528 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G2. 



" There are still other methods," he continued," of getting rust-resistant 

 wheats and resistant strains of existing varieties. The first end can be secured 

 by looking out in rusty crops for plants that have remained entirely clean. 

 Such entirely clean plants can occasionally be found in crops of a variety 

 that is still young and has not lost the liability to spot, and less frequently 

 in crops of an old variety. By following this system, as I have been doing 

 for some years, I have become possessed of several strains of varieties which 

 differ so widely from the parent varieties in their deportment towards rust 

 and in offering resistance to it as themselves to constitute distinct varieties. 

 That young varieties are the most likely to supply us with such spots has 

 been proved by my own experience, as all the sports I have obtained in 

 this manner, with the exception of one, have been produced by varieties 

 which I know to be young and probably had not been firmly fixed. 



" I may also note that the first suggestion that I ever threw out in 

 •connection with combating the rust-pest was that this method should be 

 bred. This was in the year 1882, and the suggestion was made in view of 

 the fact that the Indian wheats which were then being tested by Dr. Bancroft 

 (in Queensland) had fallen short of being rust-proof. My simple siiggestion 

 was unfavourably criticised by the Australasian, and the controversy which 

 ensued from this criticism led me to think that nothing systematic had ever 

 really been done to combat the rust-pest, and that a legitimate field of 

 inquiry was open to me. 



" Resistant strains of existing varieties could doubtless be made by 

 simply selecting seed from those plants which are in the least degree affected 

 by rust, and by following up this system for a number of years ; such strains, 

 however, could not, in my opinion, be considered to constitute distinct 

 varieties, but would be no more than resistant strains of the parent variety, 

 and would only retain the quality of resisting rust so long as the same care 

 continued to be given to them as was used in establishing that quality. 

 Qualities, I hold, that are given to va ieties by selection of this kind are 

 of little or no permanent value to the practical farmer, and do not become 

 valuable until they have been fixed by cross-breeding and made normal 

 ■characteristics of a distinct variety." 



" It would appear that many varieties which have been put forward 

 as having claims to be resistant, and have really been valuable from being 

 resistant of Puccinia graminis have been condemned when they have been 

 tried on account of having been affected by Puccinia rubigo-vera. It is 

 important I think that our farmers should be able to distinguish betv een 

 these two rusts and know that the rust which appears as small spots on the 

 leaves and sheaths, but mostly on the leaves, is Puccinia rubigo-vera, and is 

 'Consequently harmless, and that the more fatal rust, Puccinia graminis, is 

 known from appearing as larger and longer streaks, and patches, quite as 

 frequently on the sheaths and stalks as on the leaves, and that these two 

 forms of rust are as distinct as are wheat and rye. 



I should like to invite particular attention to the remarks 

 which followed the above : — 



" A fact which is being continually brought before us is, that while 

 •certain wheats are, in their own and even in many other districts uniformly 

 resistant, they seem to lose that quality when they are grown in certain other 

 places. This seems to be the case with Blount's Lambrigg and with the 

 various wheats of the Fife family of which Blount's Lambrigg is one when 

 they are grown near the coast in our climate. . . . This is a dilficulty 

 which has had large influence in causing resistant wheats to be discredited. 

 The fact is that although we may succeed in making varieties which possess 

 as normal characteristics all the physical qualities which give protection 

 against the rust fungus, we must not expect such varieties to prove equally 

 resistant under all conditions of environment. We must constantly keep in 

 mind that in dealing with the wheat plant we are dealing with a living 

 ■ organism — with a subject which possesses, associated with the indefinable 

 attribute of life other equally indefinable attributes, and that one of these 



