CEREALS 21 



the best treatment of the soil, methods of combating 

 disease, etc. 



Farmers were supplied with seed wheat, pure and true 

 to name, advised as to their special requirements, and 

 encouraged to experiment on their own account. 



The present paper will be confined to a review of the 

 work done in the improvement of the grain itself, either 

 by selection from types already established, or by the 

 creation of new varieties by cross-fertilization. 



CHARACTERISTICS SPECIALLY SOUGHT FOR IN IMPROVED 

 VARIETIES. 



The specific points to which attention has been more 

 particularly directed in the production of improved types 

 of wheat have been the following : 



(1) Immunity against rust and other diseases. 



(2) Prolificness. 



(3) Drought resistance. 



(4) Improvement of milling qualities. 



(5) Creation of wheats for hay. 



(6) Creation of wheats for different districts. 



As the conditions of wheat growing in Australia differ 

 in many material points from those prevailing in other 

 countries, most of the above terms possess a significance 

 different from that which attaches to them elsewhere. 



It must also be borne in mind that wheats which are 

 pre-eminent locally on account of special characteristics 

 are often failures, even as regards such characteristics, 

 when grown abroad, and vice versa. 



The following short notes on the significance of the 

 above terms as applied to Australian conditions may 

 assist in a better understanding of the problems which 

 confront local wheat growers. 



Rust Resistance. 



The qualities which confer rust resistance locally are 

 by no means identical with those which are required in 

 other countries. The disease itself exhibits certain 

 characteristics which differentiate it from European or 

 American rusts. Mr. D. McAlpine, Pathologist to the 

 Department of Agriculture, Victoria, who is the Austra- 

 lian authority on the subject, finds that of the three kinds 



