Wheat Investigations. 7 



of the National Association of British and Irish Millers 10 which 

 demonstrated that a number of varieties, notably the Red Fife 

 selections retain their original strength under all conditions when 

 other varieties change enormously with climate and soil. Sim- 

 ilar results were obtained by Howard, Leake and Howard 11 in 

 India who found that among 25 pure line cultures representing 

 as many distinct wheats, when grown under different condi- 

 tions at three stations, some strains always remained soft, some 

 had a tendency to remain hard while with the majority of these 

 strains the consistancy varied greatly according to the locality 

 and the conditions under which they are grown (L.c. p. 59). 

 Four strong wheats and one soft strain were each grown at 9 

 different stations under widely varying conditions of climate, 

 soil and culture. The 4 strains consistently retained their 

 strength and milling qualities while the soft strain always re- 

 mained a weak wheat. 



As a further illustration of the effectiveness of the applica- 

 tion of modern plant breeding methods in the improvement of 

 wheat quality the results at the Central Experimental Farm at 

 Ottawa, Ontario, those of Farrer in New South Wales, of 

 Clark 12 and of Leith 13 should be cited. 



The results of a recent investigation of Freeman 14 are of 

 special interest in their bearing upon the influence of environ- 

 ment upon the texture of the wheat kernel. In his experiments 

 involving crosses between soft wheats and durum. Freeman es- 

 tablished two types of soft grains. One type was designated by 

 him as "true softness" in which the air spaces in the endosperm 

 are diffuse and finely scattered. This type of softness is only 

 slightly affected by environic conditions. The second type, com- 

 monly called "yellow berry" was characterized by air spaces 



10 Humphries, A. E. and Biffen, R. H. The Improvement of English 

 Wheat. Jour. Agr. Sci. 1917, V. 2, pp. 1-16. 



"Howard, Albert, Leake, H. M. and Howard, G. L. C. The Influ- 

 ence of the Environment on the Milling and Baking Qualities of Wheat 

 in India. Memoirs Dept. Agr. India 1913. Vol. V. No. 2, pp. 45-102. 



"Clark, J. A. Improvement of Ghirka Spring Wheat in Yield and 

 Quality. 1916. U. S. Dept. Agric. Bu. Plant. Ind. Bull. 450, pp. 1-19. 



13 Leith, B. D. The milling and Baking Qualities of Wisconsin 

 Grown Wheats. Wise. Agr. Exp. Sta. Res. Bull. 43, 1919. pp. 1-38. 



"Freeman, Geo. F. Producing Bread Making Wheats for Warm 

 Climates. Jour. Heredity, 1918, V. 9, No. 5, pp. 211-226- 



