CEREALS 15 



his last published Report, after mentioning that two series 

 of these hybrids were then in the fourth generation, says 

 that it " is by far the most promising material yet obtained 

 at Pusa, and it is more than probable that the strong 

 straw, rust resistance, and general vigour and hardiness 

 of the English parent has been, as it were, introduced 

 into Indian wheat." That immunity and susceptibility 

 to rust is a Mendelian unit, and that by the application 

 of Mendelism the rust problem is likely to be solved seems 

 to me one of the most important discoveries of modern 

 times, and I am exceedingly pleased that the first public 

 announcement of it was made at a meeting of British and 

 Irish millers over which I had the honour of presiding. 



Another important application of Mendelism concerns 

 the milling and baking qualities of wheat. The theory 

 is that "quality of endosperm" can be handled in 

 hybridizing as a separate Mendelian unit, and therefore 

 can be transmitted from an otherwise undesirable parent 

 to an otherwise highly desirable child. Of course, I 

 know that the theory has been attacked; but India, 

 including tropical India, has provided the best proof on 

 a large scale of its soundness. The theory was first 

 enunciated in England, and was first applied to English 

 wheat, but India has achieved a great and important 

 result in applying this point more rapidly than we have 

 been able to do at home. The reason for that is interest- 

 ing. To obtain new varieties possessing the quality of 

 endosperm we desire in England, one of the parents has 

 to be an exotic wheat, and we do not know until it has 

 been grown for several or many successive seasons how 

 it will behave in its new environment, or whether the 

 variety itself is homogeneous as to " quality of endo- 

 sperm." The wheats hitherto exported from India have 

 good points of milling and baking quality, but on the 

 whole are relatively inferior according to* European or 

 American standards of excellence. But the Howards 

 and Leake, in sorting out the botanical jumble of Indian 

 wheats, found that some indigenous varieties were of 

 first-class quality, and they proceeded to apply the 

 Mendelian theory. I have for several successive seasons 

 tested the parents and the progeny, and I can, without 



