2^4 Journal of Agriculture. [8 May, 1908. 



ition without any further selection or isolation of the best individuals. 

 The race to begin with was pure and uniform and remained so, as long 

 as it was not contaminated with any other \'ariety. 



Pedigree-Cultures. 



While Shirreff was engaged on his farm in Scotland selecting his best 

 plants as the basis of improvement, another eminent breeder had begun 

 similar work at Brighton in the south of England. Major Hallett started 

 m 1857 from quite a different point of view. He had experience in the 

 breeding of cattle, especially shorthorns, and he applied a similar principle 

 to the breeding of wheats. He went on the principle that each plant has 

 ■one ear which is the best of all, and that each ear has one best seed, 

 .the best seed always being found in the best ear. As he assumed that 

 the qualities of the best seeds are inherited by the plants which they 

 produce, he therefore concluded that varieties would be improved by 

 ■choosing the ripest and best seed of the best ear of the best plant as a 

 starting point. He repeated this process through a series of generations 

 but he soon found that there was a limit beyond which he could not carry 

 his improvements. This method of selecting each year the best grain 

 from the best ear of the best plant has been called by Hallett " Pedigree- 

 culture." The principle was one which could easily be adopted by every 

 ■cultivator, at least to the extent of the initial selection, and the results 

 were so striking that it soon became generally and favorably known. 



Apart from his initial choice, there are two features which distinguish 

 Haliett's method from the preceding. 



The first is that he sought to improve his plants directly by giving 

 them special treatment, such as plenty of space, rich deep soil and 

 manure, and cultivating them with extreme care, so as to increase their 

 productiveness. There is a tradition of his having planted one of his 

 grains, which afterwards turned out one of his best cultures, in a scooped- 

 out potato. He therefore treated his selected plants like garden plants, 

 planting them in the best garden soil and giving them individual care 

 and attention. In this way he increased the number of branches (stooling 

 ■or tillering) and ears and the numl^er of spikelets and grains in the 

 individual ear. This process of amelioration or improvement was some- 

 times rapid and sometimes slow. In Hunter's wheat, which was one of 

 the original sorts he selected to be improved, he began with 60 grains 

 in the ear, increased it to 90 in the first }ear and then during twelve years 

 ■of culture, the best ear produced 106 grains. In his " Original red 

 wheat " he started from an ear containing 47 grains. In the next genera- 

 tion an ear yielded 79 grains^ and in the second generation the ricTTest 

 ear had 90 grains. During the following seventeen generations, the limit 

 was practicallv not exceeded, as the richest ear never produced more than 

 91 grains. 



The second feature in his work is the amount of care exercised in 

 testing and comparing the plants produced. 



'ihe individual plants were chosen and the ears counted with the 

 -exact number of grains in each. In this way all the plants above the 

 average were selected and the remainder rejected, and the selected ones 

 again compared so as to secure the very best specimens. In this specimen 

 the ears were again examined and the one best ear chosen for the next 

 generation. If the best individual is chosen, it is not regarded now-a-days 

 as of much consequence which of the grains are sown, so long as they 

 -are bright, sound and plump and the smaller grains rejected. 



