1909.] Summary of Agricultural Experiments. 153 



bear a greater number of spikelets than the new varieties, but although 

 Sandy and Potato excel in this respect (having 50 to 70 spikelets), 

 there is often poverty of grain within the spikelets and low weight of 

 individual grains — matters capable of considerable improvement by 

 means of careful selection, attention to pedigree, and, above all, by 

 securing and sowing the best seed. 



Among the grain-producing varieties, Banner and Mounted Police 

 have about 40 spikelets to the ear, usually well filled with heavy corn. 

 Some of the varieties, such as Danish Island and Wide-awake, vary 

 from 22 to 37. 



Varieties of Oats. — ( West of Scotland Agric. Coll. Bull. 46. Report 

 on Experiments on Varieties of Oats, 1902-7, Section III., Dressed 

 Grain.). — This section of the report on varieties of oats deals exclusively 

 with dressed grain. From an examination of the weight of 1,000 seeds 

 of different varieties, it appears that they may be divided into two 

 classes, one marked by low, and the other by high, comparative weight. 

 These varieties may for convenience be called small and large oats, 

 the former being the well-known Scotch oats, or straw-producing 

 kinds, of which the best known examples are Sandy and Potato, the 

 large oats being the grain producing sorts, such as Banner and 

 Waverley. 



When this difference in size is realised, it will be understood that 

 a bushel will contain very different numbers of seeds, and that some 

 calculation is necessary to ensure that the different kinds are sown 

 at the same rate. This is not represented by the same number of 

 bushels, nor the same number of pounds, but by that number of 

 pounds which corresponds to 3,000,000 seeds, this being the ordinary 

 number of seeds required per acre. A number of tables are given 

 showing that high weight per bushel is not a reliable indication of 

 heavy individual seeds, and in order to make certain of heavy corn 

 the only simple plan is to weigh a counted number of seeds. A high 

 weight of seeds, however, does not always imply that they formed 

 part of a heavy crop, although one mark of good seed oats is 

 undoubtedly high weight per 1,000 seeds, for this character is often 

 intimately connected with the best crops. On the other hand, these 

 investigations clearly showed that in some cases the heaviest seed 

 may come from the poorest crop. This heaviness, however, is not of 

 the proper sort; it is the kind that comes from poverty-stricken ears 

 rather than from ears prolific of grain ; careful examination enables 

 the two kinds to be distinguished. Fortunately, the prolific ear 

 develops the grains in pairs, and, in certain varieties, even in triplets ; 

 whereas the stunted ear develops the grains singly, and there are 

 no "bosom pickles," none of the small grains which mark the prolific 

 ear. The heavy grains borne by stunted ears have, therefore, at the 

 end of the stalk on the inner face, a tiny white rudiment, which must 

 be absent from the corresponding seeds of prolific ears, since there 

 the rudiment has ceased to be a rudiment, and has become transformed 

 into a second grain or " bosom pickle." 



The corns from prolific ears are not of uniform size, since the 

 "second" or "bosom pickle" is smaller than the larger grain with 

 which it is associated. Accordingly, the end of the stalk of the large 

 seed bears no rudiment, but a scar left by the detachment of the " bosom 



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