COUNTRY LIFE
As this year's harvest opened so prosperously we heard with sadness of the death of Sir Rowland Biffen, the greatest perhaps of all benefactors to English corn. His creation of new varieties of wheat—first Little Joss and last Yeoman—gave the millers the quality of " strength " that they had previously found only, or chiefly, in Canadian wheat. Some of the Manitoba grains have an almost metallic shine, and in a good year these newer English wheats come only second. Sir Rowland had both the nicety of touch and the scientific insight necessary for the hybridiscr, especially (as John Garton proved at an earlier date) in dealing with grasses—and all cereals are in essence grasses. His own garden in Cambridge, especially his rock garden, was always decorated with com- pletely new varieties of plant—saxifrage and what not—that he had made by ingenious crossings. He not only made new wheats suitable for English farms ; he was an ardent believer in the capacity of this island to excel in grain-growing, partly on the ground that the ability to sow in autumn assured a stronger plant and higher yield than was possible on the average with a spring-sown plant. Those who complain of our climate are wont to forget this inestimable quality.
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