288 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Two Other varieties, the Minnesota No. 26 and the Gold 

 Rain, are close competitors of the Early Pearl for first honors 

 in this three year test. In fact, they gave a slightly higher yield 

 in 1914. The Minnesota No. 26 yielded as an average of its four 

 plots 1 05 1 bushels per acre this year. One plot of this variety 

 yielded at the rate of 132 bushels. This oat was originated by 

 the Minnesota Experiment Station some ten or 12 years ago. 

 It has been very- popular in the northwest and our results show 

 that it is well adapted to our conditions. 



The Gold Rain variety is a beautiful yellow oat. It was origi- 

 nated at the Experiment Station at Svalof, Sweden. For a 

 yellow oat it is proving to be exceptionally good. 



The remaining varieties have yielded at lesser rates. It will 

 be noted that the Rebred 60-day and the Daubeney, two early 

 oats, have given much smaller yields than the later varieties. 

 This agrees with what I have said about the Kherson. 



We may next turn to the second part of the work, viz., the 

 attempt to breed new varieties. Several methods are being used 

 in this work. In the first place we go through the plots of the 

 commercial varieties and select individual plants which show 

 special merit. The seed from these plants is grown separately 

 and those which appear to be better than the varieties from 

 which they come are multiplied and tested in the regular variety 

 test. 



The oat flower is naturally pollinated by its, own pollen, i. e., 

 it is very closely inbred. This results in the condition that the 

 progeny of any one oat plant will breed true when grown in 

 successive years. Thus if we can find an oat plant which shows 

 some inherent good quality we have simply to multiply the seed 

 from this one plant and we can have a whole field showing 

 the same quality. Such a strain originating from a single 

 plant is known as a "pure line." This method of breeding 

 consists in testing a large number of individual plants and 

 then multiplying a few of the best and testing them under field 

 conditions. Most of the improvement which has been made in 

 oat varieties has been through the isolation of such pure lines. 



On the other hand it is practically certain that no further 

 improvement can be made in a pure line by continued selection. 

 Once a pure line is isolated we cannot improve it by selection. 

 Our only chance of success in this kind of work is to find in 



