36 PLANT-BREEDING 



ciently surpass the average to be advantageously selected 

 and cultivated. The trials would have to be made on a 

 larger scale, and the results would be less striking, but on 

 the other hand, improvements could be brought about in a 

 far lesser number of years. Or, to state it more correctly, 

 the results w^ould no longer be dependent on rare and casual 

 discoveries, but would be brought about systematically. 



He began his selections, after this new method, with 

 wheat, and saved 70 ears from different individuals. All 

 of them seemed to promise more than the average varieties 

 of his fields. Of course the kernels were sown separately 

 for each mother plant, and their progeny was accurately 

 tested and compared. As previously, he took it for granted 

 that all of these new strains would be constant and uniform; 

 he observed the fact but did not judge it interesting enough 

 to mention it specially. Among his 70 strains he chose at 

 the end the three best ones, multiphed them as fast as pos- 

 sible in order to bring them into the trade, and rejected all 

 the others. Those three received the names of Shirreff's 

 Bearded Red Wheat, Shirreff's Bearded White W^heat, and 

 Pringle's Wheat. For many years they have had a notable 

 place among the best local varieties, and the white variety 

 among them has even found its way into England and 

 France. 



Having obtained these results with wheat, he started, 

 in the year of 1862, a similar experiment with oats. Four 

 of Ms selections proved to excel the common sorts and were 

 introduced into the trade. They bear the names of Early 

 Fellow, Fine Fellow^ Long Fellow, and Early Angus. Like 

 the wheats, they have been constant and uniform from the 

 very beginning. 



Ten years afterward, Shirreff published an account of 

 his results and of his methods. It was a little book, printed 

 only for private distribution. But it has been translated 



