HOWARD, LEAKE AXD HOWARD. 245 



known as Pusa 4, Pusa 12, and Pusa 22. I am very pleased to see 

 that these varieties have now been grown at several places repre- 

 senting widely differing sets of natural conditions, so that I am now 

 in a position to ascertain the effect of environment upon their 

 quahties. 



Methods of Testing. 



When a new kind of wheat is offered to a buyer, he forms an 

 opinion as to its merits upon its appearance, and he probably buys 

 the first lot with no better guide to its intrinsic worth than its good 

 or bad looks. Of course, an experienced buyer is better able to 

 appraise the real value of good looks than a beginner. To the latter, 

 a fine development and cleanliness may be all important : the 

 former has learned to know that a fine exterior may cover many 

 faults, and dirt, which can easily be removed, may nevertheless 

 obscure real beauty. Even so, the best judges know quite well 

 that their judgment in such a case may be faulty. Various methods 

 of rapid and accurate testing have been suggested. For instance 

 chewing has been recommended, and in certain cases for certain 

 points of quahty that rough and ready test is valuable : but it is 

 useless or worse than useless in other cases, and obviously it would 

 not be used in the case I have pre-supposed, if the wheats were coated 

 with dirt of unknown origin. I need not labom- the point that clean- 

 liness and a good appearance must in any and all cases materially 

 affect the price which a wheat will realize in our markets. But 

 there are other points which in most cases will militate against a new 

 kind of wheat at the outset of its commercial existence. A miller 

 has to learn how to treat it in conditioning and milling, so as to 

 secure optimum results, and he has to ascertain definitely not 

 only how it will behave in the bakehouse when used by itself 

 but how it will behave when blended with many other wlieats 

 in various proportions. All this takes much time and trouble and 

 the inevitable mistakes cost money, so that a buyer is not likely 

 to pay a full price for the first few lots of a new kind of 

 wheat. But if he finds by many and various tests and by long 



