CEREALS 35 



are entitled to a high place in the history of the develop- 

 ment of wheat in Australia. 



Departmental Action. 



Systematic attempts to improve wheats have been 

 carried on by the South Australian Department for many 

 years past. The most complete scheme is that introduced 

 by Professor A. J. Perkins, Principal of Roseworthy 

 Agricultural College. Professor Perkins bases his 

 method on the assumption that selection, to be effective, 

 must be continuous and uninterrupted. The broad 

 principle underlying the method is that the best ears are 

 selected from the " selection plots," and are used for the 

 following season's selection plot. The process thus con- 

 tinues indefinitely and automatically, those ears possess- 

 ing in the highest degree the qualities sought for being 

 alone selected for further propagation in the selection 

 plots. These -plots have now been in existence since 

 1904, so that with some of the original wheats the ninth 

 consecutive selection has been reached. Professor 

 Perkins has very kindly supplied the subjoined descrip- 

 tion, which will make his method readily understood : 



" We start with a limited number of good ears selected 

 from well-grown plants in a standing crop, let us say 

 King's White. The immediate progeny of these ears, 

 with the exception of the best picked out from them in 

 the following season, I call King's White (first selection). 

 The best ears picked from the best plants become King's 

 White (second selection), and so on indefinitely, the very 

 best ears always becoming one selection in advance of 

 their immediate parents. At the present time we have 

 reached our ninth selection with some of the earliest 

 wheats handled. 



" In any given year the picked ears are sown in what 

 I term ' Selection Plots,' i.e., in rows 24 in. apart, each 

 grain being dibbled in one link apart. Each ear is main- 

 tained separate under a number or letter, so that I always 

 have several strains of the same variety, many of which 

 are discarded in the course of time if they do not come 

 up .to expectations. In the same way all our wheats are 



