Sections:

Introduction

Early plant breeding

Early plant breeding, wheat example

Development of landraces

History of early wheat varieties in England

Hand pollination

Deliberate use of crossing to generate variation

Principles of inheritance

Genotypic variation

Other forms of heritable variation

Quantitative variation and heritability

Novel sources of genetic variation

The practice of plant breeding

Breeding methods

Plant Breeders' rights

New technologies for plant breeding

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History of early wheat varieties in England

Around 1830: "Hickling" wheat discovered by Samuel Hickling and enjoyed several years of popularity.

1819-1857: some successful wheat and oat varieties selected from landraces by Patrick Shirreff.

mid-1830s onwards: fields of old-established landraces gradually replaced by pure line varieties.