13 JUNE 1931, Page 14

Botanically as well as economically these cereal grains (on which

our civilization has been built up) are of curious interest.

I saw this week grown in Suffolk a single plant of oats that had seventy-six straws. It was doubtless a more or less accidental freak, but that variety is one that " tillers " very readily. In a field crop of it many single grains of seed had produced a plant of twenty to thirty blades. It is sometimes doubted whether for most grains it is not better to limit this tillering by close sowing, since seed is not always a very big item in the total cost. But whatever may be the best propor- tion, it remains that in some varieties, including the white oat (" unique ") to which I refer, the tillering is so natural that under a bushel of seed to the acre is found to be enough.