Improvement of the Plants of the Farm. 
83 
ears, when the stalks push out and continue lengthening until 
the crop is ripe. These are very profitable characteristics, since 
thev preserve the crop from becoming laid when that early 
broad-leaved sort, the Georgian, known as Canadian, with its 
early habit and poor quality of straw, would go down flat. 
Mr. ShirrefF gives an elaborate account of his cross-breeding. 
I must omit his description of the actual operation by which 
artificial fertilisation is effected. The mechanics of this subject 
can readily be mastered. The arrangement of the crosses is a 
more difficult matter, requiring much study, and perhaps as 
much time and special aptitude as in the case of breeding a 
herd or a flock. In this department Mr. Shirreff's success was 
limited. He obtained, for example, " King Richard," by 
fecundating Shirreff's Bearded White, which has small round 
seeds, with Talavera, which certainly has large seeds of the 
finest quality, calculated to correct a special defect in the 
Bearded White. But it was probably an error to use a tender 
wheat of Spanish extraction for breeding purposes in Scotland. 
Mr. Shirreff" began his experiments in cross-breeding too late in 
life to be able to complete the continuous selecting which is 
necessary, as in other cross-breeding, to fix the type. In this 
direction the experiments of Mr. Shirreff" cannot be regarded as 
complete, and although some of his favourite crosses were widely 
distributed, it is not surprising that his nephew, Mr. Charles S. 
Dods, of Haddington, should report their comparative disuse 
in competition with those admirable selections on which his 
celebrity now rests. 
No recent experiments in the cross-breeding of cereals in 
Great Britain have been recognised, at least, upon our 
markets, since those of Mr. Shirreff". M. Henry Vilmorin has 
kindly given me the following account of his experiments in 
France : — 
" My attempts to improve wheats by cross-fertilization have all been made 
in the last ten years, the first in 1873. The object being to raise sorts with a 
fine full kernel, and strong enough in the straw to carry the ears to the time 
of maturity without becoming lai<^, I selected generally a strong stiff kind 
for the mother plant, and a sort with a fine seed for the pollen bearer. Yet I 
generally crossed those two plants both ways, to secure an additional chance. 
The kind mostly used ou account of its fine kernel was Ble bianc de Flandre ; 
those selected on account of the stiff straw are — Ble roseau, Ble rouge de St. 
Laud, Ble de I'iie de Noe. Sometimes the object was to increase the yield in 
straw of a kind that was almost perfect except on that one respect, as Chiddam 
« epi rouge, which was for that purpose crossed with Prince Albert. The 
operation in itself requires care and some dexterity, but is not really difficult. 
The anthers being removed from a dozen wheat flowers or so while still in a 
green state, but near maturity, the pollen of the kind wliich it is intended to 
use as male parent is poured gently, tlie next morning, on the feathery stigma, 
the flowers next to the impregnated ones being destroyed so as not to leave 
any doubt at maturity as to which seeds have been acted upon. Generally 
G 2 
