44 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



ing. The first hybrid produced in the United States was prob- 

 ably a pear (1806). The importance of hybridization in re- 

 lation to variation was demonstrated by Naudin and Nageli 

 (1865). 



The pioneer producer of wheat hybrids in America was C. G. 

 Pringle of Charlotte, Vt. He began his work in 1877, and sev- 

 eral varieties have received his name, some of which have be- 

 come standard. Pringle ? s Defiance has been a rust resistant 

 variety of California since 1878. During his connection with 

 the Colorado agricultural college A. E. Blount produced quite a 

 large number of hybrids, some of which are now well known in 

 the United States and are also among the most valuable va- 

 rieties in Australia, both as field wheats and as parents of 

 native hybrids. The most important are Amethyst, Improved 

 Fife, Hornblende, Gypsum, Blount '& No. 10, Felspar, Ruby and 

 Granite. 



The director of the experimental farm at Ottawa, Canada, 

 Dr. William Saunders, began hybridizing wheats in 1888. His 

 main object has been to procure early ripening varieties, and 

 he has attained success by hybridizing American and Russian 

 races. Preston and Stanley are two of his best productions. 

 In the main these hybrids have been produced in the most 

 simple way. A. N. Jones of Newark, N. Y., practicing com- 

 posite crossing, though always with quite closely allied par- 

 ents, has done the most important work in wheat hybridization 

 in this country, and his varieties are now the most widely used 

 of all recent American wheat hybrids. The two features char- 

 acteristic of his work have been composite methods, and high 

 gluten content as an ideal. The nature of the soil and climate 

 of eastern United States is such as to produce soft and starchy 

 wheats. His efforts have been to raise the standard of eastern 

 varieties as to gluten, and he has largely succeeded. Winter 

 Fife and Early Red Clawson were the two most popular of his 

 first varieties. Early Genesee Giant, another well-known va- 

 riety which he originated, is widely grown in New York and 

 Pennsylvania. It has no ancestors outside of the common 

 bread-wheat group. This seems to be a weak point in Jones' 

 method of procedure, for the most advantageous composite 

 crossing is supposed to be with varieties of entirely different 

 wheat groups. 



