254 Varieties of Wheat and Methods of Improving them. 
four varieties appear to be of more practical importance than all 
the others. 
No one can doubt that each and all of the chai'acteristics in 
wheat which are held to be desirable are capable of being 
developed. Several improvers at the present time are making 
persistent efforts to produce and fix the various characteristics 
of finer grain, better straw, earlier maturity, a more prolific 
habit, and so forth ; but none of them anticipate rapid develop- 
ment in any of the modifications they are eiideavouring to 
establish. 
It must not be forgotten that a carefully protected and 
cultivated crop like wheat — as well as other plants producing 
seed — exerts a power of self-selection of the " best " grains, 
since the most productive ears and grains in every wheatfield 
must always produce the most seed. Every bushel of wheat- 
seed, therefore, must contain the largest proportion of the most 
productive seeds. 
As to the result of abnormal enlargements, I saw last year 
some giant wheat growing side by side with Hardcastle on 
sound, dry land in Somersetshire. It was evident before 
harvest that the Hardcastle had borne the cold, wet season far 
better than its big-eared neighbour, the straw proving more 
healthy and upstanding. I afterwards saw the two crops in 
stacks, and I need only say further that the Hardcastle had 
produced a good sample which was largely sold for seed, while 
the big-eared sort yielded a wretched sample of immature grain. 
I may mention here an illustrated article on the spring-sown 
wheats of 1873 (Journal, 1874), in which Mr. J. C. Morton gives 
fifty pages of reports from wheat-growers. It is an article con- 
taining much useful material, and full of information on the 
characteristics of varieties. I refer to it for the sake of its 
emphatic condemnation of giant wheat, and of the thin seeding 
which causes wheat to become gigantic. One of Mr. Morton's 
correspondents sowed some giant wheat at the rate of four or 
five pecks per acre on October 1 — an early period for the dis- 
trict. He reports, " It tillered wonderfully ; the ears were of 
great length, and the straw three to fovir inches longer ; but the 
straw was speckled and unhealthy, and when thrashed, although 
there was a much greater bulk of straw, it yielded considerably 
less than that put in in November, at the rate of five pecks per 
acre." It seems unnecessary to offer further evidence of this 
sort, and I will therefore pass to a more agreeable part of my 
task. 
It has often been asked, " What is the origin of the new 
varieties of wheat ? " This is a difiicult question. One need 
