INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1912-13. 'it 



Extensive seed farms for the growth of these wheats are 

 now in working order and high grade seed, true to type, is 

 being supplied in large quantities to the public. 



The preliminary work relating to the improvement of 

 the Indian wheat crop need only be referred to very briefly. 

 One of the first practical results of the wheat investiga- 

 tions at Pusa was the demonstration of the fact that varie- 

 ties with milling and baking qualities, similar to those of 

 the best wheats on the English market, could be grown in 

 Bihar under barani conditions. By the application of 

 modern methods of selection and hybridization these high 

 grain qualities were successfully combined with high yield- 

 ing power, rust-resistance and strong straw so that wheats 

 were found which gave, on land in fair cultivation, up- 

 wards of 2,500 lbs. of grain to the acre without irrigation. 

 The milling and baking tests connected with this work 

 were carried out in England by Mr. A. E. Humphries, a 

 past President of the Incorporated Society of British and 

 Irish Millers and a well-known authority on these ques- 

 tions. Mr. Humphries reported that the Pusa wheats were 

 a great advance on those exported from India and behaved 

 in the mill and bakehouse like Manitoba spring wheats, 

 which are in greatest demand for bread making in England 

 and which command the highest prices on the Home mar- 

 kets. At the same time enquiries were made in India 

 itself as to the suitability of the new wheats as food for the 

 people. In all cases both cultivators, landholders and the 

 educated community preferred for their own food the Pusa 

 wheats to those ordinarily grown in India. 



The next step was to determine whether or not grain 

 quality would be affected by growing these wheats in differ- 

 ent localities in India and particularly under canal irriga- 

 tion. In collaboration with Mr. Leake and with the assist- 

 ance of a large number of officers of the Agricultural 

 Department this work has been undertaken and the same 

 wheat has been grown for several years at a large number 

 of stations in the various wheat tracts and the samples 

 have been tested by Mr. Humphries in England. The fact 



