116 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
is a beardless wheat, while the Ladoga is bearded. The Preston is 
a vigorous growing bearded sort, while the Stanley is a beardless sport 
from the Preston. The Preston wheat has manifested from the out- 
set a remarkably vigorous and prolific character. During the past 
seven years it has been tested in uniform trial plots with nearly 100 
other varieties of spring wheat at all the Dominion experimental farms, 
and, taking the average of all the results obtained, the Preston has 
given a heavier crop than any other sort. 
As compared with the Red Fife the Preston has given an average 
crop for the whole time of 33 bushels 58 lbs. per acre, while the Red 
Fife, during the same period and under similar conditions, has yielded 
32 bushels 30 lbs., a difference in favour of the Preston of 1 bushel 
28 lbs. per acre. It has not yet been definitely proven that the quality 
of the Preston is equal to that of Red Fife; it is, however, regarded 
as an excellent wheat. Samples sent to the office of the High Com- 
missioner for Canada in London, England, in 1900, were submitted 
to one of the best wheat experts on the London market for opinion. 
Regarding the Preston, he reports that after a careful examination 
he finds it to be of most excellent quality for milling purposes, rich 
in gluten, and the type of wheat the British miller wants. 
In a field crop of five acres, grown on the experimental farm at 
Indian Head, in 1901, the Preston wheat averaged 54 bushels 54 Ibs. 
per acre, while a field of 34 acres of Red Fife, grown on similar land 
with the same treatment, gave 49 bushels 40 lbs. per acre. The 
Preston ripens about four days earlier than the Red Fife, which is a 
decided advantage in a short season. This earliness, associated with 
greater productiveness, is remarkable, for, as a rule, any considerable 
gain in earliness is associated with a diminution of crop; the berry 
being smaller and less plump as the ripening is hastened. 
The variety of wheat known as Stanley, although a twin product 
with the Preston, has not shown quite as much vigour nor so high a 
degree of productiveness, it having given, during the seven years 
referred to, an average crop of 31 bushels 19 lbs. per acre, being 2 
bushels 39 lbs. per acre less than Preston. 
In testing the many new varieties of wheat produced, all those 
which show a lack of vigour and productiveness are discarded after 
trial for three or four years. From the new sorts which have been 
originated at the experimental farms during the past thirteen years, 
fifty-four have shown sufficient promise to justify their being included 
in the list of those annually tested in the comparative trial plots at 
the several experimental farms. 
In conducting these experiments the object in view, as already 
stated, is to originate new varieties of wheat equal in quality to Red 
