INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1910-11. 35 



period of three months. During this time the work done 

 was the following : — 



Wheat. — One of the directions in which the improve- 

 ment of Indian wheat has been attempted at Pusa has been 

 the increase in rnst-resisting power of the kinds at present 

 in cultivation in the plains. This is a subject which has 

 on several previous occasions occupied the attention of the 

 Government of India, but little or no results of practical 

 value have been obtained in the past. It was found at 

 Pusa and at Lyallpur that although the types at present 

 in cultivation differ considerably in rust-resisting power, 

 and that in consequence a considerable improvement in this 

 character is possible by simple isolation methods, neverthe- 

 less India does not possess any wheats with the same power 

 of withstanding rust as is shown by many of the wheats of 

 Northern Europe, and especially by American Club. The 

 quality of resistance of the best Indian wheats is of quite 

 a lower order than that possessed by the wheats grown 

 under the more adverse climatic conditions of the North 

 Temperate Zone. This is seen not only when the two 

 classes are grown side by side in India, but also when they 

 are cultivated together in England. One of the directions, 

 therefore, in which improvement might be attempted was, 

 in the light of the work already done at Cambridge on the 

 inheritance of rust resistance in wheat, the production of 

 new kinds by hybridization between Indian wheats and 

 some rust-resistant forms from Northern Europe or 

 America. Attempts to carry this out in practice at Pusa 

 failed on account of the impossibility of getting the rust- 

 resisting parents to flower in time for crossing to be done 

 and for the resulting grain to ripen before the hot weather 

 set in. This difficulty was overcome by sending the Indian 

 parents to Cambridge for spring sowing in 1910 and by 

 carrying out the actual hybridization work in England. 

 Thanks to the facilities given by Professor Biffen at Cam- 

 bridge, crosses were made by us between various Indian 

 types and American Club and other rust-resistant wheats 

 at Cambridge, and the first generation of the hybrids was 



