PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 323 



Another of Biffen's new wheats is 'Yeoman.' This was raised in order to 

 produce what are known as strong wheats. These are in great demand in this 

 country, as they produce a flour which is much superior for baking purposes to 

 the flour of English wheat. In pre-war days Canadian strong wheats com- 

 manded in the market 5s. more per quarter than the best English wheat. 

 ' Yeoman ' not only possesses the stiperior quality of Canadian wheat but com- 

 bines with it the high-yielding character of certain English wheats. 



A well authenticated report, supplemented with full details, of the value of 

 'Yeoman' as a field crop was lately published.' It was cultivated under normal 

 conditions, but without artificial manure, on three fields on a large farm near 

 Wye, Kent. The cropped area was a little over twenty-seven acres. The total 

 yield was 2,072 bushels, or an average of about seventy-seven bushels per acre. 

 One field, previously under beet, comprising three acres two rods and eight poles, 

 yielded 340 bushels, or an average of eighty-six bushels per acre. These results 

 may be compared with thirty-two bushels, the average yield of wheat in this 

 country 



Further, in another variety known as ' Fenman,' Biff en has produced a wheat 

 with a short, stiff straw for the Fen country. This is able to withstand the usual 

 tendency of the ordinary sorts to grow tall and be beaten down and injured in 

 rainy seasons. A most desirable improvement in wheat growing in this country 

 is to obtain a spring wheat combining early, maturity with a yield approaching 

 that of winter wheat. There is likely to be a difficulty in securing these most 

 desirable results, but what Biffen ?ias already achieved in dealing with qualita- 

 tive and quantitative characters offers fair promise of success. The establishment 

 of a National Institute of Agricultural Botany for the further development of 

 plant breeding and the distribution of pure seed may be regarded as essential 

 to the welfare and safety of the nation. 



Wheat growing is a very, important industry in India. It was estimated in 

 1906-7 that twenty-nine million acres were under cultivation in wheat with a 

 yield of nearly nine million tons. Of this 90 per cent, was consumed in India. 

 A botanical survey of the Indian wheats was iindertaken by the Economic 

 Botanists at the Imperial Research Institute at Pusa in 1910. In the following 

 years by the application of modern methods of selection and hybridisation high- 

 grain qualities were successfully combined with high-yielding power, rust resist- 

 ance, and stiff straw, so that wheats were produced which gave upwards of 

 forty-one bushels per acre. 



Among the best of the new varieties are Pusa 4 and Pusa 12. Owing to an 

 organised system of distribution of seed it is estimated that the area under 

 Pusa 12 during the last wheat season (1918-19) was about 400,000 acres. The area 

 under Pusa 4 was about 100,000 acres. The increased yield of 25 per cent, over 

 the varieties formerly, grown in India as well as one shilling per quarter more 

 on the market, owing to the improved quality of the grain, are factors of great 

 value as regards the future of wheat growing in India. Pusa 4 and 12 are said 

 to possess the added advantage of being able to mature with less water than the 

 ordinary Indian wheats. 



The important work carried on at Pusa by Howard and his accomplished wife 

 has followed closely on the methods found so successful at Cambridge. It is 

 interesting to note that in obtaining new kinds by hybridisation between Indian 

 wheats and rust-resisting forms in Northern Europe a difficulty, in regard to 

 flowering at different periods was overcome by sending the Indian parents to 

 Cambridge for spring sowing and by carrying out the actual crossing with 

 Biffen's new hybrids in England. From the crosses thus obtained Howard 

 reports that a wide range of wheats has been evolved likely to prove superior to 

 Pusa 4 and Pusa 12. 



The admirable work done by Biffen at Cambridge and the Howards in India 

 clearly demonstrates the value of thorough acquaintance with pure Botany as a 

 qualification for grappling with questions of economic importance. 



In reviewing the gain to Indian wheat growers the Director of the Agricultural 

 Keeearch Institute has recently stated that in view of the favour with which 

 the new wheats have been received and the cordial co-operation of provincial 



' Jnurn. Bd. Agric. xxv., 1161. 



