REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 55 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



When, however, certain physiological or biological characters are looked for, mass- 

 selection can be used to advantage. 



RED CLOVER. 



Red Clover, being a self-sterile plant, new varieties and strains must be produced 

 by means of mass-selection and hybridization respectively. 



When breeding red clover, three qualities particularly should be taken into con- 

 sideration, viz. : winter-hardiness, quality of seed, and yield of hay. 



It has been proven in cereals which, like red clover, consist of thousands of 

 distinct types, that resistance to disease and hardiness are hereditary characters sub- 

 jected to the same general laws of heredity as govern the transmission from a mother- 

 plant to its progeny, of strictly morphological characters. It is therefore very reason- 

 able to suspect that winter hardiness in red clover is a hereditary character that 

 can be transmitted from one parent plant to its progeny. 



If this be the case, it will be a simple matter to produce a variety able to with- 

 stand, without being killed to any extent, the most severe Canadian winter. The 

 task could be accomplished by sowing seed from those individuals which survive 

 after a severe winter and which, therefore, according to our conception, represent 

 hardy ' lines ' or strains. After sowing the seed thus saved, a progeny may be 

 expected that will prove hardier than was the parent crop originally sown, and 

 by saving the seed year after year, a perfectly hardy variety will soon be obtained. 

 This method of improving the hardiness is simply mass-selection effected by nature 

 herself. 



With this aim in mind, seed was saved during the summer of 1912 from all plots 

 of red clover except two, the intention being to use it for the production of hardier 

 varieties. 



In ord:er to produce, by means of artificial crossings, red clover ' strains of high 

 yielding power and with seed of a desirable type, seed collected from a number of 

 individual plants during 1911 was sown in hills two feet apart each way. Several 

 unfavourable factors, however, prevented most of the seed sown from germinating 

 and developing properly. 



TIMOTHY. 



Timothy being able to produce seed when self-fertilized as well as when cross- 

 fertilized, all three breeding methods referred to above can be used. 



What should be especially looked for in timothy breeding is the production of 

 constant strains of superior yielding power. Such strains can hardly be secured 

 except by a phenomenal chance of luck by mass-selection. Line breeding must be 

 considered the safest if not the only way. 



In order to secure material for line breeding of timothy, seeds collected from a num- 

 ber of wild plants were selected. Of the seedlings obtained, about 1,200 were planted 

 in the field 3 feet apart each way. The further development of these plants will 

 decide how many of them will be selected as mother plants for production of new 



strains. 



Similar steps have been taken, although on a much smaller scale, to secure 

 material for breeding work with orchard grass and with certain other forage plants. 



