158 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



been devoted to barley. The special objects in view are the production 

 of high-yielding, early-maturing sorts which shall possess greater stiff- 

 ness of straw than the common barleys of to-day. Special attention is 

 being paid to the breeding of beardless sorts for which there is a general 

 demand on the part of the fai-mers, l)ut which up to the present have 

 always been characterized by poor field characters. Hulless varieties 

 are also often asked for. Many of the new cross-bred sorts now under 

 preliminary test are both beardless and hulless; and some of them give 

 promise of exceptional usefulness. With oats less work has been done. 

 Attention is, however, being given to the need for a good oat which 

 shall thresh out free from hull, and thus make possible the realization 

 of the dream in which some of us occasionally indulge: the dream of 

 porridge free from husks. Many cross-bred hulless oats are now under 

 test, some of which are decidedly promising. 



Before closing this paper a brief reference should be made to the 

 methods of selection and study employed in the Central Division; as 

 the success which is being achieved is due in part to the improved 

 system under which the work is carried on. When dealing with unfixed 

 material of cross-bred origin, or when trying to isolate the best strains 

 from old varieties, each chosen plant is harvested separately and its 

 seed sown separately (every year) until a perfectly uniform group is 

 found. So long as the group of plants obtained by sowing the seeds of 

 a selected mother-plant shows any distinct variations, the seed of each 

 plant retained is sown as a separate group. This system is diametrically 

 opposed to the obsolescent but still too popular method of mass selection 

 in which the seed from all similar plants is retained. The latter system 

 never gives fixed types and usually involves many years of patient and per- 

 sistent "rogueing" before a reasonable approximation to fixity is reached. 



When a fixed and desirable type has been obtained propagation is 

 begun. In the second year of propagation the little plot is sown under 

 ordinary field conditions, and a systematic record of the conduct of the 

 variety is commenced. The next season there is usually enough seed to 

 sow a regular test-plot of one-sixtieth of an acre. In this size most of 

 the new varieties remain for a few years, until their average yield, 

 earliness, strength of straw and other important characters have been 

 sufficiently observed. An effort is made to reach a decision as soon as 

 practicable in regard to the value of each sort, and many of them are 

 rejected aftei- only two or three years' trial ; but in other instances final 

 decisions are necessarily delayed for many years. All the more promising 

 sorts are tested at some of the branch farms as well as at Ottawa before 

 they are introduced to the pu])lic. 



In addition to the study of what may be called field characters 

 all the varieties of wheat intended for fiour making are subjected to 



