2.  The proportion of wheat in Piper’s Thickset is 38 per cent. of the gross weight of the crop; in the Hopetown wheat (I speak of my own crops only), 34 per cent.

3.  Not having seen a reaping-machine, it may seem absurd in me to say that short-strawed wheat is better adapted to it than long-strawed; but every report of the working of these machines goes to show that, so far, they are not well adapted to the cutting of laid corn; therefore a variety that always stands upright will be much better suited to the working of them.

I have been trying for the last six years to obtain (by cross-breeding) a wheat of good quality, and with a straw shorter than Piper’s, but hitherto with indifferent success; but, thanks to the kindness of Messrs. Brownells, of Liverpool, who furnished me with many samples of Chilian wheat about three years ago, I have now got varieties much shorter in the straw than Piper’s, and some which appear to be of much better quality, but these will require to be tested for a year or two before I can speak decisively about them.  The Chilian varieties are very difficult to acclimatize.  The original samples were beautiful white wheats, very much resembling the Australian, but when grown in Lancashire they resemble rye more than wheat, and three years’ sowing has not much improved them.  It has, however, enabled me to obtain crosses which seem better adapted to the soil and climate, and so short in the straw that the highest manuring produces no tendency to lodge.

If we could obtain a variety of wheat of good quality, which, instead of two tons of straw and one of wheat to the acre, produced a ton and a half of each, it might be profitably cultivated, and the differences in the chemical composition of grain and straw are not so very great as to make me despair of this being done some time or other.  It may be asked, Where can a short-strawed wheat of good quality be procured?  To this I am afraid the reply will be, Nowhere at present.  But can none of our expert manipulators, who rejoice exceedingly when they cross-breed a geranium or a fuchsia, turn their attention to the cross-breeding of wheat?  Cannot the Royal Agricultural Society offer a premium for a short-strawed wheat of good quality?  Do none of the great agriculturists themselves see how desirable such a wheat would be for the agriculture of this country?  Apparently not; for with the exception of Mr. Raynbird, of Hampshire, I am not aware of one scientific operator who is endeavouring to produce such a wheat.  My own attempts at cross-breeding are such as may be tried by anyone who has sufficient perseverance, and (with one or two exceptions, of doubtful success) have been confined to sowing the different varieties I wished to cross in contiguous drills, and then sowing the produce of these.  At the second harvest I carefully select such ears as differ from both varieties, and at the same time seem by their quality of grain and the shortness of their straw to be the best suited to my wishes.  It has been, no doubt, to the accidental contact of distinct varieties that we owe the numerous kinds now known to agriculturists, and which differ from each other in colour, quality, yield, and comparative value in the various districts in which they are grown.