218 THE SMALL GRAINS 



wheat, or with each other. The wild emmer already re- 

 ferred to (38) has been successfully crossed with several 

 cultivated forms of wheat. 



229. Composite crossing. Hybrids are usually the 

 direct result of crosses between varieties rather closely 

 allied. Even so, the recombination of characters thus 

 resulting give opportunity sometimes for the choice of 

 new forms adapted for certain purposes, which might 

 never be secured otherwise. When one of the parents is 

 already a hybrid, or if two hybrids are crossed, the re- 

 sources thus opened for a choice of new forms are very 

 much greater. The variations will be still further in- 

 creased if the crossing is between groups widely different ; 

 e.g. if the four parents of a double cross should be an 

 emmer, a poulard, a durum, and a common wheat. 

 Farrer has probably done the greatest amount of com- 

 posite crossing. Garton has combined the practice of 

 composite crossing with the selection of parents from 

 widely separated groups. 



230. Pringle's hybrids. The pioneer in the produc- 

 tion of wheat hybrids in this country was C. G. Pringle 

 of Charlotte, Vermont. Defiance, now the best known of 

 his varieties, and still ranking as an excellent wheat, is the 

 result of a cross of a club variety with a Pacific Coast 

 common white wheat, in 1871. It is an awnless, white- 

 chaffed wheat with white kernels, and is rust-resistant. It 

 was distributed by Bliss and Sons in 1878. Champlain is 

 a cross of Black Sea and Golden Drop, made in 1870, and 

 distributed in 1878. It is an awned, white-chaffed wheat, 

 with reddish white kernels, and is rust-resistant. Other 

 good varieties were his No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, and Pringle 

 Best, apparently none of which is now cultivated. Pringle 

 Excelsior oat is a hybrid of Chinese Hulless with the 



