THE RURAL PROBLEM 147 



APPENDIX J. 



MENDELISM AND AGRICULTURE. 



Extract from article, " Applied Heredity,'''' by II. C. Punnetl, M.A., 

 in '" Harper's Monthly Magazine" December, 1908. 



... So long ago as 1890 the National Association of British and 

 Irish Millers called attention to the fact that the quality of 

 English wheats had deteriorated. For milling purposes the 

 foreign article with its strong glutenous grains was found to be 

 greatly superior, and English wheats were selling at 28s. Gd. a 

 quarter, while Manitoba hard was fetching 35s. The National 

 Association endeavoured to interest the agricultural societies in 

 the question, but found that they were more or less resigned to 

 this unsatisfactory state of things, and despaired of competing 

 with the superior quality of the foreign wheat. Indeed, many 

 declared that grain of the highest quality could not be grown 

 profitably in Great Britain. At this point the Association took a 

 wise, and, for England, a courageous step. They decided to 

 provide the funds for experimental research, and in 1900 Professor 

 Biffen of the Cambridge University Agricultural Department 

 started his remarkable series of experiments. It was just at 

 the time of the rediscovery of Mendel's paper. Thanks to Pro- 

 fessor Bateson, the extreme importance of that paper was at once 

 recognised in Cambridge, and Professor Biffen organised his work 

 upon Mendelian lines. He collected together all the varieties 

 he could lay hands on, and by numerous crossing tests he laid the 

 foundations of an accurate knowledge of the various unit char- 

 acters that occur in wheat. He found the beardless character 

 to be dominant to beardlessness, rough chaff dominant to smooth, 

 red grain to white grain, thick stem to thin stem, and so on. 

 Early and late ripening behaved as a Mendelian pair of characters, 

 as also did heavy as opposed to poor cropping capacity. Pro- 

 fessor Biffen's analysis further revealed Mendelian heredity in 

 two characters of such importance as to deserve special mention. 

 We have already seen that the poor quality of English wheat is 

 due to poverty of glutenous matter. The grain is too starchy, and 

 requires the admixture of a considerable amount of glutenous 

 " strong " foreign wheat to give flour which will bake into a 

 presentable loaf. Professor Biffen has been able to show that the 

 highly glutenous grain is dominant to the starchy one. With 

 this knowledge he has been able in a few years to produce a wheat 

 combining the large cropping capacity of English wheat with the 

 high gluten content of a foreign variety. 



But the most important and the most fascinating of all Pro- 

 fessor Biffen's experiments concern the inheritance of an entirely 

 different character. In all countries the most serious enemy of the 

 wheat farmer is rust. Early in their growth the plants are 

 attacked by a parasitic fungus, whose presence is rendered con- 



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