Improvement of the Plants oj the Farm. 
85 
best sorts of cereals, and all the varieties of winter wheat 
have been introduced into Mr. Rimpau's district from this 
country. 
In the United States several improvers have engaged in the 
cross-breeding of cereals in recent years, and the Hon. George 
B. Loring, Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, has been good enough to send me an account of 
their experiments, prepared for me at his desire by Dr. ^ asey. 
Botanist of the Department. 
" The principal experiments in this direction made in this country are, 
first, those of ilr. C. G. Pringle, of Charlotte, Vermont, which are described 
at length in the Report of the Vermont Board of Agriculture for 1875-6. 
The following is an outline of bis operations. He commenced Lis experiments 
in 1870 by impregnating a head of the Black Sea variety of wheat with 
pollen of the Golden Drop or Siberian. The fruit of that cross was sown the 
nest spring and cultivatwi with~the utmost care. ' The first year the several 
plants showed great uniformity of character. They were, speaking in a 
general way, intermediate between their parents. Except for a few short 
awns on the upper part of the heads, they were beardless like the Golden 
Drop, though they had sprung from seed borne on the Black Sea, a full- 
bearded variety ; the chaff had taken a reddish tinge from the Black Sea, and 
the kernels were larger, plumper, and of lighter colour than those of that 
variety, evidently partaking strongly of the character of the Golden Drop. 
. . . The selected product of these plaats was the second spring sown in 
drills, and kept separate by numbered stakes. As the plants grew luxuriantly 
and tillered freely, I counted on a rapid increase of my stock of these new 
varieties, which, judging from the character they exhibited the previous year, 
would beyond question be valuable gains to agriculture. But, as the heads 
issued from the sheath of the npper leaf, great was my astonishment and 
dismay to observe among the plants of each class a wide diversity of forms. 
There were heads of various lengths and of many forms ; there were awnless 
heads, and heads bearded in every degree. When I saw this medley among 
my crosses I relinquished my expectation of speedy advantage from the 
experiment; and but for the aid which selection afforded me, would have 
remitted altogether a work involving so mucb care aud patience, and yielding 
such perplexity and disappointment. Selecting therefore a few of the most 
distinct and promising forms, and beginning again the third year with the 
product of single plants as before, planting in separate drills, and if an}- 
sporting appeared in the drills (as was almost invariably the case, though the 
degree of variation became less and less), selecting from the drill in such 
event the best plant, the one which approached nearest the ideal apj:ointed 
for that drill, to yield seed for the next year, I have succeeded after four 
years in fixing the character of several varieties. The sway of inheritance in 
them is no longer disputed, and they come true from seed.' 
" Mr. Pringle made experiments with several other varieties of wheat and 
also with oats, and with corresponding results. It is perhaps yet too soon to 
estimate the value of his new varieties, but some of them have been widely 
distributed and have been highly commended, and are still in the markets. 
" Second. Mr. A. E. Blount, of Colorado, has also made numerous experi- 
ments in hybridizing different varieties of wheat, and his experience is mainly 
a repetition of that of Mr. Pringle. Some account of his experiments is given 
in a recent address on the ' Improvement of the Cereals ' before a Convention 
of A^iricultarists in Washington, a copy of which will be sent to you. 
" Third. Mr. Chas. Arnold, of Paris, Province of Ontario, Canada, has also 
