262 Varieties of Wlieat and Methods of Improving them. 
in tlie sowing of tlie grain so as to render an accident in the 
sowing of a grain from another crossing practically impossible, 
the natural assumption would have been that such an accident 
had occurred, and the experimentists themselves would have 
entertained some doubt if the woolly chaifed offspring had not 
exhibited unmistakable traces of their actual origin. It was 
found, however, that whereas the chaff in this selection was 
what is familiarly known as of woolly or velvet texture, the straw 
when ripe had the peculiar purple colour of the female parent ; 
and so far as Messrs. Carter's observations have extended in the 
cultivation every year of something like a hundred and fifty 
varieties of wheat already iu commerce, they have failed to find 
any variety possessing the peculiarities shown in the cross. 
Messrs. Carter's is the first systematic, and I might say 
determined, attempt in this country to improve the varieties 
of wheat by cross-fertilisation, their manager residing upon the 
spot. The following Table gives the results of some minute 
observations of the progress of the wheats grown upon a strong 
loam with yellow clay subsoil 16 inches fi-om the surface : — 
Statistics showing the period at ivhich twelve selections of Cross- 
bred Wheats made their growth in 1888, together ivith com- 
parative Tables giving the dates ivhen " in ear " and when 
"ripe" in 1887 and 1888. 
'>'M 
00 
00 
a 
a 
4^ CO 
c: rH 
CJ _ 
c-^oo 
i5 o 
a-" CO 
■i S 1 
O wi 
u 
d 
o 
cT 
Oh 
c3 
o. 
Cross-bred whi 
Height of wli 
plants, May 15, 
owth of wheat 
May 15, 1888, 
May 31, 188: 
owth of wheat 
June 1, 1888, 
June 30, 188 
th of wheat plai 
ly 13, 1888, whe 
neasurement oi 
Final height 
wheat plant 
Date when in 
1888 
Date when ri 
1888 
Date when in ' 
00 
00 
Date when ri 
1887 
O 
S3 
o i-= 
o2 
No. 
inches 
inches 
inches 
inches 
inches 
3 
IG 
10 
24 
3 
57 
June 25 
Sep. 
1 
June 23 
Aug. 10 
4 
20 
12 
18 
6 
57 
25 
1 
I) 
22 
„ 10 
„ 10 
7 
15 
6 
18 
8 
54 
!J 
25 
» 
!) 
6 
» 
22 
9 
1.5 
8 
20 
5 
54 
25 
6 
20 
„ 8 
10 
14 
14 
16 
11 
56 
?) 
30 
)J 
1 
)! 
28 
July 30 
13 
15 
15 
24 
54 
)) 
J» 
16 
Aug. 
20 
)) 
J) 
16 
„ 28 
15 
10 
16 
24 
1 
57 
25 
Sep. 
1 
22 
Aug. 10 
16 
17 
11 
29 
57 
!) 
25 
J) 
I! 
)) 
1 
>I 
)! 
1) 
24 
„ 10 
19 
M 
18 
19 
3 
55 
)! 
26 
1 
23 
„ 6 
21 
13 
15 
22 
2 
52 
!) 
26 
1 
27 
„ 10 
22 
16 
13 
18 
47 
II 
30 
1) 
10 
)> 
)! 
28 
6 
„ 10 
31 
14 
18 
21 
2 
57 
25 
10 
20 
From the above Table it will be observed that the coming 
into ear period in 1887 and 1888 did not show a marked dif- 
