301 
(called also Indian millet and Guinea corn, and spelled in various 
ways, as “dura,” “ dhura,” “doura”); canary grass, Phalaris, and 
a few other species belonging to the grasses. In addition to these 
botanical cereals are the buckwheats, which, for convenience in this 
report, are classed among the true cereals. They belong to the genus 
Polygonum, two species of which are cultivated in this country, 
and perhaps others elsewhere. Several species belonging to the 
genus Chenopodium have been cultivated in various parts of the 
world, particularly in India and central Asia, but none are of impor- 
tance to European nations as grains. Of a considerable list that 
might be made, wheat, rice, and Indian corn are the first three in 
importance; oats, barley, and rye next; then durra, the millets, and 
buckwheats next; all the remainder being of insignificant importance 
to the world at large. 
However defined and classified, and however used, all the cereals 
are agricultural grains, all are starchy, all are breadstutts, and all are 
annual plants. 
Being annuals, they are adapted to almost universal cultivation 
where the summer climate admits, for “an annual plant may be said 
to belong to no country in particular, because it completes its exist- 
ence during the summer months, and in every part of the world there 
is a Summer.” 
This fact underles the agricultural importance of the cereals. 
Every gardener knows that annuals may be brought from almost any 
country and be made to flourish in cultivation in any other country 
in which they can complete their life in one summer, and that, even if 
the summer is too short, varieties may be produced by art which will 
mature quicker, and then their cultivation may be extended to cli- 
mates unlike that of their original home. T his may be continued up 
to certain limits set by nature for each species, which limits can be 
determined only by experiment. Not so with perennials. They 
must have not only a favorable summer climate, but also a favorable 
winter climate and a favorable average climate, and, moreover, be 
able to stand occasional wide deviations from the average climate. 
The exceptional heat of one year or cold of another, a too “wet season 
or a too dry one, may kill the tree or perennial which has lived and 
thrived for many years. Hence all perennials are restricted in their 
growth to very much narrower hmits than annuals. Moreover, 
annual plants are believed to be much more variable under different 
external conditions than perennials are. They vary more in nature, 
and it is among the cultivated annual species that we have the widest 
variation known to science. They can adapt themselves more readily 
to changes of soil, climate, and other variable conditions than peren- 
nials. Thus it is that the plains of Dakota and Manitoba, with their 
genial summers and fertile soil, even though the winters be of Arctic 
severity, and California, with its rainless summer, but genial winter, 
can alike send wheat to the mild-wintered and moist-summered 
British islands. 
Illustrating the first point regarding excellence of seed, both as to 
its actual condition and its pedigree, there are numerous illustrations 
recorded; but the famous experiments of Mr. Frederick Hallett, of 
Brighton, England, may be taken as a good illustration. The experi- 
ments were planned with so much intelligence, conducted with such 
