228 



THE SMALL GRAINS 



form appeared in which some lateral spikelets produced 

 rudimentary kernels with short awns. From these ker- 

 nels, planted, through rigid selection a six-row form 

 finally resulted, having extremely short or no awns. It 

 was hoped to make it a winter barley, but it is not 



yet particularly win- 

 ter hardy. Other so- 

 called awnless barleys 

 are rather of the 

 hooded type (Fig. 

 72). Of the oat 

 crosses the following 

 have furnished some 

 excellent selections : 

 Burt X Sixty Day, 

 Danish Island X Asia 

 Minor Rustproof, Six- 

 ty Day X Probsteier. 

 241. Work of Far- 

 rer. Probably no 

 one man has made so 

 many new hybrids in 

 any plant species that 

 have come into prac- 

 tical use as William 

 Farrer of Lambrigg, 

 Queanbeyan, New 

 South Wales, who 

 worked with wheat. He was a good example of per- 

 sistence in attaining an ideal. He also kept constantly 

 in mind the milling value of his new varieties and made 

 milling tests of each. At first, Farrer made much use 

 of Blount's wheats, which were found well adapted in 



\t 



^/ 



FIG. 72. Spike and spikelets of a 

 hooded barley. 



