22- SCIENCE BULLETIN, No. 11. 



43 bushels to the acre have been reported, and in several instances it has 

 beaten Federation by 8 bushels. In a dry district in South Australia, where 

 other varieties yielded only 8 to 9 bushels per acre, this wheat gave 15 bushels. 

 Currawa, a cross between Little Club and (Cretan (a dururn) x Northern 

 Champion), is another variety recently distributed. In the first year of its 

 distribution it won first prize in a crop competition. Yields of 30 bushels 

 to the acre and over are common. This season the highest yield recorded 

 is 42 bushels in the north-east of Victoria. 



Major is a Federation x Wallace (see above) cross, and is to be distributed 

 next season, a bushel being sent to each of the agricultural societies for 

 distribution to selected farmers who report on its behaviour in the field. 



It is a weak-flour variety, and has been twelve years under observation. 



Yandilla x Red Bordeaux is another very promising variety, which will 

 be distributed in the same way the season after next. It has given very 

 high yields in the farm plots for several seasons. This year it yielded in 

 the farm plots at the rate of 47 bushels to the acre. 



Moird, a weak-flour wheat of high promise as a prolific yielder. 



WORK AT OTHER DEPARTMENTAL STATIONS. 



During the past few years a considerable amount of attention has been 

 given departmentally to the subject of cereal improvement, and the syste- 

 matic breeding of cereals has become one of the most important branches of 

 investigational work. 



A comprehensive scheme of wheat-breeding has been in existence for the 

 past three years under the control of Mr. A. E. V. Richardson, Agricultural 

 Superintendent, and already very promising results have been obtained. 

 The work of selection and cross-breeding forms the principal feature of the 

 experiment stations at Werribee (Central Research Farm), Rutherglen 

 Experiment Station, and Longereiiong Agricultural College. 



The plan adopted in the selection plots is the " centgener " test-plot system 

 introduced by Professor W. M. Hays, formerly of the Minnesota Experi- 

 ment Station, by means of which uniformity of growing conditions, and as 

 far as possible of soil, are assured, and the yield of the plot compared with 

 that of standard centgener plots of the same variety, as an index of its 

 yielding capacity. The selected and graded produce is then sown in larger 

 " selection " plots. Here the standard of prolificness is maintained by 

 " mass-selection." At each harvest sufficient grain is obtained by hand- 

 selection of the best ears of the most vigorous plants to sow a plot of similar 

 size the following year. The balance of the plot is stripped and sown on 

 the "seed plot" (4 acre in area). The produce of the "seed plot" is 

 transferred to the "bulk plots" (10 acres), and the seed from this is dis- 

 tributed to the farmers. Comparison was made last season of the yields of 

 twenty standard varieties from plots sown with seed subjected to this 



