Memoirs Of The Dept Of Agriculture In India Botanical Series

Author : Pusa Agricultural Research Institute
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781333990275
Total Pages : 32 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (92 download)

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Download or read book Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, Vol. 12 written by Pusa Agricultural Research Institute and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, Vol. 12: Botanical Series The wheats of Bihar are characterized by weak straw, poor vegetative growth and early maturity. Almost all are bearded with smooth chaff and short, rounded grains. Three of the varieties possess blackish cha on a red or white ground with black awns. In the size and shape of the grain and in the frequent occurredce of black awns, these wheats are sharply distinguished from the types met with in the United Provinces and the Punjab. Among Indian wheats they most closely resemble the forms often found in the Himalayas and on the Western Frontier. Some of the types are very resistant to brown, yellow and black rusts, particularly those belonging to the new variety nigriccms. High grain quality, comparable with that of Manitoba wheats, also occurs among these types as is shown by the results of the milling and baking testsi carried out in 1909 by Mr. A. E. Humphries. So far as we have investigated the'matter, some of these wheats appear to possess greater strength than any of the other indigenous types we have examined. It is easy to understand that in a damp climate such as that of Bihar which favours rust epidemics, natural selection would operate in eliminating types susceptible to disease and in preserving the more resistant forms. The occurrence of stronger wheats in this tract than in the rest of the plains is, however, not so easily explained. None of the types are likely to prove of use for distribution to the cultivators on account of their weak vegetative characters and their inability successfully to respond to intensive cultivation. They may, however, prove to be of the very greatest use in plant breeding in providing early maturing parents with great resistance to rust combined with short straw and grain qualities above the average. It is possible that one of these unit species has a'ready been made use of in the production of an improved wheat. Marqu'sg, the celebrated Canadian variety, which covers millions of acres in North America, was obtained by crossing Red Fife with one of the wheats found in Hard Red Calcutta. This is the most successful wheat variety hitherto evolved by the plant breeder. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."