Varieties of Wheat and Methods of Improving them, 251 
In another section we have Prince Albert Wheat, or Albert's 
Red, Oxford lied, Clover Wheat, Nortliampton, Ilimtlefs Prolific, 
Red Talavera, Chancellor s Red, and so on. The typical cha- 
racteristics of this family are stout, tall straw, very leafy and 
stiff', grain red or yellowish red, rarely very plump. The cap is 
long, and the sets of grains are large and fantail-shaped. It is 
a wheat suited to rich deep land, productive of grain, and still 
more so of straw. 
The last variety to be noticed here is Scotch Red or Blood 
Red, called also Golden Drop and Prolific Red, and honoured by 
several seed-merchants with their own names as a prefix. The 
straw is of moderate length, strong and flexible, and often 
violet-coloured below the ear. The ear is red-brown, of a fair 
length, slightly flattened, and, to mention one of those slight 
characteristics by which different varieties can be detected, the 
awns of the glumes are short and turned inward. The grain is 
full and heavy, red or reddish yellow, or divided into two equal 
parts, one red, the other yellow. The cultivation of this ex- 
cellent variety seems to have originated in East Lothian ; but 
Golden Drop is ]iow widely grown throughout the whole country, 
being hardy, of good quality, and not liable to become laid. 
In treating of the principles of wheat improvement and the 
methods of obtaining new varieties, I feel bound to describe 
Major Hallett's system of enlarging the ear and grain by thin 
seeding. In a paper " On Pedigree in Wheat as a Means of 
Increasing the Crop" (Journal, 1861, p. 371), Mr. Hallett 
lays down the following axiom : " Of the grains in the same ear 
one is found greatly to excel all the others in vital poiver." Consider- 
ing the slow steps by which the wheat plant has usually either 
" progressed," from the cultivator's point of view, or suffered 
retrogression, it seems a somewhat startling proposition that 
one grain in an ear should in any respect "greatly excel" all 
the others. Mr. Hallett states that in 1857 the original ear 
which he sowed for the sake of discovering its best grain, 
which he purposed making the parent of a pedigree breed of 
wheat, measured 4|- inches long, and contained 47 grains. The 
following year the best ear of all those produced by the 47 grains 
measured 6j inches long. It contained 79 grains, and the best 
plant that year yielded 10 ears. 
It seems to me most important that wheat-growers should 
clearly understand whether there is a system of plant-improve- 
ment which admits of the doubling of their crop within a few 
years, or whether, on the other hand, Mr. Hallett and others — 
the propagators of enlarged ears — are misled as to the real value 
of the structural enlargements they rely upon. I propose, there- 
