at) 



10 Letters on the Diseases of 'Plants. 



occupying not more than one-third their length. A back-crease is rarely 



visible. The interior of the grain is rather floury. 



KN^^^ Eattling Jack may be called an abbreviated purple- 



^^ f>^^ straw wheat. Except in form it completely re- 



v!k ^V^* sembles the purple straws, being delicate, and very 



^^l^^j £y liable to rust, but a great yielder in a good season, 



and on good, well-cultivated land. Though the ears 



are short, they contain a surprising amount of 



grain. This wheat will stand gales without breaking 



Fig. 6.-Gram of Battling dowu. The grain is of good milling quality, from 



Jack, average form aud the Australian poiut of view. 



Prominent characteristics, — Eather short, strong 

 stiff purple straw, short bald club-shaped ears, large yellow grain of good 

 quality, rather early, productive, rust-liable, somewhat liable to shell, 



4. Fife Wheats. 



The only other wheat that requires particular mention is that sent under 

 various names, such as Duluth and Manitoba. These samples, of which only 

 the grain is sent, belong to the group of wheats very generally known under 

 the name of Fifes. The samples sent have invariably been small-grained 

 and red, and as the above names indicate, came from Canada or the north- 

 western part of the United States. The Sydney millers have found that 

 these wheats produce excellent flour when ground in their mills, and now 

 express themselves as ready to pay the full market price for such wheats if 

 grown locally. This result is precisely in accordance with the results of 

 Mr. Guthrie's analyses, made from Australian samples grown by Mr. Wm. 

 Farrer at Queanbeyan, in this colony. From what I have seen during five 

 years of experiment on these varieties at Wagga, I would not advise their 

 trial in the Eiverina, In only one season out of four have they done well 

 at Wagga, In all the other years these varieties have presented a poor 

 appearance. On the other hand, in the colder parts of the Colony, they 

 may do well. Mr. Farrer has for many years grown good samples at Quean- 

 beyan. They should do well in New England and about Orange, and in 

 similar places having a cold winter and late spring. 



These wheats are commonly called hard, but this is a mistake, at least in 

 so far as calling them hard implies that they are either harder to mill, or 

 harder in the proper sense of that word, than the average run of Australian 

 varieties. The trial of these varieties should be widely encouraged in our 

 colder districts, for the reason that they are prolific, hardy, and, above all, 

 because they produce a flour of superior value as food. Eightly speaking, 

 therefore, the millers should hold them at a premium. It should not be 

 forgotten that these Fife wheats are late wheats ; they should, therefore, be 

 sown early. The following is a description of a typical American wheat of 

 the Fife family : — 



Fultz. — A rather tall free-stooling wheat, not far removed from the Fife 

 type, not yet grown to any extent in this country. The foliage is rather 

 abundant and somewhat glaucous. The straw is whitish-yellow in colour, 

 stiff, strong, above medium height and thickness, rather tough, hollow, 

 furrowed, and lustrous. The stalk when ripening is usually green, rarely 

 almost imperceptibly purple. The sheath of the upper leaf is long, reaching 

 more than half-way to the ear. The heads are bald, yellow, smooth — that is, 

 not velvety, — rather long, regular, open, tapering, straight, erect, and have 

 from two to three sterile spikelets at base. The fertile spikelets are three- 



