Report on the Competition foi' Seed- Wheat, 1880. 75 
but there seems to be no reason why the Council of the Royal 
Agricultural Society should not endeavour to enlist the services 
of several of its members in the cause. 
England ought to be able to furnish replies to some at least 
of the numerous questions which are awaiting solution, as indi- 
cated in the preceding pages. If ever we are to have Govern- 
ment Agricultural Training Schools, these would be pre-emi- 
nently the stations where agricultural meteorology should be 
systematically studied. 
There is little doubt that if application were made to the 
Meteorological Society, more than one of its Fellows would be 
found willing to co-operate in the work, for that society has of 
late selected local climatology as in a special way its line 
of attack in the prosecution of meteorological research. 
These islands are too densely populated and too free from 
extensive forests for us to expect results of value from any 
forest stations ; but with our humid climate, due to our oceanic 
position, the results obtainable with the various crops cannot 
fail to exhibit material differences from those derived from 
Continental experience, and to throw important light on the 
mutual relations between vegetation and meteorology. 
V. — Report on the Competition for Seed- Wheat, 1880. 
By Wm. Cakeuthees, F.R.S., Consulting Botanist to the 
Society. 
With the view of increasing the wheat-production of the country 
the Council resolved to direct the attention of seed-growers and 
agriculturists generally to the improvement of the varieties of 
wheat now in cultivation, and to the introduction of new and 
better varieties. It was resolved to offer two sets of prizes for 
distinctly new varieties of seed-corn which should combine the 
largest yield of grain and straw per acre with approved form 
and size, smooth and thin skin, full and white kernel, and high 
specific gravity in the seed, and with light, firm, and stiff straw. 
The history of each variety was to accompany the entry. The 
seed-corn for the one competition was to be delivered at the 
Society's Office before the 1st of October, 1879, and was to con- 
sist of a sack of grain and a bundle of straw. This competition 
would, it was hoped, bring to notice recent varieties which were 
yet in the hands of their producers. The entries for the second 
competition were deferred till October 1882, so as to give time 
