different 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 wh