WHEAT AND OTHER CROPS Improved varieties of wheat take first rank, and among them the Marquis wheat of Canada is pre-eminent in point of acreage. In 1892, Dr. William Saunders crossed Hard Red Calcutta, a commercial grade rather than a variety, and Red Fife, then the standard wheat of western Canada. Subsequently his son, Dr. Charles E. Saunders, selected one type from the progeny. This became commercially established in Canada in 1911 under the name of Marquis. In 1917 it constituted 8o% of the wheat of the prairie provinces. Imported into the United States in 1913 it had, by 1919, a spread of 11,900,000 acres. Only one wheat is now more widespread in America; this is Turkey, which, with twice the area of Marquis, is a striking example of introduction, for it was brought from Russia by Mennonite immigrants. Earlier maturity, the primary distinction between Marquis and the Red Fife and other wheats it has displaced, makes for immunity from rust, drought and frost.
India, with great environmental diversity and characteristic im purity of native varieties, has proved a fine field for the breeder. Under Dr. A. Howard, the Pusa Institute has established selected wheats which are ousting the older forms. Pusa 12 and Pusa 4 have an area of 500,000 acres in the United Provinces, while Punjab I I is grown in the canalized parts of the Punjab on nearly twice this scale. Helped by the provision of good seed, these new products are estimated to represent an annual gain to the cultivators of LI,000,000.
Something of romance attaches to the introduction into Argen tina of a wheat from the Szechwan province of China. It has proved highly resistant to Puccinia triticina, the rust which more than anything else threatened to suppress the great promise of wheat-growing in South America. The introducer, Mr. W. 0. Backhouse, has now raised hybrids which, both rust resistant and generally superior, are fast becoming the standard forms.
From the Swedish station, Svalof, have come a number of new wheats, barleys, oats and peas ; Swedish Iron wheat has added to its laurels by gaining a hold in Great Britain ; millers, how ever, dislike the thick skin and the quality of its grain. The Little
Joss and Yeoman wheats bred by Prof. Sir R. H. Biffen and intro duced in 1912 and 1917, occupy one-tenth and one-fifth respec tively of the whole wheat area of the 14 principal producing counties. Little Joss, a hybrid from Ghirka (Russian), and Square Head's Master (British) are the only forms with a definite resist ance to yellow rust (Puccinia glumarum), besides possessing a marked standing capacity and a curiously wide soil adaptation. Yeoman is also a product of premeditated synthetic breeding. The parents were Browick (British) and Red Fife—the best bread-making wheat. Heavy yield and great standing power are merits it shares with the best of the older forms ; but its quality or bread-making capacity has set a standard formerly believed impossible in British wheats.
Barley.—Barley is of peculiar interest because the quality of beer-making kinds is nearly as important as the yield. At the end of the 19th century Chevallier and Standwell were the prevailing forms in Ireland. Archer barley was introduced from England in 190o, and Irish Archer, a selection made by Dr. H. Hunter, soon displaced the older varieties. An even more marked success at tended his hybrid Spratt-Archer (derived from a cross between Archer and Spratt, the latter being an old form with special adaptation to peaty soils), distinguished by high yield, exceptional standing power and superior quality; it now occupies almost 9o% of the barley area of Ireland. It is estimated that £40,000 spent on breeding and testing in Ireland during the period 1905-25 has brought an increase equivalent to £250,000 per annum. Con temporaneously the selections, Archer and Plumage, introduced by Dr. E. S. Beaven of Warminster, have contributed to the pros perity of English growers.