1910] The Ottawa Naturalist. 223 



There is said to be a relationship between the per cent- 

 hull in oats and the strength of straw. Very thick or very thin 

 hiilled varieties produce weak straw. For an example we 

 have the Tartar King and Joanette varieties respectively. 

 Tartar King variety seems to vary considerably as regards the 

 manner in which the kernels are developed. 



At the Svalof Station, Sweden, some interesting morpho- 

 logical correlations have beers discovered in barlev. Barley is 

 normally classified under two main types, viz., the hexastrichum 

 or six-rowed (including the four-rowed) and the districhum or 

 two-rowed nodding (nutans) and the two-rowed erect (erect um). 

 An examination of grains of barley will show that some have 

 smooth backs while some have indentations on the edges. 

 Again at the base of the ventral portion of the grain we will find 

 the plumule, in some cases, made up of comparatively long stiff 

 hairs, while in other cases it consists of a mass of short curled 

 hairs. These characters have been found to have a great per- 

 manency and to correspond to certain physiological characters 

 such as rate of maturing and brewing qualities. Types of barley 

 which ripen evenly and have a thick husk with short woolly hairs 

 at the base of the scales are better brewers than are those not 

 possessing these characters. These peculiarities of form or 

 structure are considered very useful by the breeder in enabling 

 him to isolate superior types much more quickly and with 

 much less work. 



In our own corn improvement work we find many interest- 

 ing correlations, some of which are of considerable value to the 

 breeder. During the past summer the writer had occasion to 

 examine with special care seventy-three special corn plots and 

 succeeded in gathering considerable important data. Among 

 our breeders of Dent corn were found some who, in their desire 

 to develop highly productive types, were selecting large deep 

 kernelled ears having at least 20 rows of kernels. Such ears, 

 however, are universally later since depth of kernel and length 

 of time it requires for an ear of corn to mature are very closely 

 related. We find another correlation between the size of the 

 ear and the height at which it is borne on the stalk, the large 

 late ears being borne higher from the ground than are those 

 which mature earUer. One breeder planted ears averaging 9^ 

 10 inches long bv 9 inches in circumference with the result that 

 . ears averaging 20-22 rows of kernels were produced and these 

 ' w^ere borne at about 5' from the ground. Still another cor- 

 relation is found between the character of the dent of corn and 

 the depth of kernel the smoother the dent the shallower the 

 kernel and vice versa. This fact is useful to the breeder ni 



