3 
It may, however, be mentioned that length of straw is generally influenced by the male parent, 
and form and size of ear by the female. The prostrate or, as they are commonly called, the creeping 
forms of wheat usually bear ears more or less drooping. 
Like other experimenters, Messrs. Carter have found that cross-bred seedlings usually produce a 
variety of forms, and that careful selection is required to fix in a permanent form the most desirable 
types. The result of crossing a ivoolly-chaffed wheat and a smooth-chaffed wheat has been the 
production of 75 per cent, of ears with smooth chaff, and 25 per cent, with rough or woolly chaff ears. 
Again, the parents of one of the crosses being a red wheat and a white wheat, the 1887 crop of this 
cross produced some ears with woolly chaff, and, but for the care exercised in the sowing of the grain 
so as to render an accident in the sowing of a grain from another crossing practically impossible, 
the natural assumption would have been that such an accident had occurred, and the experimentists 
themselves would have entertained some doubt if the woolly-chaffed offspring had not exhibited 
unmistakable traces of their actual origin. It was found, however, that whereas the chaff in this 
selection was what is familiarly known as of woolly or velvet texture, the straw when ripe had the 
peculiar purple colour of the female parent ; and so far as Messrs. Carter’s observations have 
extended in the cultivation every year of something like a hundred and fifty varieties of wheat 
already in commerce, they have failed to find any variety possessing the peculiarities shown in the cross. 
Messrs. Carter’s is the first systematic, and I might say determined, attempt in this country to 
improve the varieties of wheat by cross-fertilisation, their manager residing upon the spot. The 
following Table gives the results of some minute observations of the progress of the wheats grown 
upon a strong loam with yellow clay subsoil 16 inches from the surface : — 
Statistics showing the period at which twelve selections of Cross-bred Wheats made their grorwth in 1888 , together 
with comparative Tables giving the dates when “ in ear " and when “ ripe ” in 1887 and 1888 . 
Cross- 
bred 
wheats. 
Height of 
wheat 
plants, 
May 1$, 
1888. 
Growth 
of wheat 
plants, 
May 15, 
1888, to 
May 31, 
1888. 
Growth 
of wheat 
plants, 
June I, 
1888, to 
June 30, 
1888. 
Growth of 
wheat 
plants, 
July I to 
July 13. 
1888, when 
regular 
measure- 
ment 
ceased. '! 
Final 
height of 
wheat 
plants. 
Date 
when in 
ear, 1888. 
Date when 
ripe, 1888. 
Date when 
in ear, 
1887. 
Date when 
ripe, 1887. 
No. 
3 
Inches. 
16 
Inches. 
10 
Inches. 
24 
Inches. 
3 
Inches. 
57 
June 25 
Sept. I 
June 2.S 
Aug. 10 
4 
20 
12 
18 
6 
S 7 
.. 2S 
,, 
22 
,, 10 
7 
IS 
6 
18 
8 
S 4 
.. 2S 
6 
22 
M 10 
9 
IS 
8 
20 
S 
S 4 
.. as 
6 
20 
.. 8 
10 
14 
14 
16 
11 
S6 
.. 3 ° 
1. I 
,, 
28 
July 30 
13 
IS 
IS 
*4 
— 
S 4 
M 16 
Aug. 20 
16 
1. 28 
IS 
16 
16 
24 
1 
S 7 
.. 2S 
Sept. I 
1 1 
22 
Aug. 10 
16 
17 
11 
29 
— 
S 7 
.. 2S 
>> I 
24 
M lO 
19 
14 
18 
19 
3 
SS 
.. 2S 
M I 
23 
.. 6 
21 
13 
IS 
22 
2 
S2 
,, 26 
,. I 
M 
27 
10 
22 
16 
13 
18 
— 
47 
30 
>> 10 
28 
„ 6 
31 
14 
18 
21 
2 
S 7 
.. 2S 
,, 10 
20 
M 10 
From the above Table it will be observed that the coming into ear period in 1887 and 1888 did 
not show a marked difference, whilst the ripening in 1888 was from three to four weeks later 
than in 1887. The comparative growth of the wheats in different periods of the summer and 
the height of the straw of each and dates of coming into ear are all observations of importance ; 
but the dates when the corn of each plot was ripe are of special significance. On this important 
point it may be observed that the harvest of 1887 was not an early one, and that July 28 and 30 were 
early dates for the ripening of wheat. 
Messrs. Carter’s new wheats, according to the reports forwarded to me by several growers, 
appear to possess in a high degree the vigour of constitution which is often observed in crosses either 
among plants or animals. One of the growers writes to me that the cross grows very vigorously, 
“ in fact it runs right away from the ordinary wheat.” 
