. Australian Garden and Field. 272 THE GARDEN AND FIELD. January. 1914 KEEPS OUT ALLTHEMIW Maize Breeding and Seed Selection. P'rom Dalijcty's Review. It is becominjr more and more evident to the i)ractical ajjricultur- istâas it has ))een for (fenerations back to the pastoralistâthat the breedinc^ of the jrro\vin<r commodity with which he has to deal has lavgrelv to do with success or fail- ure in his operations. The agricul- tural laboratories of Cambridsjc and of Rothamsted in England, as well as those of the United States and Canada and other places, are busv with investiga- tions on th
. Australian Garden and Field. 272 THE GARDEN AND FIELD. January. 1914 KEEPS OUT ALLTHEMIW Maize Breeding and Seed Selection. P'rom Dalijcty's Review. It is becominjr more and more evident to the i)ractical ajjricultur- istâas it has ))een for (fenerations back to the pastoralistâthat the breedinc^ of the jrro\vin<r commodity with which he has to deal has lavgrelv to do with success or fail- ure in his operations. The agricul- tural laboratories of Cambridsjc and of Rothamsted in England, as well as those of the United States and Canada and other places, are busv with investiga- tions on the subject, more especial- Iv as regards wheat and its maxi- mum production through breeding. The ordinarv farmer discerns no differences in the ears of his grain. It is corn, and only corn. And yet, however homogenous a field of corn m it is in reali- ty a mixture, which varies year â ar in the proportions of its different races. This is true of practically all of our cultivated plants. It is enuall - true of .some wild 'sp'ecies, and perhaps cf all. If the flower of -^articular form of plant be careful^⢠protect- ed from chance pollination bv the pollen of some other form, and its seed isolated and "-rown senarate- Iv, it will vield plants practically identical with the parent form. That also is the case with the cereals which supply man with food. In connection with wheat, it was first noted about one hun. dred years ago by a Spanish pro- fessor of botany^ Mariano Lagas- ca. He was then on a visit to a friend, Colonel I/e Couteur, who had a number of farms in .Jersey, some ol which were used to grow wheat. l^agasca pointed out to his hf)st that the fields of wheat were not reallv pure and uniform, as was then the i)revailing belief, and he distinguished no fewer than twentv-three vatieties all growing together. He suggested that some of the varieties might form a larger part of the harvest than others, and that some were possiblv of more economical value than the r
Size: 1558px × 1603px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcollectionbiodiversity, bookcontribut, bookpublisheradelaide
