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To be sure there is quite a common belief that the size of the seed 

 lias no material effect upon the product; that, provided a due regard 

 be paid to vitality, any size of seed will answer the purpose of 

 propagation. This belief is one of long standing, and is also held by 

 some men of eminence. Sir Joseph Banks, one of the leaders in agri- 

 culture of a hundred years ago, advocated the use of small seed as 

 answering the purpose of the farmer " as effectually as the largest." 

 He had wheat especially in mind, and as the largest grains contain the 

 most flour, the use of the large instead of the small seed for sowing 

 seemed to him " un-necessary waste of the human subsistence." In re- 

 cent years the distinguished scientist, Haberlandt, has given expression 

 to essentially the same opinion. He believes it is chiefly the strain and 

 the favourable conditions for growth that influence the product, and 

 not the weight of the seed. lie doubtless represents the opinions of 

 a large percentage of cultivators of the present time, inclusive of many 

 good thinkers. Probably a fair statement of the general opinion 

 would be that if a strain is to be kept up to its full vigour, or if im- 

 provement is desired, careful selection of the largest seed is indis- 

 pensable, but that the diffeience between the use of the large and small 

 seed will not be noticeable in the first year's crop. This view is not, 

 however, borne out by experiment, as we will see. 



The amount and strength of the early growth from the seed has 

 been studied by Marek, who experimented with beans and peas. The 

 seeds were laid between moist blotting paper for seventeen days, and 

 then measurements were taken of the length and diameter of the pri- 

 mary and lateral roots and of the stem. The figures all stood higher 

 for the large seeds than for the small seeds, except for the length of 

 the pea stem. Similar experiments were carried out by Yon Taut- 

 •phous, who used from two to four sizes each of wheat, barley, ryey 

 oats, corn, beans and peas. He measured the lengths of the plumule 

 and radicle from day to day for two weeks. His conclusion was that 

 the larger and heavier the seed, the stronger the development. He 

 found, however, an apparent exception in peas, as did Marek, in 

 which the main root and stem are shorter the larger the seed. But 

 in this case it was noted that the extra strength is expended in 

 lateral growth, forming a thicker stem and more side rootlets, thus 

 bringing the apparent anomaly into line. A subsequent experiment by 

 Marek was carried somewhat further. Three sizes of English beans 

 were planted April 24th, and their growth noted up to maturity, July 

 12th, with the result that the larger the seed the taller the stems and 

 the more numerous and larger the leaves. It also occurred to him to 

 test the force exerted by roots of seedlings in piercing the soil, and in 

 thi-s respect also the offspring of large seed showed marked superiority 

 over those from small seed. 



Taking into account now the harvest, we find some excellent expe- 

 riments with clear results. Trial of large and small seed roughly 

 ^separated by sifting was made by Groff with onion, cauliflower, turnip 

 and cabbage, with some gain in favour of the large seed in all but the 

 last, and also made by Latta with wheat, who also obtained gain for 

 the large seed. 



Lehmann separated peas into three grades, large, medium, and 

 small, and planted 528 seeds of each. The germination showed that 



