in the Eoyal Agricultural 

 Society's Journal, an attempt made to reproduce upon his farm the 

 alleged experience of M. Hooibrenk in the artificial fertilization of 

 wheat. That gentleman had declared in the Journal a" Agriculture 

 Pratique that he had obtained a largely increased crop of wheat by an 

 artificial fecundation of the plant conducted in the roughest possible 

 manner. That this process is capable of being artificially directed is 

 plain from the success of experiments in hybridising. If we cut out 

 the anthers of one flower before the pollen has escaped, and substitute 

 others full and just ready to burst, we ensure an artificial result. 

 But the process is one of extreme delicacy, and needs to be most 

 carefully executed. M. Hooibrenk's plan was, on the contrary, 

 extremely rude. To a rope long enough to stretch across the plot to be 

 operated on, pieces of woollen twist two feet in length are attached so 

 close as to touch each other, thus forming a fringe two feet deep. 

 Before using it, this fringe is smeared with honey, and the rope thus 

 prepared is stretched across the plot, and trailed over the growing 

 crop when in bloom in still weather. The idea is that the natural 

 process of fertilization is often imperfectly accomplished, and that by 

 this artificial contrivance an efficient aid is rendered which will make 

 itself apparent in the crop. Mr. Lawes did not find it so. He had 

 plots of land whose cultivation and produce had been so exactly 

 recorded for twelve years, that he was certain of identical results from 

 them under uniform treatment ; but no results were perceptible from 

 the adoption of M. Hooibrenk's process, even on such land where they 

 would certainly have been seen. The honeyed fringe was drawn over 

 each plot to be operated on, three times at intervals of forty-eight hours 

 early in July, and the following table gives the produce obtained 

 with and without the process of artificial fecundation. 



Produce of Wheat per Acre on Duplicate Plots, one Artificially 

 Fecundated and the other not. Harvest 1864. 





Dressed Corn. 



d 



O 



O 

 3 



o 



a 



o 

 O 



"3 

 o 

 H 



.a 

 o 

 ■a 

 a 



cS 



& 



OS 



55 



1? 

 g S 



Plots, &c. 



1 



■B, "> 



? Km 



14 



12a Artificially Fecundated . . 

 126 Not „ . . 



bs. pk. 

 44 If 

 44 3 



lbs. 

 62.6 

 62.4 



lbs. 

 99 

 93 



lbs. 

 2881 

 2882 



lbs. 

 4315 

 4356 



lbs. 

 7196 

 7238 



Difference .... 



13a Artificially Fecundated . . 

 136 Not „ . . 



1J 



42 2f 



43 2| 



0.2 



63.2 

 63.4 



6 



88 

 111 



1 



2786 

 2S82 



41 



4480 

 4620 



42 



7266 

 7502 



Difference .... 



14a Artificially Fecundated . . 

 146 Not „ . . 



1 



41 0} 

 41 3| 



0.2 



63 1 



62.8 



23 



149 

 110 



96 



2740 

 2745 



140 



4003 

 4107 



236 



6743 



6852 



Difference .... 



3£ 



0.3 



39 



5 



104 



109 



