Varieties of Wheat and Methods of Improving them. 261 
A cross between a woolly-cliafred white wheat and a smoolh-cliafied club- 
headed red for male, proves excecdin^jly produclive and vigorous, one plant 
having yielded sixty ears, and a iield crop liavin^ produced at the rate of 
fifty-four buj^liels per acre. The colour of the grain shows the influence of 
each parent alike. 
In another case square-headed white, female, and long-eared white, male, 
have produced a wheat which proves to be the last sort to thrust its ear from 
the sheath of the stem, while, next to Talavera, it is one of the earliest to 
mature. Except that the ear is closely packed, it favours most the male 
parent, having an ear and grain of the same colour and the same length of 
straw. 
A cross was effected between Talavera and Royal Prize Red for the 
purpose of obtaining the early habit and superb quality of the former, com- 
bined with the vigorous constitution of the latter. The result proves a 
decided success, the otfspring of the cross, or rather the latest selection from 
it, possessing the desired qualities. 
The selection from a cross between a bearded April wheat and an 
American bearded variety proves earlier than either parent, with grain quite 
equal to that of the well-known Russian Kubanka. This, of course, is a 
spring wheat, and the habit derived from its parents must be kept up 
by constant sowing in spring.' 
One of the most singular results of crossing is found in a sort which has 
received the characteristic name of Birdproof. The female parent was Fill- 
measure, the male an American bearded wheat, ;ind the cross exhibits sharp- 
pointed awns on some of the glumes at the apex of the ear, a defence which 
birds have shown themselves shy of approaching. 
Many other crosses have been effected, and the offspring are 
now under selection, but the foregoing account of some of the 
most immediate and characteristic results of crossing distinct 
varieties will perhaps suffice. 
It may, however, be mentioned that length of straw is 
generally influenced by the male parent, and form and size of 
ear by the female. The prostrate or, as they are commonly 
called, the creeping forms of wheat usually bear ears more or 
less drooping. 
Like other experimenters, Messrs. Carter have found that 
cross-bred seedlings usually produce a variety of forms, and that 
careful selection is required to fix in a permanent form the most 
desirable types. The result of crossing a ivoolhj chaffed wheat 
and a smooth chaffed wheat has been the production of 75 per 
cent, of ears with smooth chaff, and 25 per cent, with rough or 
woolly chaff ears. Again, the parents of one of the crosses being 
a red wheat and a white wheat, the 1887 crop of this cross pro- 
duced some ears with woolly chaff, and, but for the care exercised 
' Perhaps I may venture to commend this sort to certain districts in the 
Far West, where only the quick wheats can escape the spring and autumia 
frosts and mature within the very short limits of the allotted season. The 
cross has been grown side by side with some Russian wheats grown in Canada 
on official recommendation, and sent to Messrs. Carter by Professor Saunders, 
and has greatly excelled them in the amount of produce as in other re-, 
speots. — H. E. - 
