WHEAT RESEARCH.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20421, 16 December 1931, Page 18

WHEAT RESEARCH.

EXTENSIVE WORK. INSPECTION OF INSTITUTE'S ACTIVITIES. With over 9000 plots covering 2000 varieties of wheat from every wheatgrowing country in the world, the area occupied by the research work under the control of the "Wheat Bescarch Institute on the Canterbury Agricultural College property at Lincoln made a very interesting subject for inspection during " Farmers' Day" at the College yesterday. Over 300 farmers were present and were con dueled on the tour of inspection of this section of the work by Dr. F. W. Hilgendorf, Director of the "Wheat.Bescarch Institute. Dr. Hilgendorf Explains. Dr Hilgendorf, explaining the work, said that all the trials with wheat were sown, harvested, and controlled by Dr. Fl-ankel. There were 9400 plots growing wheat this season, and each had to be harvested separately. • The wheats making up. the crossbred sections were; ■ in the main, crosses between high quality Canadian wheats and proved high-yielding New Zealand wheats. The facts were that whereas the- average yield per acre for wheat m New Zealand was 31 bushels, in Canada it was 13 bushels only, and in America 12 bushels. Holland, Belgium, and Denmark were the only countries in the world in which such a high yield as New Zealand's was recorded. The object of the cross-breeding was to try to produce a wheat of higher milling quality and yet to retain the yield average. The effect of the successful completion of the task would be to make superfluous the 10,000 tons of wheat imported each year to New Zealand at present. Sowing /of Seeds. In pointing out the care with which the breeding experiments had to be conducted Dr. Hilgendorf demonstrated the use of a newly-patented "dibbler" for sowing seeds and ensuring that -they were at equal depth and at equal distances apart. It sowed the seeds two inches deep and two inches apart at the rate of 25 at a time. The paddock used for. the trials was kept for that purpose continually, one half being used in one season ami fallowed in the next, vice versa, with the other section. On. the field of trials growing tq-day 2000 different breeds of wheat, representative of all the wheatgrowing countries of the world, were under trial,. Quality Trials. In one section there were shown a certain number of breeds evolved last year which se'emed likely to -prove successful,/ which were being grown again to carry out more detailed quality trials. Tho types were sown in plots to give a return of 61b of wheat for' testing purposes. In connexion with this section it was stated that it was the aim, of the investigators to establish :a crossbred of the short'straw type which was so satisfactory. Varied Collection. The next plots inspected were those called "the collection." In them wero sown one row of wheat from each of the wheat-growing, countries of the world. There were many very curious types, and a great deal of interest was shown in varieties growing which were native of Northern Arabia and Northern India. Near at hand was a further large area growinjg crossbreds, in each case

a product of the crossing of Tuscan with an imported high quality variety. Variety Trials. Variety trials designed to prove which types were best suited to produce best milling quality and' satisfactory yield were explained. Some were little known, and were still in the early stages of experiment, while others included solid straw Velvet, Dreadnought, and White Fyfe. So that a comparison on a correct basis could be made every third plot in the section was the Tuscan variety. Each ttial had been repeated i 0 times in the section to ensure correctness ( .<of calculation. Dr. -Hilgendorf Baid- that one interesting phase,of the research was the testing, of crossbred wheat families. Tlie first cross was always without variation in characteristics, but as soon , as tho halfbred wheat inbred again all types would occur in the same family, even tp..the extent that some would be bearded arid 'some-'not; ' Trials were carried out. in the selection of the- best crosses. In that regard he mentioned tjia "White Fyfe variety, with which ex-

periments in past, seasons had indicated that it might prove very successful. It was to be seen under very thorough test in long narrow plots ranged alongside solid straw Tuscan. The nine best families of White Fyfe were under strict test. Dr. Hilgendorf stated that with crossbred wheats for 30 to 40 years after their establishment it was possible that characteristics might break out which were dissimilar to those of the normal cross, and so certain of the heads were taken and grown separately to make re-seloetions from should it be decided to place the breed on the market.