Breeding of Wheat. 



21 



Further, as Red Fife appears to retain its strength wherever it is 

 grown, it is not improbable that this variety will prove to be the 

 progenitor of the world's strong wheats in the future. Unfor- 

 tunately there are many drawbacks to its cultivation in this 

 country, and it is doubtful whether it will ever become one of our 

 staple varieties, except possibly in some few localities. On many 

 soils it is an indifferent cropper, and even in those places in which 

 it gives a satisfactory yield the straw does not stand as well as 

 that of our common wheats. Could the breeder only combine its 

 excellent quality of grain with a heavy cropping capacity and stiff 

 straw he would obtain a variety which would go far towards 

 making wheat once again the most profitable crop of the farm. 



The solution of such a problem requires a knowledge of the 

 inheritance of characteristics peculiarly difficult to deal with. A 

 casual inspection of a plant is sufficient to determine whether it 

 is bearded, velvet-chaffed, red, &c. , but strength, yield, and stiff- 

 ness of straw cannot be determined so readily. In fact, the single 

 plants the breeder now deals with — instead of the mass, as before 

 — give him no information of value as to capacity to afford a heavy 

 yield of grain or stiff straw. Such features can only be determined 

 by actual and, in view of their number, costly field trials. In the 

 characteristic " strength " the problem is not quite so complex, 

 as by choosing varieties showing extremes of strength and weak- 

 ness as parents, it is possible to differentiate these with sufficient 

 accuracy for technical purposes when segregation has occurred. 



The mode of inheritance of strength was first determined by 

 crossing Red Fife with Rough Chaff, the former parent having 

 strong grain of a red colour, the latter weak grain of a white 

 colour. Like most weak wheats, the grain of Rough Chaff is 

 soft and of a texture well described as floury, whilst that of Fife 

 is hard and translucent. The texture of the grain has proved 

 sing'ularly constant under our experimental conditions and a good 

 index as to the baking quality of flour from the grain. The 

 generation raised from the plant arising from this combination of 

 the parents, the F., of the Mendelians, showed obvious segregation 

 into strong and weak wheats, these characteristics being entirely 

 independent of such others as the velvet nature of the chaff, the 

 grain colour, &c. Thus in this generatiotl the following obvious 

 types occurred : — 



Strong, velvet-chaffed, red. 

 Strong, velvet-chaffed, white. 

 Strong, smooth-chaffed, red. 

 Strong, smooth-chaffed, white. 



Weak, velvet-chaffed, red. 

 Weak, velvet-chaffed, white. 

 Weak, smooth-chaffed, red. 

 Weak, smooth-chaffed, white. 



On determining the proportion of strong-grained to weak- 

 grained individuals there were found to be three of the former 



