Pedigree  Seed  Corn. 
121 
by  the  new  developments)  plus  hybridisation  on  Mendelian 
lines,  will  lead  to  the  production  of  many  new  races  of  cereals 
possessing  desirable  and  fixed  combinations  of  characters. 
There  is,  however,  obviously  no  advantage  from  the  point 
of  view  of  growers  in  putting  into  eultivation  new  races 
unless  they  are  better  than  older  races,  and  from  the  point 
of  view  of  millers,  maltsters,  and  other  grain  consumers, 
multiplication  of  sorts  is  a disadvantage.  There  are  certain 
well-established  standards  of  quality  associated  with  existing 
varieties,  and  undue  multiplication  leads  to  confusion.  In 
the  interests  of  both  growers  and  consumers,  the  existing 
races  best  suited  to  the  different  localities  and  soils  should 
be  adhered  to  until  superior  ones  are  discovered. 
That  there  are  very  substantial  differences  in  average  yield 
as  between  existing  races  of  cereals  in  particular  localities,  is 
well  established.  Taking  briefly  the  case  of  barley  by  way  of 
example  : in  Denmark,  in  Ireland,  and  in  Norfolk,  long  series 
of  variety  tests  have,  as  is  generally  agreed,  proved  a particular 
type  of  barley,  called  “ Prentice  ” on  the  Continent  and 
“ Archer  ” in  England,  to  have  the  best  cropping  capacity. 
The  same  general  proposition  is  true  of  wheat  and  oats.  In 
any  particular  locality,  and  for  the  same  type  of  soil,  a jury  of 
growers  would  probably  give  a unanimous  verdict  that  certain 
named  varieties  were  in  average  seasons  better  yielders  than 
others.  Generally,  also,  these  would  be  the  most  profitable. 
There  is  less  unanimity  with  regard  to  the  average  quality 
of  the  grain  of  different  varieties  because  in  the  valuation  of 
this  the  knowledge  or  even  perhaps  in  some  cases  the  preju- 
dices of  the  consumer  comes  in  to  complicate  matters.  Modified 
processes  of  manufacture  also  lead  from  time  to  time  to  altered 
values  being  put  upon  different  grain  characters. 
The  subject  of  the  adaptation  of  certain  varieties  or  races 
to  the  climate  and  soils  of  a particular  locality  is  of  very  great 
interest.  It  is  also  very  complex,  and  our  knowledge  on  the 
subject  is  almost  wholly  empirical.  A grower  has  frequently 
no  a priori  knowledge  to  indicate  whether  any  new  variety 
well  spoken  of  in  some  other  district  is  likely  to  give  good 
results  on  his  land.  It  is  known,  for  instance,  from  accumul- 
ated experience  that  Red  Fife  wheat  is  rarely  as  good  a cropper 
as  many  other  sorts  in  most  parts  of  England,  but  nobody 
knows  why.  In  some  few  locations  the  yield  has  compared 
well  with  other  sorts.  The  milling  quality  is,  of  course,  much 
above  the  average,  but  very  rarely  does  the  extra  quality  com- 
pensate for  the  low  yield. 
In  other  cases  experience  has  led  to  the  fairly  definite  con- 
clusion that  some  existftig  varieties  of  each  of  the  cereals  are, 
and  some  are  not,  adapted  to  particular  soils  and  localities. 
