90 ENVIRONMENT AND MILLING QUALITIES. 



At Raipur, the black soil station, the only strong wheat tested 

 was Pusa 4. This was grown as a dry crop and also irrigated. The 

 appearance of the Raipur samples was exceedingly fine and equal 

 to any of the wheats that have ever been grown at Pusa. The 

 grains were large with an absolute weight of over 45 grammes and 

 in the milling and baking tests Mr. Humphries said : "In hue 

 and general appearance of crust and crumb the Raipur lots are 

 of the very highest class, but on the one point of strength they are 

 really good without being extraordinarily judged by the standard 

 of typical London flour. ' ' This is a most important result in a 

 tract which produces so much weak soft wheat and it indicates 

 that on the black cotton soils of the Peninsula wheats of considera- 

 bly higher quality than those now cultivated can be grown to 

 perfection. In the black soil tracts of the Central Provinces the 

 yield of wheat is always low, anything over twelve bushels to the 

 acre being very exceptional. The intractable nature of the soil 

 and the difficulty in keeping the soil moisture near enough to 

 the surface of the ground to promote tillering are adverse factors 

 to any great increase in the yield. As is well-known the chief 

 factor determining the yield of wheat is the amount of tillering. 

 If the soil conditions are such that very little tillering can take 

 place it is impossible to get heavy yields. Further, the shortness 

 of the season is another factor operating in the same direction. 

 To obtain even the present yields as much as 100 lbs. of seed to the 

 acre has to be sown, so that the net increase per acre is not great 

 and rarely exceeds 600 lbs. to the acre. In these tracts the plant 

 breeder will find great difficulties in his path if yields like those easily 

 possible in the plains are desired. With quality, however, the matter 

 is quite different, and it is in this direction that the greatest chance 

 of improvement lies. That this is a likely avenue of progress is 

 proved by the Raipur results with Pusa 4 in 1911 which in addition 

 to good quality also gave a very satisfactory yield. In 1912 still 

 better results as regards yield with other high quality Pusa wheats 

 were obtained at Raipur and Tharsa, the results of the milling and 

 baking tests of which will be dealt with in a later paper. 



