/!o6 Jounidl of Agriculture. [8 July, 1908. 



may be strengthened in every way, and Darwin has shown this improve- 

 ment in a number of cases, expressed in actual ligures and extending even 

 to the tenth generation. 



As practical breeders of cereals, particularly wheat, we have had the 

 late Mr. Farrer, of New South Wales, whose numerous crosses in culti- 

 vation speak for themselves. As early as 1886, he began experiu'cntal 

 work, and in his paper on The making and improvement of wheat for 

 Australian conditions, he gives full details as to his aims and methods. 

 Fortunately his work is being continued by his former assistant, Mr. 

 Sutton. As already mentioned Mr. Pye has done gOod work in Victoria, 

 where also some of the cross-breeds raised by Messrs. Carter and Carton 

 of England have been tested and are still being grown. 



Carton's Results in Crossing. 



It Avill serve our present purpose to call attention to a few of the re- 

 markable results obtained by Mr. Carton at Newton-le-Willows and Acton 

 Crange, England. To begin with he collected as many seed-grains as 

 possible from all parts of the world and had them growing in his experi- 

 mental fields as the necessary material for cross-breeding. Among them 

 he had a wild wheat from Southern Asia, of no commercial value in itself, 

 but holding its grain with great tenacity. On crossing this wdth an bther- 

 wise desirable wheat, but liable to shed its grain, he remedied this grain- 

 shedding defect. In the case of barley, there is a fibrous covering to the 

 grain which has to be removed before it can be used for food. This is 

 done by mechanical means and the grain is converted into " pearl barley " 

 at a loss of 25 per cent, of the food content. By crossing the ordinary 

 commercial barley with " Nepaul barley," which has a loose skin that 

 breaks away during threshing and is not bearded, Mr. Carton was able 

 to produce a barley of the finest quality, and the grain suitable for 

 ordinary food purposes after threshing without any further mechanical 

 treatment. The two-rowed barley has also been experimented with and 

 converted into a six-rowed barley, the four rows of sterile flowers having 

 been rendered fertile. The wild oat {Avena fatua) is well-known to possess 

 a vigorous constitution, to stand the severest winters, and to be very strong 

 in the straw and to ripen early. It would evidently be an advantage to 

 have these qualities added to the already improved oat where necessary. 

 Mr. Carton sought to combine them by crossing, but found that the wild 

 oat did not cross directly with the cultivated oat. He therefore secured 

 a wild variety of French oat with which it combined, and in this indirect 

 way was able to mate it with the cultivated oat. 



These are a few bf the possibilities open to the breeder of cereals. 

 Although the artificial cross-breeding of plants had been carried out in a 

 systematic way since the middle of the i8th century, beginning with Kol- 

 reuter, and the breeder of animals had made considerable improvement in his 

 types by intercrossing, and although numerous observations had been made 

 upon the behaviour of hybrid plants and animals, yet until quite recently 

 there was no general principle to bind together the .scattered facts. There 

 was no predicting beforehand what was going to happen, and the results 

 of practical experience were the only guide. There was an air of secrecy 

 and mystery often about the breeder's Work, as if it were something not 

 reducible to law and could only by practised by someone specially gifted. 

 The mating of animals or plants was a simple matter, but the seemingly 



