i9io.] 



Improvement of Crops by Selection. 



379 



The cheeses are usually packed in lots of six and wrapped 

 in straw, or they may be placed in the familiar wooden chip 

 boxes and sent to market when about three-fourths ripe. 



The mould growth on Camembert cheese is of the greatest 

 importance, and if the colour appears in any different 

 sequence to that described, then the cheeses will be inferior. 



At first the cheeses should be covered with a pure white 

 rather pilose mould, forming a layer of about one-eighth of 

 an inch thick over the whole surface of the cheese. With the 

 ripening of the spores of the mould the colour gradually 

 changes to greyish-blue. This change becomes complete in 

 about three weeks from the 'time of making, and no further 

 mould-growth seems to take place afterwards. Finally, the 

 mould breaks down and the brown-reddish condition of the 

 surface appears, and at this stage the cheeses are considered 

 ripe. In a well-made cheese, cut through the middle when 

 ripe, the softening of the curd will extend to the centre, 

 whereas a cheese badly made will show a layer of hard sour 

 curd in the centre, while the outside portions will be in an 

 almost liquid state. 



IMPROVEMENT OF CROPS BY SELECTION. 

 R. B. Greig, 



North of Scotland Agricultural College, Aberdeen. 



At Svalof, a small village in the south of Sweden, about 

 an hour's railway journey from Malmo, is the headquarters 

 of the "Swedish Society for the Improvement of Seeds," pre- 

 sided over by Dr. Nilsson. The success of Dr. Nilsson's 

 method of producing improved races of farm crops is now 

 well established, but the means by which this success has 

 been attained are only vaguely known outside of biological 

 laboratories, although the discoveries made at Svalof are 

 likely to influence the practice of agriculture in every quarter 

 of the globe. The following description, largely from notes 

 taken on the spot during the summer of 1909, may help to 

 dispel the fog which necessarily conceals the work of a foreign 

 investigator, a knowledge of whose language is seldom in- 

 cluded in the accomplishments of a botanist or agriculturist. 



