122 
Pedigree  Seed  Corn. 
“Spratt”  barley  is  a typical  case.  It  has  a stiffer  straw  than 
any  other  British  variety,  and  on  rich  loamy  soils  gives  very 
heavy  yields,  often  more  than  compensating  for  the  usual  low 
quality  of  the  grain.  It  is  therefore  grown  successfully  in 
the  Fens,  but  it  is  found  to  be  out  of  place  on  soil  well  adapted 
to  grow  good  malting  barleys.  Similar  cases  with  other  cereals 
are  known  to  every  corn  grower. 
This  accumulated  experience,  however,  takes  a long  time  to 
gain,  and  moreover,  with  the  introduction  of  systematic  methods 
of  hybridisation,  we  are  entering  on  a new  era.  If  the  best  is 
to  be  made  of  the  new  methods  of  cereal  breeding,  some 
uniform  and  reliable  methods  of  testing  at  least  for  yield  in 
different  localities  seem  highly  desirable.  However  good  in 
various  respects  as  to  special  characters  these  new  sorts  may 
be,  they  are  unlikely  to  be  profitable  unless  it  can  be  definitely 
established  that  they  yield  as  well  as  older  sorts. 
Moreover,  the  climatic  conditions  of  districts  vary  so 
greatly  from  year  to  year  that  one  or  two  years’  experience  is 
rarely  conclusive.  For  instance,  ‘‘  Goldthorpe  ” barley  did  well 
for  a few  years  in  north  and  east  Norfolk,  but  in  one  dry  season 
some  years  ago  there  was  a widespread  loss  of  crop  owing  to 
ears  breaking  off,  the  common  failing  of  many  “wide-eared” 
sorts,  and  now  it  is  scarcely  grown  at  all  in  that  district.  On 
the  other  hand  this  class  of  barley  is  well  established  in  Shrop- 
shire, in  Scotland,  and  in  Yorkshire,  and  suffers  little  in  this 
respect  in  either  locality. 
A large  number  of  “ variety  tests  ” of  cereals  have  been 
carried  out  by  various  public  bodies  in  various  parts  of  England 
but  have  generally  been  too  isolated  and  not  prolonged  enough 
to  be  of  practical  value  to  growers. 
In  many  cases  also  because  experimental  errors  have  not 
been  obliterated  by  the  only  possible  method,  viz.,  simultaneous 
multiplication  of  test  areas,  these  errors  have  probably  been 
large  enough  to  vitiate  the  results. 
In  view  of  the  inevitable  increase  of  new  varieties  and 
races,  it  appears  pertinent  to  put  in  a plea  for  co-operation, 
co-ordination,  and  systematic  methods  of  variety  testing  of 
cereals  under  the  direction  of  some  recognised  agricultural 
organisation. 
It  is  very  important  to  know  what  is  being  compared.  It 
is  useless  to  simply  compare  two  bulks  of  seed  that  are  differ- 
ently labelled  unless  the  labels  correspond  to  something  definite 
in  the  ancestry  of  the  plants,  and  unless  the  growers  interested 
can  be  sure  of  obtaining  stocks  of  the  same  races  as  those  com- 
pared. For  these  purposes  a system  of  registration  of  stocks 
of  pure  races  of  seed  is  suggested.  Such  is  already  in  success- 
ful operation  in  Germany,  and  will  be  referred  to  later. 
