Improvement of Grain by Selection.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 997, 8 December 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

Improvement of Grain by Selection.

The principle of selection has long been appreciated by stock-breeders, and they have largely profited by the application of its teachings. As applied to the growth of cereals it has not found a very wide acceptance, not having had time to force itself on the attention of the average farmer. The founder of the practice of selecting grain for seed is Major Hallett, F. L. S., Brighton, England. In 1861 he planted ten grains of wheat, from a variety known there as Bellevue Talavera wheat, which up to that time had been sown as a spring wheat, and was declared to be quite incapable of withstanding the frost of winter. Nine of the ten plants from these grains were killed by the severe frost, but the other plant, although from the same ear, remained as healthy and vigorous

aa any of the winter varieties of wheat by its side. From this surviving plfht, seed has been selected and grown year after year as a winter wheat. Close observation shows that in the cereals, as throughout nature, no two plants or grains are exactly alike in pro- , ductive power, and hence that of any two or greater number of grains or plants one is always superior to all the others, although the superiority can only bo ascertained by actual field tests. It may consist in several particular characteristics, as power to withstand frost ; prolificness : size, and character of ear; size, form, quality and weight of grain ; length and stiffness of straw ; powers of tillering : rapidity of growth; and many others. — Popular Science Monthly.