242 Varieties of JVlieat and Methods of Improving them. 
improvement of the leading cereal, either by the offer of prizes 
for the best sorts and samples, or by means of innumerable papers 
descriptive of the several varieties, of the methods which have 
been adopted for raising new sorts, and of the competitive trials 
by which tlieir relative value has sometimes been tested. 
In the first volume just referred to, the first hundred pages 
following JMr. Pusey's paper include an article by Mr. John 
Morton on the " Relative Values of several Varieties of Wheat," 
and another by Colonel Le Couteur — a prize essay — " On Pure 
and improved Varieties of Wheat lately introduced into Eng- 
land." Mr. Morton had made some trials on sixteen of the 
most commonly planted wheats — such as Old Red Lammas, 
vJ olden Drop, Hunter's Wheat, Thick-set Suffolk, White Taunton, 
Talavera, Red and Blue Cone — with a view of ascertaining their 
relative value, hardiness, and other qualities, and of effecting an 
i nprovement in the best of them. Commencing his experiment 
m November 1837, he planted the seeds at equal distances in 
adjoining plots, with the help of a dibbler invented for the 
occasion. Specimens, in the straw, of each of the varieties were 
laid before the Society, at its old address, 5 Cavendish Square, 
and the results of the experiment — showing the number of ears 
and the weight of the grain, straw, and roots produced by each sort, 
with other particulars — were carefully tabulated in the published 
article. The seed sown was partly selected from specimen ears 
and partly from samples, care being taken that the seed from 
each sort should be the best and plumpest that could be ob- 
tained. Not only the hardiness of the plants, but the spreading 
of the stems, technically called tillering, was noted with pre- 
cision ; and this, I think, shows Mr. Morton's appreciation of 
a characteristic which is sometimes somewhat inconveniently 
developed, for I have known a variety of wheat supplied by its 
" improver " at a high price per bushel, and sown thinly on that 
account, which tillered and tillered till the whole field was as 
green as a pasture, but the energies of the plants were so wholly 
given to tillering that they failed to produce a single seed stem. 
Mr. jMorton stated further that the following wheats proved 
the hardiest : Thick-set Suffolk, Hickley's Prolific, Silver Drop, 
Hunter's, Golden Drop, and Blue Cone. The following were 
the most delicate : Egyptian Cone, Red Straw Lammas, Red 
Cone, and Talavera. The following took an average position in 
regard to hardiness : Old Red Lammas, Ten-rowed Prolific from 
Lincolnshire, White Taunton, Scotch AVhite, and Hereford 
White. The property of tillering was possessed in the gi'eatest 
degree by Red Straw Lammas, Red Cone, and Old Red 
Lammas ; and in the least degree by Ten-rowed Prolific, 
