CEREALS 23 



suitable to the so-called Mallee district of Victoria : 

 ' They must be early maturing to escape the hot winds, 

 drought resisting, holding the grain well (since the grain 

 must be dead ripe for harvesting with the stripper). 

 They must, in addition, be good milling wheats, prolific, 

 and fairly rust resistant." 



Milling Quality. 



Even with regard to the requirements of a good milling 

 wheat there is a difference between Australian conditions 

 and those obtaining elsewhere. In the first place, the 

 Australian miller produces practically only one grade of 

 flour straight grade. Grades such as bakers', patents, 

 households, etc., are hardly known, and only a small 

 proportion of flour is exported. It is true that in the 

 last few years an export flour trade is establishing itself, 

 but the trade is not yet sufficiently extensive to modify 

 existing methods to any extent. Moreover, the Aus- 

 tralian miller deals only with locally grown wheats which 

 are fairly uniform in character, so that blending as under- 

 stood in other countries is unknown. 



The only modifications consist in the production of 

 more or less offal, according to the state of the market. 



Consequently the characteristics of a wheat to be accept- 

 able to the Australian miller are that it shall not differ 

 greatly from the prevalent type, and that it shall yield 

 a good quantity of straight grade flour of good colour 

 and baking quality. 



WORK DONE IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF WHEATS IN THE 

 DIFFERENT STATES. 



(i) NEW SOUTH WALES. 

 Departmental Action. 



Wheat experiments are conducted at Cowra (the head- 

 quarters for wheat breeding), Hawkesbury Agricultural 

 College (representing the coastal districts), Wagga 

 (representing the Riverina, the principal wheat producing 

 district of the State), Bathurst (western Tablelands), Glen 

 Innes (northern Tablelands), Nyngan and Coonamble 

 (dry western country), and Yanco (under irrigation). 



It will thus be seen that the varying conditions as to 



