Sam+and+Emily


 * Trace the history of the selective breeding of one species for agricultural purposes and describe the series of changes that have occured in the species as a result of this selective breeding

CASE STUDY: **Wheat**

Wheat farming is beleived to have begun when farmers in ancient Mesopotamia started growing wild grasses around 10,000 years ago. Wheat gradually spread, reaching much of Europe, Asia and North Africa by 3000 BC and China before 1000 BC.

As wind carried pollen from wild grasses to different areas, new breeds came about as this pollen fertilised the domesticated plants. Farmers then selectively chose the nest plant's seed's and replanted them, hence further generations of a specific breed were grown.

Wheat was farmed in Australia from 1788, but only in areas of favourable soil and abundant rainfall, which were difficult conditions to come by in Australia, so yields were generally too low to meet the colonies' needs. In 1890 the fungus 'stem rust' damaged wheat crops so badly that wheat had to be imported. Surveyor for the NSW Lands Department, William Farrer noticed that a few varieties appeared to have some natural resistance to rust. he went on to conduct thousands of breeding experiments and produced numerous new hybrid varieties until in 1902 he discovered