240 Varieties of Wheat and Methods of Improving therti. 
some day or other to the project, which assumed as its basis d 
rate for shipments at-lc^. to 1;^^. per lb., were a beginning 
to be made by way of experiment with from 10,000 to 12,000 
sheep annually. 
It is hardly likely that such mutton as these regions produce 
would be welcome here. But, in the face of the story I have 
given of the gi-owth and changes of the frozen trade in the last few 
years, it would be unwise in a general survey to overlook at 
least the possibility of seeing some day, if not now, a competition 
started in directions in which for the moment it is hardly pos- 
sible to imagine the existence of a profitable trade. 
X. — Varieties of Wheat and Methods of Improving them. 
By Henry Evershed. 
The oldest samples of English wheats are, I believe, those which 
Sir Joseph Banks collected early in the present century, and 
which are now under the charge of Mr. Carruthers in the 
botanical department of the Natural History Museum at South 
Kensington. In addition to a few foreign varieties the collection 
consists of wheat received from various parts of England, and 
especially from Kent, where Sir Joseph Banks had an active corre- 
spondent.' The foreign sorts of wheat were probably grown 
expei'imentally, and with regard to the rest several of them 
bear the names of existing varieties, which have since been 
cultivated, apparently without much change in some cases, 
while in others they have been modified by selection. Rivett 
or cone wheat is probably the same now as it was in the last 
century, and we may conclude from its vigorous and productive 
habit that it has not degenerated. 
In writing an account of cultivated wheats, one would 
naturally desire to treat of their origin, to designate the leading 
sorts, and to describe the varied characteristics of the grain 
and straw, the hardiness, habit, and prolificacy of the plant, and 
the soils and particular condition of the soil that are most desir- 
' The red wheats from Kent are Brown Wheat, Cobham Brown, Clarke's 
Wheat, White Straw Brown, Bland's Imperial Brown, Sicilian Wheat, Blue 
Chaffed Rivett without awns, and White Chaffed Rivett with awns. White 
wheats from Kent are Brown Strawed White, Eltham Hoary White, Hedge 
Wheat and New White ; other sorts from other districts are Berwick White, 
Berwick Red, Essex White, Essex Red ; and four other sorts from Essex. 
There are also samples of Taunton Dean, Italian, Hamburg, American Red, 
Duck's Bill from Oxfordshire, Windsor Wheat, Spring Wheat, and Pollard 
Wheat. 
