LITTLE JOSS WHEAT 157 



an average crop, say of about 32 bushels per acre, 

 the susceptible plots only gave a yield of the order 

 of a single bushel per acre. Unfortunately the 

 death of the susceptible forms after a couple of 

 years' cultivation put a stop to the further continu- 

 ation of this demonstration. 



Concurrently with these experiments an attempt 

 was made to put the results to some practical 

 use, and a series of wheats were bred from a resistant 

 Russian variety found amongst some Ghurka 

 wheats. Amongst these was one now known under 

 the name of Little Joss which has proved of some 

 importance. Its other parent was Square Head's 

 Master, perhaps the most widely cultivated wheat 

 in the country. Even in the F 4 stage the hybrid 

 appeared to be cropping more heavily than its 

 English parent and it was evidently far better in 

 this respect than the Russian variety, which indeed 

 was not suitable for cultivation under our conditions. 

 Comparative trials of the hybrid and Square Head's 

 Master were therefore made on a large scale at the 

 first opportunity with results that left no doubt that 

 the hybrid was distinctly the better variety. Corro- 

 boration of these results is to be found in an inde- 

 pendent set of trials carried out at the Experi- 

 mental Station at Snoring in Norfolk. The trials 

 over a period of seven years show that its yield is 

 some four bushels per acre better than that of the 

 other varieties tested, these being the pick of the 

 English and French wheats. The actual figures, 



