WINNIPEG, 1909. 773 
From the results of experiments here presented in the selection of seed, 
we see clearly the advantage of sowing large, plump, sound, well-matured 
seed of strong vitality if the best results are to be obtained. 
The Improvement of Wheat by Systematic Selection and by 
Cross-fertilisation. 
A careful study of a large number of varieties of wheat for several 
years in succession furnishes excellent foundation stock for work in plant 
breeding. For a number of years past, particularly since 1902, a con- 
siderable amount of work has been done at the Ontario Agricultural 
College in the hope of improving some of the best varieties of wheat 
through selection and through cross-fertilisation. Selections have been 
made of the Dawson’s Golden Chaff, Imperial Amber, Bulgarian and 
Turkey Red varieties of winter wheat and of the Red Fife variety of 
spring wheat. Some of these selections have been made by using choice 
heads obtained from the large fields, others by using superior plants 
obtained from about nine thousand plants of each variety, the seed of which 
was planted in rows one foot apart, the plants being one link apart in the 
rows. For sowing in rows the following year, the best quality of seed from the 
selected plants was used. The seed from those strains which produced the 
best results in the rows was used for both rows and small plots in the 
year following. In the next year, the seed of strains giving the best results 
both in the rows and in the small plots was sown in rows, in small plots 
and in larger plots, so that the results of the new strains could be com- 
pared with those of the standard varieties. We have thus been able to 
obtain strains giving larger yields of grain of better quality than the 
original varieties. Especially has this been true with Dawson’s Golden 
Chaff, the Bulgarian, and the Turkey Red. 
With the object of combining the good qualities and eliminating the 
undesirable characteristics of the leading varieties of wheat, work in 
hybridisation was started in 1902 and has been continued each year since 
that date. Crosses have been made between the Dawson’s Golden Chaff 
and the Turkey Red, the Bulgarian, the Tasmania Red, the Buda Pesth, 
the Geneva and the Imperial Amber varieties of winter wheat; between 
the Bulgarian and the Turkey Red varieties of winter wheat ; between the 
Red Fife spring wheat and the Turkey Red winter wheat; between the 
Red Fife and the Herison Bearded varieties of spring wheat; and between 
the Red Fife spring wheat and the Wild Goose and the Medeah varieties 
of durum wheat. In 1909 no less than 21,365 hybrid plants of winter 
wheat and 32,698 hybrid plants of spring wheat were grown separately in 
the experimental grounds. Besides these, fifty-nine plots of winter wheat 
and seventeen plots of spring wheat hybrids were under test. The results 
obtained are exceedingly interesting and very promising. To give these 
results even in concise form would require a lengthy paper in itself. In 
connection with this work we are exceedingly grateful for the information 
and the inspiration of such men as Gregor Mendel, Dr. de Vries, 
Dr. Nillson, Prof. Bateson, Dr. Wm. Saunders, and others. The writer 
firmly believes that there was never a time in which the outlook for the 
work in plant breeding was as promising as it is at present. Good seed 
has a meaning far deeper and far more significant than many of us have 
realised in the past. 
6. Individuality in Plants. By L. S. Kuixcx, Macdonald College, 
Quebec, Canada. 
No two plants are exactly alike. Indeed, a close study of thousands 
of individuals reveals striking differences, not only between plants of the 
