30 AGRICULTURE OP MAINE. 



the attempt to cross varieties which possess desirable charac- 

 ters and then to isolate from the progeny strains which will 

 possess the good qualities of both parents. Last year about 

 300 hybrid oat plants were grown. It is too early to make any 

 statement regarding new varieties secured in this way. It will 

 be several years before we can be certain that any new varie- 

 ties secured in this way are breeding true or that they are 

 better than varieties already existing. 



The second line of work has been the selection of individual 

 plants and the propagation of new strains from these. Each 

 year we have gone through the plots and selected out individual 

 plants which appeared to be better than their neighbors. The 

 seed of each plant was kept separate and sown in a single row 

 by itself. Hence all plants in a row were the descendants of 

 one plant. Throughout the growing season notes were made 

 as to the characters and general behavior of the plants in these 

 rows. The plants of each row were weighed and threshed 

 together so the progeny of the original selections were kept 

 free from admixtures. Being self pollinated the oat plant gen- 

 erally breeds true from season to season. To those self- 

 fertilized plants which breed true Johannsen of the University 

 of Copenhagen has given the name "pure line." llie culture 

 of the progeny of single oat plants in rows affords a good basis 

 for the study of the characters of the plants and also forms a 

 basis of measuring the value of the selections in respect to the 

 yield of grain and straw. Individual plants, all the progeny of 

 which the test of two years showed to be uniform in type and 

 possessing the ability to transmit the character of high yield, 

 were propagated the following season in plots of two-thous- 

 andth acre in area. These small plots were necessary because 

 of the small amount of seed available. The test in plots of this 

 area showed some of the pure lines to be worthy of further 

 trial. These promising lines were propagated the following 

 year in fortieth acre plots. During the past season at High- 

 moor there were 49 of these plots representing the descendants 

 of 33 plants selected in the season of 1910. Some of these ap- 

 pear very promising. These 33 pure lines represent all the 

 plants, out of 300 originally selected, that were deemed worthy 

 of further propagation. Some of these 33 lines will be taken 

 out of the test this year because they are no better than strains 

 already on the market. 



