The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 7 (November 1, 1933)
Birth: Growth
Birth: Growth.
Russia's efforts to apply science to agriculture must interest all countries that export primary produce. Among many of these ambitious efforts is “vernalisation”—a pre-treatment of seed. “Vernalised” wheat, it is stated, is seed wheat which has been pre-treated by subjection to certain conditions of moisture and temperature, so that the reproductive process in the wheat is advanced before planting; and “crops grown from ‘vernalised’ seed have matured twenty to twenty-six days earlier than crops sown at the same time with untreated seed”— an important achievement in Russia's short hot summer, requiring quick ripening of wheat. A plant does two things—(a) it grows, and (b) it reproduces. The Russians say that reproduction need not wait entirely on growth. Reproduction can be given a flying start by pretreatment of seed. Thus reproduction (the wheat ear) will be effective at an earlier date in the growth-life of the plant.