Hayes and Garber - Cucurbit Breeding

IMPROVING SELF-FERTILIZING CROPS 135
herited the yielding capacity of Square Head's Master as well as
the resistance of the Russian wheat parent.
Farrer' s Wheat Breeding in Australia. Probably no one has
made more wheat crosses that have proved valuable than William
Farrer of Australia (Sutton, 1910). Most of his work was done
without the application of a knowledge of the Mendelian principles.
He, however, made crosses for definite purposes and in
reality followed the Mendelian mode of work without recognizing
the law involved. Farrer strongly featured composite crossing,
i.e., the crossing of parents which were themselves of hybrid
origin. Federation, a variety very popular in southern Australia,
was produced in this manner. As a typical example of Farrer's
method, the history of Federation will be given somewhat in
detail.
This variety was the outcome of a deliberate attempt to
produce a wheat especially suited to gathering with a stripper,
a harvester used in Australia. Federation is early maturing,
stiff-strawed, erect, and of somewhat short growth. Despite
its rather unattractive appearance, it is one of the highest
yielding wheats for the section in which it is grown. The upright
habit makes it easy to harvest. Furthermore, the grains are
held tight enough to prevent shattering but not tight enough
to interfere with the operation of the stripper. Federation
resulted from a cross between the varieties Purple Straw and Yandilla.
The parentage is indicated in the following diagrammatic
scheme:
Improved Fife
Purple Straw X Yandilla
Federation
X Etawah
is
The history of the origin of Bunyip, another Farrer production,
indicated as follows:
Improved Fife X Purple Straw Blount's Lambrigg X Hornblende
I
I
An unnamed
cross-bred X King's Jubilee
Rymer X Maffra
Bunyip