IMPROVEMENT OP WHEAT BY SELECTION 81 



field conditions their yield fell to that of the original 

 ancestors, and it was seen that the scheme was a failure. 

 Hallett's work was of high importance, and the publicity 

 it received was of the greatest value, for it proved to all 

 plant breeders that environmental improvement is not 

 hereditary. 



During the whole of the 19th century wheat selection 

 was ardently pursued in Germany by a group of breeders 

 usually associated with the name of Bimpau, one of their 

 leaders. Their plan was almost exactly that followed by 

 breeders of cattle and sheep. They went into the fields 

 and gathered a number of the best heads of any variety. 

 These heads they threshed, and then they sowed the 

 resulting grain in a single plot. Through this plot they 

 went again at harvest time and picked out the best heads 

 once more, and continued to do so, in many cases for a 

 score of years on end. But they always mixed the seed 

 from all their best heads and sowed the product together. 

 Some improvements were made by this process of "mass 

 selection, ' ' which indeed became the starting point of the 

 work at Svalof in 1886. 



Wheats are normally self-fertilized, so that a pure 

 strain tends to remain pure for long periods. They can, 

 however, be artificially cross-fertilized, and this plan has 

 been adopted to produce new varieties combining the 

 outstanding good qualities of different parents. One of 

 the most famous cross breeders of wheat was William 

 Ferrar who, working in New South Wales from 1906 

 onwards, produced Bobs, Federation, and other crosses 

 which have revolutionized wheat growing in Australia. 

 On the re-discovery of Mendel's law of Inheritance, in 

 1899, great hopes were entertained that a new era had 

 dawned and that practically any number of excellent 

 characters would be able to be combined in a single 

 wheat. 



Biffen, of Cambridge, England, has worked most 



