PERFECT WHEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 198, 25 September 1909, Page 4

PERFECT WHEAT.

RESEARCH BY ENGLISH SCIENTISTS. London, July 28. That remarkable body of scientific men at Cambridge who are devoting themselves to agricultural research are on the eve of establising. a promt ela'in made a year ago. They said that they would increase the value of wheat crops by 10s an acre, or even £2. But in die race for the perfect grain—wheat, barley, and oats—they are being pregs.'il hard by other discoverers who are total disbelievers in the Cambridge methods, and the r ace for the perfect grain under the different methods is becoming exciting. The chief competitors of Mr. Biffen.' Mr. Punnetl, and the Cambridge school are M. Vilmorin, of Paris; Mr. Burbank. who is called the Californian wizard; and Mr. John Carton, of Warringt.m. Mr. Carton was the first to establish scientifically the fact that each flower of the grasses and of corn fertilises itself, and it requires extraordinary neatness of finger and instrument to open these small flowers and touch the tiny point with pollen from another.

Mr. John Carton took up the study as a recreation during a period of nervestrain, and was seventeen years at work before his results were heard of. lie and Mr. Burbank have exchanged letters, and agree that the making of the perfect grain is more or less a fluke. Mr. Carton, for example, produced an 'at which increased the yield by 10 to :<) per cent., and grew a large grain liy using the wild oat, which lias the smallest of all grains and was thought to be useless. ;•. EXPERIMENTER'S SUCCESS. "

Mr. Biffen. on tho other hand, works wholly by system and has two triumphs to his credit. He has produced a wheat absolutely proof against rust, which Is the most prevalent of wheat diseases, and he has been able—by following the law of Mendel—to fix these new sorts m two or three years where previously the work took eight or ten. These disease-proof wheats will he available for next harvest, and their creation has greatly excited men of science all over the world. The present position in the race is this, that the Cambridge school have produced grains which resist disease and are very "strong"—that is. are good for milling. The French hybridisers and Mr Carton have produced grains remarkable for heavy yield. The French wheal. Marvel or Treasure, that have spreld so rapidly from the centre at King's Lynn, and Mr. Carton's improved Abundance oat are examples. The achievement which is vet lo come is the joining together of thv tliseaseresistcrs and the heavy-yielders. When that is. done the farmer's fortune is made if wheat will stay near its present price.