CEREALS 39 



beardless heads in a crop of Medeah (a bearded wheat of 

 the Macaroni or Durum type). This plant was harvested 

 separately and sown in the following season, 1898, and has 

 now been fixed for some years. This variety appears to be 

 the result of accidental cross-fertilization. It is particularly 

 valuable as a hay-wheat, as it possesses all the qualities 

 of the best of the Durum wheats, and has the advantage 

 of being beardless. It is one of the varieties recom- 

 mended for cultivation for this purpose in the coastal 

 districts of New South Wales. It is also a good grain 

 producer, but it is as an improved hay-wheat that Mr. 

 Correll created it, and it now rivals Baroota, the principal 

 wheat grown for hay in Western Australia. 



Mr. Correll has also been successful in fixing a number 

 of promising varieties by the same process of the selection 

 of single plants, apparently produced by natural cross- 

 fertilization. Of these Correll's No. 5 is among the best 

 of the early or mid-season varieties. He has two varieties 

 with solid straws and beardless, of similar parentage to 

 Le Huguenot, which he will shortly distribute, and which 

 he considers will be even more generally useful than Le 

 Huguenot, in that they tiller better, hold in the ground 

 better when ripe, and can consequently be better stripped. 

 They are more readily threshed, and produce better and 

 more abundant grain. These varieties he calls La 

 Rochelle and De Conde, and they appear to be the result 

 of natural cross-fertilization between Medeah and a wheat 

 called Hawkes Club, a field of which was growing 

 alongside. 



Other varieties (Correll's No. 7 and No. 8) are also 

 hay-wheats and bunt and smut proof and will probably 

 be found to be rust-resistant. 



Of the grain wheats, the one which Mr. Correll con- 

 siders most promising is No. 10, which will shortly be 

 available for distribution. This has long square heads 

 free from tip beards with purple, comparatively short 

 straw and very shotty grain. Mr. Correll's wheats, as 

 will be seen, are all the products of selection of two or 

 three natural crosses, with Medeah for one of the parents. 



Among the more recent enthusiasts to take up the 

 matter of wheat breeding in Western Australia is Mr. 



