Vaneties of Wheat and Methods of Improving them. 259 
seeds. It is well known that, in the oft'spring of cross-fertilised seeds, some 
of the characteristics which are blended in the progenitors are often dis- 
sociated so that one of the seedlings may inherit the shape of its parent but 
not its colour, or vice versa. AJthough it is not known how such combina- 
tions of qualities are brought about or dissolved, it is an ascertained fact 
that seedlings show strange changes in this respect, and it becomes apparent 
why cross-fertilisation gives the fairest prospect of amalgamating distinct 
but not repugnant qualities which it may be the object of the grower to 
unite in a new variety. 
Such was the train of thought which led me to the first attempts to 
raise cross-bred wheats. My first distinct object was to derive from a then 
very popular variety known as " Chidham d'automne a epi rouge " some new 
form of wheat equally prolific and not inferior in milling qualities, but yield- 
ing a larger proportion of straw, the original Chidham being esteemed a 
perfect wheat except in the shortness of its straw. In order to obtain that 
end, I crossed the Chidham with the red-eared Prince Albert wheat, which 
is one of the tallest and most strongly-growing of all known kinds. Amongst 
the ten or twelve plants developed from the original cross one was selected 
as answering pretty exactly the object in view. All the seed from this one 
plant was sown the next year, only one ear being kept as a type to guard 
against variation in the offspring. But none took place. The new form 
slaowed itself at once to be a perfectly fixed variety. In three or four years 
a few hundredweights were raised, and the new wheat was introduced to 
the public as " Battel." It rapidly gained favour, and is now one of the 
white wheats most generally grown in the central districts of France. 
In appearance Dattel wheat is very mucli like " Chidham d'automne a 
epi rouge," one of its progenitors. It is a red-chart' white wheat, only it is 
different in the lighter colour of the ear and in the more pointed chaff. 
The seed is more elongated, not so plump apparently, but in fact larger and 
heavier than in Chidham. Like the latter, Dattel tillers very freely. I 
raised plants with more than sixty haulms from one seed. The straw is 
white, strong, erect, and fully six inches taller than that of Chidham, which 
was precisely the object I had in view. 
" Lamed " wheat was raised in a similar manner from "Prince Albert" 
and '• Ble de I'ile de Noe." It is earlier in ripening than Battel, with a 
slightly taller straw, a peculiar bluish-brown colour about the ear, and a 
large light red or amber kernel. It is not as well fixed as Battel, and, in 
spite of all the care in " roguing " and selecting, a few plants with white chaff 
turn up at every generation. This is accounted for by the fact that one of 
the progenitors is a white-eared wheat. 
" Aleph,"a cross between " Noe " and " Bl^ blanc de Flandre," was dis- 
carded within two years of its being introduced to the public. Although it 
yielded one of the finest samples of white wheat I ever saw, it proved too 
late in ripening, and not sufficiently disease-resisting. 
Out of hundreds of cross-bred seedlings that were raised at Verrieres only 
those three, presently reduced to two, were ever distributed, because I wish 
to connect my name as a raiser of new wheats only M'ith really first-rate 
varieties. But I have under cultivation at the present time other kinds 
which may, I trust, stand as high as Battel or Lamed in the estimation of 
the farming world. 
From the above you see plainly that it is a simple and easy thing to 
start variation and to give rise to new forms of wheat. The really difficult 
and somewhat tedious part of the task consists in discriminating which 
forms are worth preferring, and principally in fixing them by long-continued 
selection so as to turn new seedlings into permanent races. 
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