1 Mar., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 173 
SEED PLOTS. ’ 
Every farmer who grows wheat should, before harvesting it, make it a 
matter of duty to go through his wheat fields and select a good-looking plot for 
the seed patch, from which he should remove all undesirable plants, especially 
those having shortand poor ears. ‘This patch of wheat, when harvested, should 
be so kept and stacked that when the year has gone round it can be thrashed 
by itself, and when dressed—just previous to sowing—extra care should be 
taken to separate the light kernels from the heavier grains, reserving the best 
only for seed. By following this course fora few years great improvement 
will result, and the farmer will establish a valuable strain of wheat. In con- 
clusion, we must point out that on no account should the common practice of 
sowing new wheat that is the produce of the recently-finished harvest be 
pursued, as wheat is never fully matured in ripeness until a full season has 
passed. And the same seasonal influences are necessary to mature and perfect 
in strength the germinating principles which would be manifest by a stronger 
straw, longer and better-set ear and finer type of grain. That this is a fact 
can be easily shown by examining the following table and remarks of an experi- 
ment carried out by the writer for a large firm of milling engineers, who wished 
to prove that wheat could be artificially matured .and improved in the mill by 
machinery which manipulated it so thatit came under the influence of moisture, 
heat, and cold. In this test the wheat was grown in Yorkshire, and one sample 
was ground by the writer, and the other, after being “conditioned,” subinitted 
by the writer to the same process of reduction. The chemical test showed the 
following difference, and demonstrates the utility of keeping wheat one year 
before sowing it a seed :— 
Wheat not kept. Wheat conditioned. 
Sugar oe on. 60 2°51 per cent. oe, 2°59 per cent. 
Soluble extracts ... ats 548, oi AIS 
Total albuminoids Pome: OO Rimes ay Ie 4 
Soluble albuminovids mas 1S OO Ramee a et 24.0 Sears 
The above figures point to the fact that the “ conditioned’ wheat was 
increased in milling and baking value above the wheat ground into flour as it 
was received from the farmer in the early autumn, by reason of it haying less 
soluble albumin to hinder fermentation in the process of being made into bread, 
and in the case of germination less soluble albumin means less hindrance in 
the process of breaking down the endosperm, and more sugar in the flour to 
improve the fermentation, also a better gluten to retain water in the bread. 
Both these latter good points are also required in the seed to invigorate the 
yery young plant. 
CHAMPIGNONS. 
Ty the June number of the Journal, 1898, we describe the method of growing 
mushrooms artificially. The present article deals with the French mode of 
growing champignons. Although the latter is a kind of mushroom, it is much 
more slender in the stem and cap, more delicate in flavour, and fetches a 
higher price in the market. It is difficult for a novice to tell a champignon 
from some of the poisonous fungi which resemble it, but, in common with the 
mushroom, it may be known by its liver-coloured lobes, and by its peeling 
easily. 
The champignon, as well as the mushroom proper, is cultivated in the 
environs of Paris, in old disused pit quarries, which are honeycombed with 
galleries, affording exactly the conditions of temperature, moisture, and dark- 
ness favourable to the growth of these excellent vegetables. 
