180 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



third of the State, however, lying in a region of greater elevation, with a 

 smaller annual precipitation and more rapid evaporation, presents conditions, 

 during at least part of the year, which are frequently very unfavorable for the 

 growing of wheat of the mesophytic type. Since it has been found, however, 

 that the climatic conditions there are almost a counterpart of those in South- 

 eastern Europe, and notably. in Southern Russia, where the macaroni wheats 

 are grown, a new possibility presents itself with regard to the breeding of 

 xerophytic bread wheats for the elevated region of the great plains. Inasmuch 

 as the macaroni wheats are not adapted to breadmaking, it will probably 

 always be the tendency of the majority of our Western growers to raise bread 

 wheat where they can and macaroni wheat where they must. We have, there- 

 fore, proceeded to make a number of crosses between macaroni wheats and some 

 of our hardier winter bread wheats. We are also endeavoring to increase 

 the drought-resistant qualities of our local bread wheat by crossing with 

 spelts and emmers. The recent acquisition by the State of Kansas from the 

 Federal Government of 3,800 acres of land in the semi-arid portion of the 

 State and its transfer to the Agricultural College gives, us a favorable field of 

 operation for the working out of this particular problem. 



Since, as I have stated, hard red winter wheat is the favorite milling sort 

 with us, it is to those strains passing under the general name of "Turkey" 

 that we have naturally turned for a basis, both for our work in cross breeding 

 and in selectio*h. For the red winter wheat district the Turkey wheat, passing 

 under the name of red wintei and obtained a few years ago from the Iowa Ex- 

 periment Station, has proved in the 'course of several trying seasons to be in 

 every way the hardiest and most drought-resistant sort. Our attention is now 

 turned, therefore, toward the improvement of this wheat by a rigid process of 

 selection and by cross breeding with other desirable varieties. In dealing with 

 this variety and its crosses, the two most important questions with which we 

 are concerned are, first, earliness, and, second, increased yield. We have been 

 endeavoring to shorten its growing period by crossing with our earliest local 

 variety, a soft, bald wheat, passing under the name of Zimmerman. 



Naturally, the most pressing problem is that of increasing the yield of 

 wheat, which is certainly far below what the fertility of the soil in Kansas 

 would seem to justify. As was stated, there exists at present among our 

 farmers, for the most part, no recognition of the advantages to be derived in 

 the way of increased crop production from the selection of large, heavy seed. 

 Quite recently, however, the seed-grading machines are beginning to find their 

 way into our agricultural communities, and it is to be hoped that the use of 

 these machines, by means of which the continued and persistent selection from 

 year to year of large heavy grains of wheat for seeding is rendered possible 

 on a commercial scale, will eventually result in increasing the product per acre 

 considerably above the present standard. But it is well known to the plant 

 breeder that the process of seed selection must be far more unremitting and 

 far more rigid in method than the average wheat planter has the knowledge or 

 patience to make it. It is fundamentally necessary that a strain of plants in 

 order to be constant in their characters be botanically pure, that is to say, all 

 of the plants must have descended from a common ancestor. Only in this 

 way can a mixture of mutation forms in the sense of De Vries be avoided. No 



