122 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



heads of the various departments with one exception. The experi- 

 mental work in Crops has remained under the direction of the director 

 of the Experiment Station but has been in charge of Mr. F. A. Spragg. 

 This work has been developed almost solely along lines of crops breed- 

 ing, dealing with corn, cereals, pasture and forage crops, et cetera. 

 The following is a statement descriptive of the line of work. The aim 

 has been to develop pure or pedigreed strains of the field crops. The 

 department handles between one and two hundred thousand individual 

 plants annuallj^ from which superior individuals are selected for use 

 in starting new selection plots, for eventual increase. The plants must 

 have similar conditions of space, soil, moisture and sunshine, and when 

 sufiicient quantities of seed from strains superior in quality and uni- 

 formity, are procured they are put on a comparative basis to .determine 

 the yields. The next step is to select and increase the desirable ones and 

 send them out to farmers. 



Wheat — of the 222 living wheat plots, 50 are one-twentieth acre yield 

 plots, 18 are one-hundredth acre increase plots, 16 are smaller increase 

 plots, six are beds or selection plots in the first year and 138 are single 

 selected plants originating in 1908. The increase plots originated with 

 individual plants of 1906 and 1907. 



Oats — of the 156 oat plots, 42 are one-twentieth acre plots, 23 are 

 one-hundredth acre plots, 9 are beds and 82 are single selected plants 

 of 1008. Twenty-six of the one-twentieth acre plots are planted from 

 pure strains originating in single selected plants of 1906. 



Barley, Flax and Timothy. These are being continued along the 

 same lines reported last year. 



Corn — But little has been undertaken in addition to the work reported 

 last year. The cooperative experiments carried on among farmers 

 throughout the state has been placed in charge of Mr. A. R. Potts. 



Cow Peas — All the cow peas that have survived the selection process 

 can be traced back to three of the numerous original varieties. How- 

 ever, as these original varieties were planted close together, many 

 hybrids were produced and the work now is the development of new 

 kinds. 



A hybrid plant with black seeds selected in 1906 is of special 

 interest. These seeds were planted in 1907 and the best individual 

 j)lants selected. Some plants had produced uniform black seeds like the 

 parent, others white seeds with black eyes, and still others bore seeds 

 variously spotted. Only those producing uniform seeds Avere saved to 

 continue the work in 1908, the blacks being planted in one group of 

 plots and the black-eyes some distance away. 



In the group of blacks, two plots attracted considerable attention as 

 being high producers, one of seed and the other of forage. The heavy 

 seed producer was a bush type with uniformly black seeds which is being 

 increased this year so that perhaps some seed may be sent out to farmers 

 next year. 



The different classes of these plants have been isolated between other 

 crops so as to prevent hybridization and enable us to grow a largo 

 number of promising pure strains for comparison of yields and general 

 value. 



We have a pure strain originating from a single plant of 1906 that 



