■8 July, 1908.] Improvement of Cereals by Selection and Crossing. 415 



selection which necessarily follows and has to be continued for several 

 years, that requires time and attention. And the results of crossing, too, 

 are rendered much more certain from a better understanding of the prin- 

 ciples underlying it, so that hybridizing is no longer what Lindley con- 

 sidered it, "A game of chance played between man and plants." 



The impro\'ement of our grain crops is thus seen to be a work involving 

 careful and systematic effort, directed along definite lines, and from its 

 very nature must be continuous. If the finest plants are selected from 

 suitable varieties, the largest ears chosen and the seed graded so that 

 ■only the best grain is sown, the average yield could be increased by this 

 means alone. New varieties also require to be produced by cross-breeding, 

 not merely to gi\-e us strains with the weaker characters eliminated and as 

 many of the best characters as possible incorporated, but in which such 

 serious diseases as rust and smut have been got rid of by breeding from 

 an immune parent. 



Though careful and systematic work in cross breeding and seed selec- 

 tion wdll give us, in the course of time, cereals with an increased yielding 

 capacity, full advantage of the improvements will not be obtained unless 

 accompanied by a higher standard of farming. In the hands of the 

 careless, a rust-resisting or smut-proof wheat, or indeed any improved 

 seed, would in a few years cease to be pure and soon sink to the level of 

 the general average of the varieties now in cultivation. Just as the in- 

 troduction of the binder and the harvester has necessitated increased 

 mechanical skill in the farm worker to utilize their possibilities to the 

 full, so also these new or improved varieties will demand better cultural 

 methods on the part of the general run of our farmers. Hearty co- 

 operation between the experimentalist and the farmer is the onlv sure 

 way to ultimate success. 



JOTIRNAL OF AGRICULTUR/:, VOLUME I. 



The Department is at present unable to supplv full sets of the parts 

 forming Volume I. of the Journal of Agriculture. These were issued 

 gratis to producers and as it is probable that some of the recipients may 

 have no further use for them the Editor would be pleased to receive an}- 

 available copies of Parts i to 7, published in 1902, from January to Julv 

 inclusive. Returns should be addressed to The Editor, Department of 

 Agriculture, Mel bourne. 



