430 State Board of Agriculture, &c 



ments of Mr. Arnold. A committee appointed by the Board 

 ot Agriculture of Ontario to examine his cross-bred wheat, 

 reported that all the varieties had stood the winter well, 

 quite as well as one of the parents, and much better than 

 the other, and that the heads of the new varieties were 

 much larger than those of the parent kinds. 



With these introductory remarks upon the hybridization 

 of cereals, I will proceed without further delay to detail mj 

 own experiments in this field. It was in 1870 that 1 ope- 

 rated my first cross-fertilization of wheat, impregnating a 

 few ovules in a head of the Black Sea variety with pollen of 

 the Gold Drop or Siberian. I chose the Black Sea as a 

 mother plant or seed-bearer, because of the reputation it 

 maintains as one of the very hardiest varieties ever in culti- 

 vation in this country ; one that will the most successfully 

 withstand the attacks of insects and fungus, endure ill treat- 

 ment at the hands of the farmer, and, even in unfavorable 

 seasons, give good harvests. But while so much may be 

 said in praise of the variety, it must be admitted that the 

 quality of its flour is below the average ; because of this 

 fact I fertilized it with the Gold Drop, which is superior in 

 this regard, and excellent in all respects; seekii.g to unite 

 with the hardiness of the one the finer quality of the other. 

 The fruit of this cross, a half dozen grains, was sown the 

 next spring, in a drill, and cultivated with the utmost care. 

 This first year the several plants showed great uniformity of 

 character. Tliey were, speaking in a general way, interme- 

 diate between their parents. Except for a few short awns 

 on the upper part of the heads, they were beardless hke the 

 Gold Drop, though they had sprung from seed borne on the 



