i68 SYSTEMATIZED PLANT-BREEDING 



is paid are the translucency and the hardness of 

 the grain, since these features are commonly 

 associated with strength whilst weak wheats are 

 most frequently opaque and readily crushed. 

 An experienced buyer can grade wheats with 

 fair accuracy by inspection only, but the grading 

 appears to be dependent on an unconscious recog- 

 nition of the varieties in question and a previous 

 knowledge of their milling and baking properties. 

 Failing a baking test, wheats may be roughly graded 

 for quality, and the extremes of strong and weak 

 wheats may be separated with certainty by deter- 

 mining the toughness and hence the gas-retaining 

 properties of the gluten. This is effected by 

 chewing some twenty or thirty grains until the 

 starch disappears under the action of the saliva 

 and the grain coats have been swallowed uncon- 

 sciously. If the resulting pellet of gluten is 

 tough and elastic it may be assumed that the 

 variety is strong, if on the other hand it is soft 

 and snaps when stretched slightly weakness is 

 indicated. The method is a good one, but only 

 those who have sorted out an F 2 generation of a 

 couple of hundred plants can realise how tedious 

 it is in actual use. 



The first crosses made with a view of investi- 

 gating the inheritance of strength were between 

 Red Fife and Rough Chaff. The parents under 

 our conditions produce grain which can be classified 

 with considerable certainty, for the Red Fife is 



