266 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



observers without confirmation, the seeds from the cross- 

 bred plant were sown the following year. They produced 

 mixed types, bearded, partly bearded, and beardless. The 

 seeds as well as the heads showed the influence of the 

 Eio Grande, being, in many cases, larger than those of 

 Eed Fife. These observations, of course, completed the 

 proof of the cross-bred nature of the parent plant, and 

 demonstrated the value of the chewing test as a means 

 of distinguishing similar varieties of wheat." * ]!^ilsson- 

 Ehle ^ has shown by experiment that some varieties of 

 wheat are much more liable to natural cross-pollination 

 than others. Smith ^ found eight natural hybrids in 96 

 rows of Turkey winter wheat. Leigh ty,*^ in 1915, de- 

 scribed four cases of natural crosses between wheat and 

 rye. In 191 Y Hayes ^ recorded that three plants out of 

 fifty taken from nursery plots of Bluestem were natural 

 crosses, as proved from studying their progeny, and that 

 two plants out of 47 selections of Marquis gave progeny 

 with both red and white kernels indicating that they were 

 first generation crosses. The writer visited Dr. Hayes at 

 the University Farm at St. Paul in July, 1918, and saw 



4 C. E. Saunders, Quality in Wheat, Bulletin No. 57, Central 

 Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 1907, pp. 9-10. Cf., by the same author, 

 A Natural Hybrid in Wheat, Proc. American Breeders' Association, 

 Vol. I, 1905, pp. 137-138. 



5 H. Nilsson-Ehle, Gibt es erbliche Weizenrassen mit mehr oder 

 weniger Selbstbef ruchtung ? Zeitschrift f. Pflan^enzucht, Bd. Ill, 

 1915, pp. 1-6. 



6L. H. Smith, Occurrence of Natural Hybrids in Wheat, Proc. 

 Amer. Breeders' Association, Vol. V, 1912, pp. 412-414. 



7 C. E. Leighty, Natural Wheat-Rye Hybrids, Journal of the Ameri- 

 can Society of Agronomy; Vol. 7, 1915, pp. 209-216. 



8 H. K. Hayes, Natural Cross-pollination in Wheat, Journal of 

 American Society of Agronomy, Vol. 10, 1918, pp. 120-122. The 

 citations for Nilsson-Ehle, Smith, and Leighty have been made from 

 this paper. 



