Mr Biff en, Wheat Breeding. 



279 



Wheat Breeding. By R. H. Biffen, M.A., Emmanuel College. 

 [Read 9 November 1903.] 



During the summer of 1901 a large number of crosses were 

 made between different sub-species and varieties of wheats, 

 primarily with the object of raising improved varieties from the 

 point of view of the farmer and miller, and also to ascertain to 

 what extent Mendel's Laws of Inheritance hold for the distinctive 

 characteristics of wheats. 



For a study of heredity there are few plants as suitable, for 

 with very rare exceptions the flowers are autogamous, and conse- 

 quently there is no further trouble in self-fertilizing once the first 

 crosses are made, and further, large numbers of plants can be raised 

 on a small area — a matter of some importance in actual practice. 



Whilst this work was in progress two papers of importance 

 have appeared which deal with wheat-breeding. One by Spillman, 

 working with no previous knowledge of Mendel's researches, shows 

 clearly that certain pairs of characters conform to the now well- 

 known laws, and the second by Tschermak serves to confirm his 

 results. These workers have proved that the following characters 

 are dominant : lax ears, beardless ears, velvet chaff, red chaff, while 

 dense ears, bearded ears, smooth chaff and white chaff are the 

 corresponding recessive characters. To this list I may now add 

 a number of other pairs of characters such as grey and white- 

 coloured chaff, keeled and rounded glumes, hollow and solid stems, 

 rough and smooth leaf surface, short and long leaves, broad and 

 narrow leaves, long and short grains, red and white grains, 

 glutenous and starchy grains, late ripening and early ripening, 

 etc., the dominant character being the first-mentioned of the pair 

 in each case. 



The majority of these pairs of characters have been investi- 

 gated in the second generation, and the hybrids have been found 

 to split up according to the usual proportions of three with domi- 

 nant to one with recessive characters. By way of example we find 



