TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION M. 663 
5. Wheat-Breeding in Australia. By A. B. V. Ricuarpson, M.A., B.Sc. 
Wheat is the staple crop of Australia. Steady increase in production has 
taken place during the past three decades, and the annual production is now 
approximately 100 million bushels. The greatest increase has taken place during 
the past decade, the area of land under wheat for grain rising from 5} million 
to 74 million acres, and the production from 50 million to 100 million bushels. 
The factors mainly responsible for this increase are the opening up of lands 
hitherto regarded as unsuitable for wheat-culture, the adoption of labour- 
saving machinery and improved methods of culture, and the introduction of 
improved varieties of wheat. 
Hitherto, attention has been mainly directed to the improvement in the 
plant’s environment, as contrasted with the improvement in the plant itself. 
The future magnitude of the wheat industry of Australia depends on the 
extent to which lands lying outside the existing margin of cultivation can be 
profitably farmed. These are the semi-arid areas, and, to make them fully 
productive, drought-resistant prolific types are urgently required. 
In the three principal wheat States, New South Wales, Victoria, and South 
Australia, wheat-breeding is an important activity of the local Department of 
Agriculture. Each State has a central station at which wheat-breeding is con- 
ducted, and subsidiary farms at which new selected cross-bred varieties are 
tested. At these centres considerable progress has been made in the production 
of more prolific types by— 
(1) The isolation of pure strains and mutants of high yielding capacity from 
the locally grown types; 
(2) The deliberate improvement of existing types by individual and mass 
selection ; 
(3) The introduction and acclimatisation of foreign wheats ; 
(4) The improvement of selected local types by intercrossing and by crossing 
them with acclimatised foreign types. 
A summary of this work was submitted. 
Farrer has conclusively demonstrated by cross-breeding that the production 
of varieties of high prolificacy, of high milling and baking quality, and of a 
high immunity from disease, is a practical certainty. The varieties ‘ Federation” 
‘Bobs,’ ‘Cedar,’ and ‘Comeback,’ ‘Florence’ and ‘Genoa,’ may be taken as 
illustrations in point. 
There is reason for believing that the drought-resisting qualities of proved 
Australian varieties could be greatly increased by using as foundation stocks 
wheats grown for generations under extremely arid conditions. Certain crosses 
of Durum and Indian wheats with prolific local types have resulted in the 
production of early-maturing, spare-stooling, drought-resistant types bearing a 
high proportion of grain to straw. 
Modern genetic research has thrown considerable light on the mode of 
inheritance of certain unit -characters in wheat, but most of the characters 
hitherto studied are of little practical importance. The practical objectives 
from an Australian standpoint are the raising of prolific, drought-resistant, 
early-maturing types, immune from fungoid diseases. To these may be added 
strength of flour and high milling quality. We require to determine what are 
the various factors on which these important qualities depend, their mode of 
inheritance, and how they can be brought under control and associated together 
at the breeder’s will. ; 
TUESDAY, AUGUST 25. 
Joint Discussion with Section B (Chemistry) on Metabolism, opened by 
Professor H. E. Armstrona, F.R.S. 
Professor ARMSTRONG: In the time at disposal only broad issues could 
be considered. Many attempts had heen made of late years to prove that 
formaldehyde is the initial product of assimilation. Apart from the unsatis- 
