262 



ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



(4) soft white grains whicli are very white and 

 which, like soft red grains, have a starchy 

 interior. 



ISTow hard white grains (3) may be confused with soft 

 red grains (2), although they are radically different. 

 Hence it is that buyers in Great Britain hesitate to pur- 

 chase white wheat from Canada. They are used to re- 

 ceiving red wheat from this source and, when white 

 wheat samples come into their hands, they are naturally 

 suspicious that they are being offered soft red wheats 

 which are very inferior for bread-making purposes. From 

 these considerations it is clear that the policy of Dr. 

 Saunders in refusing to introduce white wheats into 

 western Canada is thoroughly justified. 



IV. The Discovery of Red Bohs hy Mr. Seager Wheeler 

 The facts about to be related concerning the origin 

 of Eed Bobs were obtained by the writer during an in- 

 terview with Mr. Seager Wheeler at his farm at Eosthern 

 during the summer of 1918. 



Mr. Wheeler of Eosthern, Saskatchewan, who was an 

 active member of the Canadian Seed Growers' Associa- 

 tion and who was engaged in making selections from Dr. 

 Saunders' strain of Early Eed Fife and of Preston, heard 

 of Bobs, and, during the winter of 1907-08, secured a 

 ten-pound sample of it from the Experimental Farm at 

 Indian Head. This sample he seeded in the spring of 

 1908 on one of his special plots by the side of his other 

 varieties of wheat; and, as the Bobs plants grew, he ob- 

 served that they showed great uniformity and appeared to 

 be free from all admixture. In the autumn the plot 

 gave a yield at the rate of 60 bushels to the acre. 



In 1909 Mr. Wheeler seeded: (1) a small head-row 

 plot, each row of seeds having been obtained from a single 



