32 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND THE FARMER : 



to over 80,000 plants, each one of which had to be " rubbed out " 

 separately. From this collection it is unlikely that more than 

 a hundred good plants will be secured, and these cannot be 

 recognised with certainty until they have been grown on for 

 a further period. It takes at least six years to produce sufficient 

 seed of a new type of wheat to test it for its milling quality, 

 and if it fails to fulfil milling requirements as a result of that 

 test, it is scrapped. This explains why the Institute took some 

 14 years of continued experimental work to produce " Yeoman " 

 wheat, and why " Yeoman " wheats cannot be turned out 

 every year. 



Oats. — The main problem which is being attacked under this 

 head is the breeding of a winter oat. The hybridising work of 

 seedsmen has been done almost exclusively with spring oats. 

 In endeavouring to breed a winter oat, the Institute has used 

 for the original parent, the old Scotch " Dun " oat, which is a 

 hardy white winter oat and very free tillerer, but very late in 

 ripening and producing small thin grains. This has been crossed 

 with various parents, including Flanders Yellow and a German 

 Tartarian oat. Two types of the eighth generation appear to 

 possess the desired qualities, namely, winter hardiness, high 

 tillering capacity, high yield, and early ripening. These types 

 have been passed on to the National Institute of Agricultural 

 Botany for testing on a field scale. 



A serious dif-ficulty with the oat crop is its tendency to lodge, 

 and an effort is therefore being made to produce a short-strawed 

 variety, while retaining other desirable qualities. It has been 

 found that length of straw is a quality which can be controlled. 

 A short-strawed oat has been bred, and an acre of this has 

 been sown. If satisfactory, the seed from this area will be 

 passed on to the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in 

 1922. A further 25 or 30 types are also under investigation 

 in smaU field plots. 



Barley. — The main problems under investigation are the 

 improvement of the standing capacity of the crop and the 

 raising of heavy-yielding varieties for feeding purposes. Pre- 

 vious work has resulted in the breeding of short-necked and 

 stronger-strawed types. This is being continued, particularly 

 in the direction of producing still stronger straw. The stronger 

 types were bred from a parent of low malting quality, and to 

 get rid of this defect, it has been necessary to investigate closely 

 the manner of inheritance of all the characters concerned in 

 strength of straw. There seems good promise that some of 



