W. CATTON GRASBY, F.L.S. : 
48 
not the slightest doubt but that he would have given us a 
wheat as strong as Comeback and as hardy and prolific as 
Federation. Farrer without Mendel’s laws did wonders; 
with them his work would have been shortened and in his 
experienced hands the results would have been marvellous. 
It is but just, and no more than Professor Biffin would wish, 
that in speaking of the results of the Cambridge work I 
should pay this tribute to Mr. Farrer. 
English farmers produce the highest average yields of 
wheat of the world. English wheats are of very low quality 
from a miller’s and baker's point of view. In 1901 the 
Home-grown Wheat Committee was appointed by the 
National Association of British and Irish Millers, with the 
object of investigating the question whether the quality of 
English wheat could not be raised without loss of pro- 
ductiveness. d he results of their work are impoitant and 
interesting, but cannot be even outlined here. 
In 1902 Professor Biffin began to make a long series 
of crosses with the object of obtaining in new varieties of 
wheat a combination of fine quality and great yield of 
grain and straw. In the Jouvuul of AgvicultuYdl Science 
for December, 1908, he contributed a paper on the “In- 
heritance of Strength in Wheat,” in which he said : — 
“ Certain varieties of wheat retain their strength under our 
(English) conditions. One of the best known of these is Red Fife,, 
the grain of which forms the basis of the graded wheat known as 
Manitoba Hard. Red Fife has now been tested in this country tor 
six seasons and its strength is still found to be equal to that of the 
same variety grown in Canada.” 
He explained that as a rule it is not profitable to 
grow Red Fife because it does not yield as well as the 
English varieties. It is also weak in the straw as compared 
with English sorts. He then stated that : — 
■■ The attempt has been made to build up a variety possessing the 
high cropping capacity of the common English wheats and the strength 
of such a variety as the Red Fite To make any definite progress 
with this work information as to the mode of inheritance of strength 
was essential.” 
Unfortunately, strength anti weakness do not form a 
pair of sharply differentiated characters and at times it is 
difficult to say from a simple inspection of the grain whether 
it is strong or weak. The only absolute test is to turn the 
w heat into flour and test it in baking. The common 
rough-and-ready tests are to bite the grain or, better still, 
to chew a few' grains and note the amount and character 
of the gluten. It should be here noted that strength is 
defined as the : — 
" capacity for making large well piled loaves.” 
