86 



THE WHEAT CTILTUKIST. 



lie had no control, it was delayed. The next day a 

 thaw ensned, and I was enabled to stir np the mud in 

 one corner of my garden to the depth of three inches, 

 when I came to fi'ost. A small portion of the wheat 

 was put in, one grain in a place, six inches sqnare. Of 

 com'se it made no show nntil spring, when it came up 

 early ; bnt not yery thickly, thongh it tillered ont so 

 that the nnmber of stalks yaried from eleyen on the 

 best, to fiye on the worst stool. It did not all grow, 

 and futm-e experiment demonstrated that about sixty- 

 fiye per cent, was injured in its passage across the ocean. 

 The remainder was planted in the fall of 1S65, just 

 before om- regulai' seeding time ; and one quarter of an 

 acre planted came up in about the aboye proportion ; 

 that is, about thirty-fiye grains out of eyery hundred 

 grew. This was truly a dull prospect, and was made 

 more so from the fact that the midge injm-ed tlie grain 

 of what did grow. Early in the fall of 1 86 6 we planted 

 some of the best of our own seed as thinly as our drill 

 would put it on — say one bushel to four acres ; and 

 ha^aug some of our imported seed left, we put a portion 

 of it in, alongside of that of our own growth, at the 

 same rate, without any allowance for injiu-ed grains in 

 either case. At this time the difference is in fayor of 

 our own seed, it being quite as thick as our regular wheat 

 on another part of the farm, while that from the im- 

 ported seed makes but little show, nor should we reason- 

 ably expect much from wheat seeded at the rate of six- 

 teen pounds per acre, and but thirty-fiye per cent, of 

 this to grow. Those who haye tried to acclimatize 

 foreign wheat know that it cannot be done in one or two 

 years. Thus far my experience confij*ms Hallett's idea 

 that by ' breeders ' he has fix:ed the peculiar type of 



