IMPROVEMENT OF WHEAT BY SELECTION 79 



CHAPTER V. 



IMPROVEMENT OF WHEAT BY SELECTION 

 IN NEW ZEALAND. 



(By Dr. F. W. Hilgendorf). 



1. Historical. 



Wheat has been a cultivated plant since the dawn of 

 human history, and there is no doubt that at various 

 periods efforts must have been made to improve its 

 qualities. Darwin quotes Virgil "I have seen the 

 largest grains, though viewed with care, degenerate, 

 unless an industrious hand did yearly cull the largest. " 

 Coming to our own times the record of selection of 

 wheat for improvement in quality starts with the 

 work of Le Couteur, who lived in the Island of Jersey, 

 and who, in 1815, made his famous selection "Bellevue 

 de Talavera," which under the name of ' ' Talavera ' V is 

 still grown in France, Britain, and New Zealand. 

 Shireff, of Haddingtonshire, Scotland, made some famous 

 selections between the years 1819 and 1872. In 1886 

 there was established at Svalof, Sweden, the Swedish 

 Seed Association, a private venture for the improvement 

 of cereal seeds. Under the direction of Dr. H. Nilsson, 

 very many selections of the highest value have been 

 made, and the institution has become world-famous. The 

 three wheat breeders mentioned all worked separately, 

 and probably in ignorance of the methods employed by 

 the others. But all of them hit on the same plan of 

 taking a single wheat ear of apparently outstanding 

 merit and multiplying the offspring of that ear without 

 further selection. This is called ' ' Single Ear Selection. ' ' 

 As the true quality of an ear is not discernible from 



