262 ENVIRONMENT AND BAKING QUALITIES. 



qualities were little, influenced by environment. Flour strength and 

 milling qualities were not intlie least destroyed by transferring a dry 

 crop wheat raised at Pusa in the extreme east of the wheat -gro\\dng 

 area of India to North-Western India, or to the black soils of Central 

 India. Indeed, the wheat was improved by this treatment, as the 

 best results were obtained at Lyallpur, Mirpurkhas, and Gurdaspur, 

 in the Indus Valley and at Tharsa in Central India. 



A single grade of white wheat of improved quahty can therefore 

 be grown over a very large part of the wheat producing area of India. 

 If the yield of grain and of bhusa (straw) of this wheat under culti- 

 vators' conditions is satisfactory over these areas, then a great step 

 in advance will have been made. That this step has been accom- 

 phshed will be evident when it is remembered that this wheat is now 

 being distributed to cultivators in the Punjub, United Provinces, 

 Bihar, and Central Provinces. Over a very wide range of condi- 

 tions and of soils, both under dry cultivation and with canal and well 

 irrigation, this wheat has done uniformly better than the local sorts 

 when grown by the cultivators themselves. It is now only a matter 

 of time and of organization for this variety to replace the existing 

 crop over large tracts and for its produce to influence the Indian 

 wheat trade. Besides its good yielding po^yer, Pusa 12 stands 

 out in the field from the country wheats as a red chafl"ed, beardless 

 wheat with strong straw among bearded white chafted kinds mostly 

 characterized by very weak straw. This fact is of considerable 

 advantage in the work of replacing the country wheats by the new 

 variety. 



The milling and baking results obtained with the samples of 

 Pusa 12 grown in the Indus Valley and also on the black soils prove 

 that there is no longer any reason why grai n quality should be ignored 

 in the work of improving the wheats grown in these two areas. 

 In the first place, the performance of this wheat when grown by 

 cultivators shows that yield and quahty can be combined in the same 

 varietv. In the second place, these areas, whicli now produce only 

 poor quality wheats, have been shown to be capable of growing 

 samples of the same class as the best grades of Manitoba wheat. 



