CEREALS 33 



(3) SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



South Australia was the first of the States to under- 

 take the systematic improvement of wheats, and the first 

 Australian wheat breeders belong to this State. 



In 1881 the late Dr. Schomburg, Director of the 

 Botanic Gardens, Adelaide, supplied a few farmers in 

 South Australia with samples of Du Toits, a variety of 

 wheat grown in South Africa. One of these farmers, 

 Mr. Ward (now resident at Port Pirie), observed a single 

 rust-free plant in a crop that was otherwise eaten up with 

 rust. From this plant was produced the wheat known 

 as Ward's Rust-proof, or Ward's Prolific, a variety 

 which has probably played a more important part than 

 any other single variety in the improvement of wheat in 

 Australia. For Ward's Prolific is not only a rust- 

 resistant and highly prolific variety, thus enabling many 

 farmers to carry on wheat growing at a time when the 

 prevalence of rust threatened to destroy the industry, but 

 it is the parent of all the principal varieties that made 

 wheat growing profitable in South Australia, many of 

 which have proved of even greater value than the parent 

 wheat, and are strong favourites in the other States. 



Even more successful as a wheat breeder was Mr. 

 Richard Marshall, who suffered severely from the 

 depredation of rust and other cereal diseases. He set 

 himself to study the disease, and systematically experi- 

 mented with a large number of varieties obtained from 

 different parts of the world, and by cross breeding and 

 selection succeeded in producing- a considerable number 

 of varieties which completely replaced the wheats hitherto 

 in cultivation. 



Some of the best-known varieties we owe to this 

 investigator are Marshall's No. 3, Marshall's Prolific, 

 Silver King and Majestic, and the great popularity of 

 these wheats affords ample testimony to his success. 



A new era may be said to have been introduced in South 

 Australian wheat growing by these creations of Mr. 

 Marshall, and the older varieties of the Purple Straw, 

 Tuscan, and Lammas type almost disappeared to make 

 place for wheats with harder grain and stiffer straw. 

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