^08 Report on the Competition for Seed- Wheat, 1883. 
to be desirable for these crops. As, however, the conditions 
under which the ordinary and competing crops were grown 
were so different, it is not possible to compare or contrast them 
with any practical result. In the other localities the various 
crops were grown under the same conditions, and the results 
show that no real gain accrued from the cultivation of the com- 
peting varieties (Table IV.). The total value of the crops in 
all the stations of each kind cultivated shows that while the 
"Battel" had the value of 20/. 14s. 3(/., and the "Seedling 
White," 22/. 15s. 3rf., the ordinary crops were worth 25/. 2s. 8r/. 
When the plots cultivated at Woburn are excluded, the result is 
not very different ; for the " Dattel " was valued at 16/. 13s. lOf/., 
the Seedling White at 18/. 4s. 5f/., and the ordinary crop at 
17/. 18s. 2d. 
The Judges appointed by the Council, after a careful ex- 
amination of the results of the year's cultivation, and a com- 
parison Avith the portions retained of the original samples, 
came to the unanimous finding, which is incorporated in their 
-Report as follows : — 
Beport of Judges. 
The sample Xo. 1 is a ]:.ure wlieat. It is entered as a variety produced by 
a cross between " Ked-eared Chiddam" and " Prince Albert," but, in the 
opinion of the Judjies, no characters exist in the sample sent, or in the 
produce of this year's growth, to justify its being considered a new variety. 
The sample Ho. 2 contained a large proportion of red grains, and the 
specimen sheaf was also a mixture of white chaff and white grain, and white 
chaff and red grain with a few red chaff and red grain. The produce of this 
year's growth having the same mixed character, the Judges do not consider 
this a distinct variety of wheat, and therefore disqualify it. 
The Judges desire to add that they had submitted to them samples of 
the ordinary crojis of the farm, grown imder the same treatment along- 
side of the competing samples; some of these were red wheats, but one 
■was a sample of white wheat, which compared roost favourably as to quality 
witli both of the conipetiug varieties, but greatly exceeded them in the 
money value per acre. 
(Signed) Charles Howard, 
JoxAH Hadley, 
Hugh Kaynbird. 
The two attempts made by the Society to encourage the 
production of improved varieties of wheat have not resulted 
in any real gain. The competing varieties which were culti- 
vated in 1880, like those just reported on, did not prove 
superior to the wheats which, in the different districts where 
the trials were made, had been selected for cultivation. The 
experience of the past in regard to the production of valuable 
varieties of wheat, leads one to expect that new sorts may still 
be obtained by careful selection or by crossing. It is to be 
