July 2, 1920.] 



Agricultural Gazette of N. S. W. 



459 



Coming nearer home, we find that the variety JVIarshall's No. 3 originated 

 as a natural cross in a crop of Ward's Prolilic. Seed sown from the original 

 plant yielded ^ white straw and § purpU^ straw plants. Mr. R. Marshall 

 gave me its history when visiting him in 1915. Stein wedel, picked out of a 

 crop by a farmer of that name 

 in South Australia, probably 

 had a similar origin. Tn 

 Western Australia, Mr. W. 

 C. Gi'asby has recently found 

 Wilfred wheat, which has 

 been uniform for some years, 

 breaking up into several types. 

 The late Mr. W. Farrer, of 

 this State, found a number of 

 cases among Indian sorts and 

 some few in other varieties. 



During the last ten years 

 we have seen cases in seven 

 Indian varieties. Two of 

 these came from Howard, of 

 the Indian Department of 

 Agriculture, who bred and 

 fixed them most carefully on 

 Mendelian lines. Other 

 varieties in which we have 

 found what appear to be 

 natural crosses, are: — Aus- 

 tralian Talavera, Thew, Mar- 

 shall's No. 3, Grosse's Prolific, 

 Firbank, Comeback, Bunyip, 

 John Brown, Sunset, Droop- 

 head, Yandilla King, Fretes, 

 Ecksteen, Currawa, Warren, 

 Jumbuck, Zealand, Common- 

 wealth, Huguenot, Federation, 

 and Hard Federation. 



The character of the varia- 

 tions may be illustrated by a 

 few examples. In Thew, the 

 progeny showed more awn at 

 the tip in some plants than in 



others, and the plot showed more vigour than that of the mother variety. In 

 the case of Bunyip, a tip-awned wheat, a much paler foliage colour was seen, 

 and the ears were fully clothed with rather short dark awns. The milling 

 examination of three variants from Bunyip showed flour strengths of 44, 46, 

 and 49 respectively. Huguenot at Wagga Experiment Farm yielded a plant 



Typical Brown Awnless Ears of Hard Federation. 



