312 THE farmers' handbook. 



It is a crossbred, produced as the result of mating two other crossbreds — 



Rymer and Maffra. Rymer, the mother plant, was produced as the 



result of crossing Purple Straw on to Improved Fife, the latter being a 



Manitoba variety. Maffra was the product of King's Jubilee, mated with an 



unnamed crossbred (Blount's Lambrigg x Hornblende). The pedigree is, 



therefore, as follows : — 



Blount's u iii 



T , ■ x Hornblende 



Lambrigg 



An unnamed King's 



Improved Fife x Purple Straw. crossbred Jubilee 



Rymcr x Maffra 



Bunyip 

 The cross was made in 1897, and named in 1901. 



It is a vevy early variety, and because of this extreme earliness it should 

 not be sown early in the season ; to do so is to court failure, unless precau- 

 tions are taken to eat it off. If sown early, the straw will be rather tall, 

 and break down easily, so that the yield will often be less than when sown 

 late. Early-sow'n crops of this variety are much damaged by frost. Sow 

 well after the middle of the planting season. 



Under normal conditions the straw of Bunyip is on the short side, and 

 rather coarse, and on that account it is not suitable for hay. It is bunt and 

 rust liable, but is early enough to escape rust in most years. As it does not 

 stool too freely, the seed should be sown comparatively thickly. 



The grain is attractive in appearance, but the variety is chiefly grown for 

 early hay and is not now among the Department's recommendations. 



Canberra. 



The young growth is rather erect, the leaves medium dark green, some- 

 what glaucous, and medium broad. The straw is of medium height, hollow, 

 white, and rather slender. It stools fairly, with a moderate quantity of erect 

 leaves. The ears are smooth, light brown, half erect, slightly awned at the 

 tip, of medium length, open and uniform with an acute tip. The spikelets 

 ace irregular and medium to widely spreading with medium sharp-pointed 

 glumes, which are not firmly attached. The grain is of medium size, slightly 

 elongated, yellow, opaque, with a medium deep crease. 



The variety is the result of an attempt to produce a hybrid between Fede- 

 ration (the dam) and Volga barley, a two-rowed sort obtained as an im- 

 purity in a sample of wheat received from Russia. That the attempt was 

 successful has always been a matter of doubt, however, for while it behaved 

 from the start like the progeny of a violent union (say, of two widely diverse 

 races of wheat), no barley characteristics have ever been seen in it. Pro- 

 bably the variety is the result of accidental cross pollination with another 

 wheat. It has been suggested that a Durum wheat may have been the male 

 parent, but no Durum varieties in the same paddock came into flower until 

 two days after the cross was made. It is a new variety, only having been 

 named at the 1914 conference of departmental officer-. 



It ripens quite as early as Thew and is very useful for grain throughout 

 the wheat belt. It is somewhat weak in the straw, but it is such a heavy 

 yielder of grain that it deserves attention from growers, notwithstanding 

 its liability to lodge under growtliy conditions. In the north-west it should 

 not he sown on the black and heavy soils. In the Riverina and South-western 



