A NEW THEORY IN WHEAT GROWING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3010, 17 February 1881, Page 3

A NEW THEORY IN WHEAT GROWING.

Under the heading ' Major Hallett on Wheat Growing,' tbe Adelaide Observer says : —There is no more striking exhibit in the whole Melbourne Exhibition than tbe magnificent bunches of rice, grown each from a single grain, to be seen in the Queensland Court. Iα one case there were 200 heads, in another 300 heads, and these not more appearances, but exceptionally heavily loaded ears, filled with perfect grain. The first idea that struck the initiated and uninitiatecljalike that the soil must be splendidly fertile ; and the second was how thin and how early must have been tbe sowing to allow of tbe tillering out of such an enormous number of eavs from the single root. Major ~F. E. Hallett (whose name is well known to our farming readers as being associated with a prolific variety of wheat) in writing to the Nineteenth Contnary of last November calls tbe attention of the sorely distressed British farmer groaning under the competition of new land and cheap land all over the world, to tbe possibility of dsveloping " New wheatfields at Home." Ec asserts that by early sowing, and sowing each grain of wheat nine inches apart from any other, tbe tillering which this strong healthy plant would exercise would produce as many ears of wheat as under the ordinary process, while the average quantity in each ear would bo enormously increased. The number of grains in each ear would be more then doubled, and the average weight of each grain would also be largely increase:!. There is strong corroboration of the fact in these Queensland rice head?, because, instead of the grain being few to the ear, or hungry looking individually, the number and weight were far above the average. In I England the quantity of seed wheat or other grain sown is generally much in excess of what, is thought necessary in Australia, from the idea that the depredation of birds or other circumstances prevent a large proportion of the seed from germinating at all. Major Halletfc shows that the number of ears on a square yard is almost equal, whether there is one, two, or three bushels to the acre sown, and is about 573 to the square yard. Whereas by sowing one-ninth of a bushel to the acre in grains planted singly in September, the field is nob very tempting to the birds, which then have abundant food elsewhere, and the plant goes on tillering till the time comes for the stems to assume an upright growth. Then the tillering ceases, and the whole vital power of the plant is concentrated on the development of the ears and these will be the finest the plant is capable of producing, unless the growth of the root is impeded by other roots too close to it. A plant of wheat has been known to cover in May a circle 6ft 6in in diameter.