INSTITUTE, PUSA, FOR 1918-19 



55 



field scale and are yielding very promising results. Un- 

 fortunately some of the Pusa 6 crosses have inherited one 

 defect, namely, their inability to hold their grain for a long 

 period in a dry season. To remove this they have been 

 re-crossed with short-strawed, rust-resistant Indian types 

 of high grain quality which hold their grain well. From 

 the crosses so obtained it is expected that ideal types suit- 

 able for the damper wheat-growing areas of India will be 

 obtained. It must be remembered that rust-resistance by 

 itself is of little economic value. It is only when this 

 character is combined with a large number of others that 

 it becomes of use to the country. If the wheat rust pro- 

 blem, as is sometimes thought, consisted only in the isola- 

 tion of rust-resistant types this portion of the wheat inves- 

 tigations at Pusa would long since have been completed. 

 The problem before the plant breeder, however, is much 

 more difficult than this. 



Trials of new Pusa wheats. The trials, on a field scale, 

 of some of the new series of Pusa wheats which were begun 

 in 1917-18 have been continued during the last year. Those 

 at Kalianpur and Cawnpore were carried out by Mr. B. C. 

 Burt while the Pusa tests were made in the Botanical Area. 

 The results are given in Table III. 



Table III. 



Trials of neir Pusa wheats at Pusa, Cawnpore and Kaliawpur, 



1918-19. 



