32 REPORT OF THE AGRICTULTURAL RESEARCH 



Trials of Pusa Wheats in India. 



During the rabi season of 1911-12 extensive trials of 

 wheats were made in most of the important wheat tracts of 

 India. As these trials have, in many cases, passed the 

 experimental stage and the wheats are being grown on a 

 large scale for seed distribution, the present seems a fitting 

 opportunity of summing up the results so far obtained and 

 of giving a connected idea of this portion of the wheat 

 investigations. 



One of the first results of the wheat investigations at 

 Pusa was the demonstration of the fact that varieties with 

 milling and baking qualities similar to those of the best 

 wheats on the English market could be grown to perfection 

 in Bihar under barani conditions. By the application of 

 modern methods of selection and hybridization these high 

 grain qualities were successfully combined with high 

 yielding power, rust-resistance and strong straw so that 

 wheats were produced which gave upwards of 2,500 lbs. of 

 grain to the acre without irrigation or manure. In one 

 case, a yield of 2,832 lbs. to the acre was obtained at Pusa. 

 These new^ wheats were then thoroughly tested in England, 

 both in the mill and bakehouse, and were found to behave 

 like Manitoba spring wheats, which are in greatest demand 

 for bread-making in England and which command the high- 

 est prices on the Home markets. In this portion of the 

 work I was fortunate enough to secure the co-operation of 

 Mr. A. E. Humphries, a past President of the Incorporated 

 Society of British and Irish Millers. 



The next stage in these investigations was to extend 

 the trials to other wheat-growing areas in India. These 

 were carried out during the rabi seasons of 1910-11 and 

 1911-12 and the results are summed up below. 



United Provinces. — As most of the wheat exported frorp 

 India is grown under irrigation, it was important to ascer- 

 tain by actual trials whether high grain quality and higli 

 yield could also be obtained under canal irrigation. For- 

 tunately in this portion of the investigations the active 

 co-operation of Mr. H. Martin Leake (Economic Botanist 



