Once a Week (magazine)/Series 1/Volume 9/Pedigree wheat
PEDIGREE WHEAT.
In these days of new discoveries, when we can travel at the rate of a mile in a minute, and reach far distant countries in an incredibly short space of time by means of two wheels on each side of a ship, or send a message to Amsterdam from London, and receive an answer in two minutes and a half, we need not wonder that a plan has recently been discovered for greatly increasing the size of the ears of wheat.
Before we enter more fully into the vast importance of this discovery to the world generally, we may give the reasons why this wheat is called “Pedigree wheat.”
A gentleman (Mr. Hallett), whose farm I very recently had the pleasure of seeing, in the immediate neighbourhood of Brighton, showed me and my friends, with much kindness, the result of his experiments in the growth of wheat and other cereals, and explained the reasons of his undertaking them.
With good, strong, plain sense, it struck Mr. Hallett, what every stock-breeder knows, that from the largest and best animals the best stock was produced. With this idea in his head, he felt convinced that the principle might be applied to grain. As a stimulus to pursue his plan, he fortunately discovered that in the grains of one ear of wheat one grain is to be found greatly to excel all the others in productive power. Thus, by carefully selecting his seeds from the best ear (for there is always one best ear amongst the tillers, and, as was remarked, one best grain in it), the result has been a growth of wheat perfectly extraordinary. Year after year these best grains have been put into the ground, and the result is shown in the accompanying sketch, the first being the original ear from which the grain was taken, and the longest ear grown in 1861.[1]
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We can the better exemplify Mr. Hallett’s success by the following facts:
A gardener in Scotland was struck with the appearance of a blossom on a sweet-william in his garden. He carefully preserved the seeds from it, and the following year had a still better flower, the seeds from which he also preserved. In this way he went on, year after year, for fifteen years, when he produced flowers nearly as fine as auriculas. This was his ne plus ultra. Whether Mr. Hallett will improve on his present large ears and their yield, remains to be seen. We cannot but think his experiments will end where they now rest, and his Pedigree wheat, like that of the sweet-william, become exhausted. As Mr. Hallett keeps a regular registry of the result of the different growths of his wheat, as well as the produce from it, his adopting the word “Pedigree” is, we think, perfectly correct. It is high-bred wheat.
But let us turn to the immediate benefits to be derived from Mr. Hallett’s experiments.
In the year 1857, the original ear was 4⅜ inches long, and produced 47 grains. In the ear 1861, the finest ear was 8¾ inches long, and produced 123 grains, and also 80 tillers from one grain only. Thus, by means of repeated selection alone, the length of the ears has been doubled, and their contents nearly trebled, and the tillering power of the seed increased eightfold.[2]
That the enormous yield of Mr. Hallett’s Pedigree wheat will render us less dependent on foreign supplies cannot be doubted. When we consider that eighty ears have sprung from one seed, some of which have sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen sets up each side of it, this new development is little short of miraculous, and the product has been accomplished in five years by selection alone, and that on land which apparently is but little adapted for the growth of wheat, there being only about four inches of soil, with a chalk rock close beneath. And what a sight presented itself when we viewed Mr. Hallett’s large wheat-fields and his selections in his garden but a very short time ago! We shall never forget it. We have admired the blue sky, the calm lake, the sunny glade, the budding blossoms, and the beauteous flowers; we have wandered on the sides of purling brooks, and seen the foamy sea in all its glory; but never do we recollect, being more struck with admiration, and even wonder, than when we beheld the fine crops of Mr. Hallett’s cereals. We mention cereals, because we include his oats and barley, both of which exhibited not only an extraordinary growth, but an enormous yield, some of the stalks of oats being at least seven feet in height. But to return to the crop of wheat. It waved its pendulous heads to the slight breeze which blew, each ear giving a promise of great productiveness, and, as far as the eye could reach over the waving fields, each ear was of the same great and unusual length. Nor was there any crowding of the plants. Ample room had been given for each, and the consequence was that the tillers were in due proportion to the space given. There was also a very great saving in the quantity of seed wheat usually sown, and the one peck per acre, planted by Mr. Hallett, or one bushel on six acres, if sown in August, allowing nine inches every way for the tillers. All this is a great consideration, as well as a great saving of seed. Indeed, dibbled in the way Mr. Hallett recommends, even to twelve inches apart, a half-peck of seed has planted an acre of ground. Thus the saving of seed is something considerable towards keeping the nation in bread. It is plain, therefore, that if Mr. Hallett’s system were applied to all corn crops in the United Kingdom, its dependence on foreign countries for yearly supplies of breadstuffs would cease, and the immense sums now paid for such products would be so much saved of the income of the empire. The effect of such a revolution in agriculture is almost beyond our imagination to realise. Indeed, changes so vast and so startling have never yet occurred in the history of agriculture. It may be stated that during the last fifteen years, we have imported as much foreign corn as has cost three hundred millions sterling! May we not now with reason suppose that, as the population of this country is increasing to a great extent, the discoveries of Mr. Hallett may ultimately be the means of producing sufficient food for that increase? This is no theoretical idea, but one founded on the designs of that Providence which supplies food for every living creature.
Edward Jesse.