CEREAL IMPROVEMENT HYBRIDIZATION 219 



common variety Excelsior, introduced in 1881. It did 

 not appear to be satisfactory. 



231. Work of Blount. A. E. Blount, while con- 

 nected with the Colorado Agricultural College, did much 

 work in crossing wheats, and among a comparatively 

 large number of hybrids, produced some that are now 

 not only well known in this country, but are among the 

 most valuable sorts in Australia. They have been used 

 by Australian wheat breeders probably more often than 

 any other foreign sorts, as the parents of hybrids pro- 

 duced in that country. The most important of Blount's 

 wheats are perhaps the following : Amethyst, Improved 

 Fife, Hornblende, Gypsum, Blount No. 10, Felspar, 

 Ruby, and Granite. Gypsum (Blount Lambrigg), 

 Hornblende, Quartz, and Improved Fife are the most 

 popular in Australia. In New Mexico, where field tests 

 of all his hybrids were last made, Ruby and Felspar have 

 been most extensively grown. An important character- 

 istic of several of Blount's hybrids is that they are rather 

 rust-resistant, and it is partly for this reason that they 

 are so much used in Australia. Improved Fife has also 

 an excellent quality of kernel. 



232. Fulcaster wheat. One of the most popular 

 wheats of the eastern United States, ranking easily next 

 to Fultz, is the variety Fulcaster, produced by S. M. 

 Schindel of Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1886. It is a 

 hybrid of Fultz and Lancaster, and is an awned, semi- 

 hard, red-kerneled, white-chaffed wheat. It is grown 

 particularly in the region from Pennsylvania to Okla- 

 homa and southward. It is now probably even more 

 generally grown than Fultz (Fig. 66). 



233. Work of Jones. The work of A. N. Jones of 

 Le Roy, New York, has had a very great influence in wheat 



