RECENT WORK IN AUSTRALIA ON THE IMPROVEMENT 

 OF WHEAT. 



By F. B. GUTHRIE, F.I.C., F.C.S. 



Chemist, Department of Agriculture, New South Wales; 

 Lecturer in Technology of Commercial Products, 

 Sydney University. 



AT the meeting of the International Congress of 

 Tropical Agriculture, held at Brussels in 1910, two 

 papers were read dealing with wheat improvement in 

 Australia, the one entitled " Work Done in the Testing 

 of Wheat and Flour in New South Wales," and the other, 

 " The Work of the late W. J. Farrer." 



In the present contribution it is proposed to review 

 shortly the work done in the different States of the 

 Commonwealth, and particularly during the past four or 

 five years, towards the improvement of wheat, both by 

 individual workers and as a result of departmental action. 



As was pointed out in the first of the papers re- 

 ferred to above, the first concerted official action in 

 the direction of studying and improving locally grown 

 wheats was made in 1890, when an Interstate Conference 

 was called to deal specifically with the question of com- 

 bating rust, which was at that time very prevalent in 

 all the States. In South Australia alone it was estimated 

 that the damage due to this cause in 1899 amounted to 

 1,500,000. 



The result of these Conferences, at which the Agri- 

 cultural Departments of all the States were represented, 

 was to give an impetus to the systematic study of the 

 wheat plant, with the special object of improving the 

 grain itself, and the methods of soil treatment and crop 

 production. Wheat-breeding stations were established by 

 the various State Departments and systematic experi- 

 ments were carried out at the farms and stations under 

 Government control, in order to determine the best 

 varieties for different districts, the most suitable manures, 



