lo Feb., 191^-] W'/ieai and its Cultivation. 95 



be successful if we use as foiuidation stocks those varieties which have 

 been grown for generations under the very driest conditions. 



There is always a difficulty attendant on the introduction of varieties 

 from foreign shores. Very rarely does an introduced wheat do well 

 during the initial stages of its introduction to an unfamiliar climate, and 

 very often its merits are overl(X>ked by those who are inclined to hasty 

 judgments. This ditlficulty may be appreciated from the experience at the 

 Parafield Wheat Station (South Australia) where over 200 varieties of 

 wheat from different portions of Russia. India, United States, Canada, 

 and Argentine have been grown for some years. Many of these varieties 

 were total failures during the first season or two, but they gradually 

 became " acclimatized," and some of them promise to equal and excel 

 the very best of the local varieties. 



The most probable method, then, of securing suitable varieties for 

 our arid areas would appear to be — 



{a) The systematic testing for a period of years of the best of our 

 local wheats and foreign wheats, when grown under conditions similar to 

 those that obtain in the very driest areas, and 



{b) The gradual improvement of such varieties either by systematic 

 selection or by crossbreeding combined with selection. 



(8) Triticum sativum durum — durum or macaroni wheat. Among the 

 many thousands of varieties grown in different parts of the world the 

 durum wheats promise to be of some value in the production of drought- 

 resistant varieties. They are tall and erect, with smooth, bright green 

 leaves, and long, narrow translucent grain of exceptional hardness, which 

 is invariably rich in gluten, but poor in starch. The heads are usually 

 heavily bearded and vary in colour from light yellow to a bluish black. 

 During recent years these durum wheats have become very popular with 

 the wheat-growers of the arid portions of the United States, and this is 

 simply because, under the'r conditions of climate, these wheats are more 

 productive than tho?e hitherto cultivated. 



Durum wheat, on account of its relatively high gluten content and its 

 densitv. is well suited for the manufacture of macaroni, but it is not 

 generally regarded as suitable fnr milling purposes, on arcount of the 

 dark colour of the flour and of the resultant bread. 



This question of colour in flour is very important, both to the miller 

 and the baker. The consuming public, whether rightly or wrongly we 

 :ieed not consider here, demands bread of snov.- white colour, and looks 

 upon dark-coloured bread as inferior in quality. So long as this demand 

 for snow-w^hite colour in bread continues, so long must both miller and 

 baker consider the question of colour in flour of supreme importance. 



Incidentally, it might be m.entioned that Victoria and South Australia 

 have always been able to produce wheats which on milling give a flour of 

 excellent colour; and it is principallv on this account that these wheats 

 have met with a ready sale on the English market. We cannot, however, 

 overlook the fact that, generally speaking, thev are low in glutei content 

 and in strength. It may be that these deficiencies are a characteristic of 

 the climate, and if so we might be inclined to infer that improvement in 

 these respects is beyond the limit of possibility. While admitting, how- 

 ever, that these important qualities are. in a large measure, dependent on 

 ihe climate, there is reascn to believe that these properties may be greatly 

 improved by crossbreeding and selection. 



