768 DISCUSSION ON WHEAT: 
in the history of each variety; the conclusions reached are far more 
trustworthy than before. All new varieties intended for bread-making 
are tested in the baking laboratory before being distributed. In addition 
to the final baking tests I have used for several years a simple chewing 
test (taking only a few kernels of wheat) as a valuable guide to gluten 
strength and probable baking strength in the earlier stages of selection. 
This test was advocated as an essential aid in the selection of cross-bred 
varieties of wheat in the Bulletin on Quality in Wheat, published at 
Ottawa, October 1907. 
Results of considerable practical importance have already followed the 
introduction of these early maturing wheats, since they can be depended 
upon to ripen in some districts where the old standard variety Red Fife is 
often caught by frost. By the use of these earlier kinds the areas of profit- 
able wheat culture have been extended. Furthermore, a small acreage of 
some of the new sorts may be advantageously sown, especially on stubble 
land, even districts where Red Fife succeeds fairly well, so as to 
lengthen the harvesting season when labour is scarce; with the possible 
exception of Marquis, however, none of the new cross-bred sorts thus far 
introduced can be recommended in place of Red Fife in localities where 
that variety can usually be ripened. 
As an instructive proof of the value of early-maturing wheats some 
results obtained last season on the experimental farm at Lacombe in 
Central Alberta may be cited. All the spring wheat on that farm was 
somewhat blemished by frost with the exception of one very early variety, 
Downy Riga, which was cut before the first frost. The kernels were plump 
and bright with a smooth skin, and weighed 633 lbs. to the measured 
bushel. Huron, a little less early, was still so well advanced at the 
time of the frost that the kernels when threshed were plump and weighed 
62 lb. to the measured bushel. The bran, however, was so much roughened 
by the frost that the wheat would have been graded quite low if offered 
for sale. Red Fife from the same series of plots was very seriously damaged 
by the frost, the kernels being rather shrivelled and the bran somewhat 
rough. The weight of a measured bushel was only 584 lbs.; the yield 
18 bushels per acre. Downy Riga gave 31 bushels and Huron 374 bushels 
per acre. 
While the results achieved thus far are of great value, still further 
advances are expected in the near future. Some of the new, hard, red, 
early wheats derived from the writer’s recent crosses are to be ground and 
baked during the coming winter; it is expected that from fifty to a hundred 
new sorts will be tested in this way every year for several years to come. 
Out of this large number we may confidently look forward to the discovery 
of at least a few varieties which will surpass any of those yet known by 
combining all the good qualities needed in an early maturing wheat for 
export. 
Though cross-breeding is essential for the production of new varieties 
of wheat radically distinct from any existing sorts, one may occasionally 
isolate by mere selection some fairly distinct type (a ‘sport’ or a 
‘mutant’) superior in certain respects to the variety from which it was 
selected. A considerable amount of selection has been carried on at Ottawa, 
and one at least of the new strains discovered promises to be of importance 
and ranks in interest with the cross-bred sorts. This is a strain of Red 
Fife wheat originated from a single early maturing plant found by the 
writer in 1903. This strain has been thoroughly tested both in the field 
and in the baking laboratory, and has been proved to be genuine Red 
Fife in all essential respects. It ripens earlier and shows certain other 
minor points of difference, but would be generally recognised as Red Fife. 
This wheat has now been grown for six years at Ottawa and was tested 
