WHEAT, OATS, BARLEY 17 



application of his knowledge to the improvement 

 of existing varieties of wheat. 



In particular he desired to produce a variety 

 of wheat that would be immune to rust, yet 

 would at the same time produce a good head 

 of wheat having the quality described by the 

 miller as "hardness" a quality that is essen- 

 tial to the making of high-grade flour, yet 

 which some otherwise excellent wheats alto- 

 gether lack. 



Material was at hand for crossing experiments 

 in that there was a race of wheat known to be 

 immune to the yellow rust which had not hitherto 

 been thought of as solving the rust problem 

 because it bore grain of very poor quality. 



To Professor Biffen, armed with his new 

 knowledge, it appeared that it should be possible 

 to combine this immune wheat of poor quality 

 with susceptible races of wheat bearing a good 

 grain in such a way as to secure a new race that 

 would present the good qualities of each parent 

 and eliminate the bad qualities. 



So he crossed a race of wheat that bore a grain 

 susceptible to rust with the immune variety that 

 bore the grain of poor quality, and developed a 

 generation of crossbreds all of which were 

 quite as he had expected susceptible to the 

 attacks of the rust. 



