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HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



of the Fifes with the earliness of the other varieties. Many of these crosses 

 ripen from three to four days earlier than the Fife wheats, and some of them 

 have manifested great vigor and productiveness. They produce an excellent 

 hard wheat, which makes almost, if not quite, as good flour as the much es- 

 teemed Red Fife. 



In productiveness one of the crosses named Preston has taken the lead. 

 This was produced by crossing the Red Fife with a Russian variety known 

 as Ladoga. Ladoga is a week earlier in ripening than Red Fife. Preston is 

 about four days earlier than Red Fife, and during a test covering six years 

 it has given an average crop, taking the results of the tests at all the Ex- 

 perimental Farms, of 33 bushels 58 pounds per acre ; whereas the Red Fife, 

 sown under like conditions, during the same period gave an average of 32 

 bushels 30 pounds, a difference in favor of the cross-bred sort of i bushel 28 

 pounds per acre. Many other of the cross-bred sorts have also made ex- 

 cellent records. 



In the growing of wheats there seems to be a tendency toward bearded 

 forms. Where a bearded wheat has been used as the female and a beardless 

 type as male a large proportion of the progeny has been bearded. Variations, 

 however, occur in both bearded and beardless sorts ; the beardless forms fre- 

 quently producing bearded heads, while the bearded ones more rarely produce 

 those which are beardless. In one cross, where both parents were beardless, 

 several bearded sorts were produced in the second generation. The varieties 

 will vary in the length and stiffness of the beards, and many of them vary 

 in the color of the chaff, some in the same cross having white chaff, others 

 red. The chaff also varies as to its smooth or downy character. Any of these 

 variations may be made permanent by persistent selection. Spring wheats 

 have been pollenized by winter sorts ; these have all ripened when sown in 

 the spring, but, althougii the plants have had vigorous foliage, they have 

 been slow in heading and later in ripening than most other spring wheats ; 

 and as they have not been especially productive most of them have been 

 discarded. 



In breeding for earliness, the best results have been had with a wheat 

 known as the Gehun crossed with the Onega. The Gehun wheat was obtained 

 from a high elevation in the Himalaya Mountains. The Onega was brought 

 from the Onega River, near Archangel, one of the most northerly wheat dis- 

 tricts in Russia. Two of these crosses, Early Riga and Harold, have been fully 

 a week earlier in ripening than Red Fife, but the grain is small and the crop is 

 not heavy. In our experience, any marked advantage gained in a variety of 

 wheat in the way of early ripening usually involves a lessening of the weight 

 of the crop. 



Some very interesting varieties have been recently originated at the 

 Central Farm by fertilizing the Red Fife with pollen of the Polish wheat 

 (Triticum polonicum) . This cross was effected by Dr. C. E. Saunders, after 

 several previous ineffectual trials, in the spring of 1900. From the cross- 

 fertilized kernel in the Red Fife head a plant was produced which, in 1901, 

 contrary to the usual experience, grew heads and kernels quite unlike Red 

 Fife. The seed from this sown in 1902 sported much and gave a number 

 of different sorts of heads. Of the plants produced no two were alike. 'l"he 



