WHEAT CULTIVATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15581, 3 April 1911, Page 9

WHEAT CULTIVATION.

A cutting has been forwarded by the Acting Trades Commissioner for South Africa in London, from the " Daily Mirror " of October 10, relative to a new scientific process for accelerating the growth of wheat, discovered by Mr J. J. Melville. It is claimed that by this process, which affects the germ of the wheat, and other seed, the life force of the seed is trebled, and it is oossible to get two crops a year off the land. The process is a secret, at any rate at present, but the Trades Commissioner is endeavouring to obtain more definite particulars. The '' Daily Mirror's" correspondent at Burnham-on-Crouch describes a striking experiment which has been made in connection with this now process, as follows: - "I have to-day seen a field of wheat here, which is, in effect, a revolution, for it is the quickest crop that ever grew in England. . . This wheatwas sown on July 1!) of this year, and it will be ready to reap in about a fortnight. To-day it is in full ear, only eleven weeks and a half after it was planted. It has caught up tho ordinary wheat sown in spring. In the. ordinary way, eighteen weeks elapse from the time wheat is planted till it is ready for reaping. Under this system the period will, it is believed, bo reduced to nine weeks. . . . The seed was treated by a new process discovered by Sir J, J. Melville, a scientist who has been making experiments upon the subject of the vitality of seeds for the past three years. The process lie discovered is, however s<spx secret for several reasons.- Arrangements are being made to treat seed of all kinds—for corn is not the only one benefited—and they will shortly be placed on the market. " Mr Sutf r, healing of the new discovery, sent somo of his own wheat seed to be treated, and, when he got it back, sowed it in one of his fields, fully three months, according to the established idea, after tho season for sowing wheat had gone by. He obtained five witnesses, who made signed statements that it went in on that date. Being country people used to crops, they were very doubtful if the experiment was wise, to say the least of it. But today Mr Suter was able to assure mo that the wheat is quite as good as that sown in the spring, and that, in addition, owing to the extremely rapid growth of the crop, he was not obliged to weed. ' The seed.'he said, 'was drilled in under the most ordinary conditions, both as regard;? soil and cultivation. Only fire days after sowing the wheat appeared—tho usual time is three weeks—-and the plants on the thirteenth day wore in such a forward condition that the ground had to l»e rolled. Tho first ears were out on Friday, September 16—eight weeks and three days from planting. The land was' not specially manured, nor prepared in any exceptional-wav.' " EXTRAO RDINA BY RESULTS. The " Daily Mirror." correspondent interviewed Mr Melville on tho subject of his discovery, and the latter's statement is of interest. " The treated wheat was also tried in Saxony," ho said, " but it was not planted until July 22. Identical results have been obtained. The process of treating tho seeds." ho proceeded, " takes three weeks, and it a.ffects the germ of the wheat or other seed, and trebles the life-force naturally contained in it. Tho force 1 introduce reduces the seed to a more negative (electrically speaking) state than if is normally. J regard tlie ordinary seed as being in an unduly positive condition. Nature, to alter that, has to take time, and time is money to tho farmer. But that is only part of the process, and the rest must remain secret, at any rate for a time. I think it will be possible to get two crops a year off the land : one

sown in' March, and the other in Jun<* Certainly that will he feasible if on* crop is lucerne and the other a cereal, I <lo not think I am unduly hopeful when I say that I think in the- ftrfor* wheat will grow in a manner that caa hest bo desoribed as on hushes an 4 each bush will bo from one seed. It will divide the amount of 6eed needed to Ik> sown by at least threo. I made a, tost with barley ; taking one graiiw From that one grain I got 3300 grains on 54 stems. The second year they gave one bushel, and in the third year that bushel resulted in forty-five and a, quarter bushels, all from one single seed in three yoars. . . . I can, treat any seeds and obtain precisely tho same •npenority," Mr Melville concluded.