SCIENCE BULLETIN, No. 11. 



As the conditions of wheat-growing in Australia differ in many material 

 points from those prevailing in other countries, most of the above terms 

 possess a significance different to th'at which attaches to them elsewhere. It 

 is therefore desirable to provide some explanation of local conditions and of 

 the problems which confront local wheat-growers. 



It must be borne in mind that wheats which are pre-eminent locally on 

 account of special characteristics are often failures, even as regards such 

 characteristics, when grown abroad, and vice versa. 



Mr. H. Pye, Principal of Dookie Agricultural College, Victoria, reports* 

 that some of the more noted English wheats, including Essex Conqueror, 

 Square Heads Master, Doggett's Pride and Garforth, all yielded below 20 

 bushels to the acre when grown on the experiment plots at Dookie, as against 

 31 to 32 bushels given by the most prolific Australian varieties. 



Some samples of several of our best rust-resisting wheats were forwarded 

 to Mr. A. E. Humphries (Past-President of the National Association of 

 English, and. Irish Millers) for trial under English conditions, in the hope 

 that they might prove useful in the production of improved varieties. His 

 reportf was to the effect that everyone of them had proved absolute failures 

 when grown in England, and were eaten up by rust. 



. The well-known strong-flour Fife wheats, which were first imported several 

 years ago, and which, it was hoped, would provide us with a better milling 

 wheat, were found to be quite unsuitable on account of their low yields when 

 grown under local conditions. They did, however, retain their strong-flour 

 characteristics, and have proved of great value as parents, many of Mr. 

 Farrer's most successful crosses containing Fife blood. We in Australia 

 have had, therefore, to work out our own salvation in the matter of providing 

 'improved grain, and the question is complicated by the fact that provision 

 nas to be made for all sorts of different conditions as to soil and climate, 

 the latter varying from the moist coastal districts to the semi-arid country, 

 and from the cool tablelands to the hot plains. 



Rust Resistance. 



This was the subject which engaged more particularly the attention of the 

 earlier conferences, and was immediately made the subject of special 

 investigations. 



The names of Mr. D. McAlpine and Dr. N. A. Cobb, vegetable pathologist 

 of the Agricultural Departments in Victoria and New South Wales 

 respectively, are prominent in connection with this work. Mr. Farrer also 

 devoted a great deal of attention to the subject, and a large number of his 

 crosses were made with the object of producing rust-resisting or rust-escaping 

 varieties. 



* * Report of Principal, Dookie Agricultural College, for year ending July 31st, 

 1910. Published by the Council of Agricultural Education, Victoria. 



* tA. E. Humphries " on the behaviour of certain Australian varieties of wheat 

 when grown in Surrey (England)." Australasian Association for Advancement 

 of Science, vol. XIII, page 542 (reprinted in abstract in Agricultural Gazette for 

 New -South Wales, vol. XXII, p.. 382). 



