68 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



This work has been continued from year to year and gradually extended so as to 

 include barley, oats and pease, and during the past nine years more than 700 new varie- 

 ties have been produced among these important farm crops. All those which show a lack 

 of vigour, or are unpromising for other reasons, are promptly discarded ; but there are 

 still under test at the Central Experimental Farm more than two hundred new varieties, 

 all of which are of more or less promise. In a test of the comparative yield of 39 vari- 

 eties of spring wheat, including all the named ones, with the cross-bred sorts, carried on 

 last year at all the experimental farms, the Preston, one of the crosses referred to 

 between Ladoga and Red Fife — a bearded sort — headed the list, with an average of 35 

 bushels 37 pounds per acre ; while Stanley, a cross of the same parentage, but beardless, 

 stood fifth in order of yield, with 31 bushels 50 pounds per acre. 



Barley. 



Some very distinct hybrids have been produced between the two-rowed barley 

 (Hordeum distichon) and the six-rowed ( Hordeum hexastichon). These are ancient 

 types and have long been regarded as distinct species. The six-rowed type has been 

 found, according to DeCandoUe, in the earlier Egyptian monuments and in the remains 

 of the lake dwellings of Switzerland. The two-rowed barley is said to have been found 

 wild in Western Asia, and is also of ancient origin. In the two-rowed barley, the 

 additional rows found on the six-rowed form are represented by chafiy scales lying flat 

 on the face of the head. In the hybrids produced by using the six-rowed form as male, 

 these chaffy scales in some instances are all filled ; in others, only a part of them are 

 filled and the kernels at first are usually smaller and thinner than those which occupy 

 the normal position on either side of the head. With subsequent cultivation the 

 relative size of the kernels is more equalized and, in some cases, they become very even 

 in size throughout. The two-rowed barley stools much more freely than the six-rowed 

 sorts, the heads are also longer, and the objects in mind in effecting these crosses have 

 been to produce varieties of six-rowed barley with longer heads and with an increased 

 tendency to stooling. Several have manifested a prolific character. One produced from 

 a single grain 4,529 grains, and the next year the crop was 28 pounds. In another 

 instance 2,274 grains were grown from a single grain, and the crop the second year was 

 15^ pounds. A considerable number of these hybrid barleys are now being tested in 

 field culture, and some of them have made promisingf records. 



Wheat with Rye. 



Many attempts have been made at the Experimental Farm to cross wheat and rye, 

 but without success until 1892, when one of my assistants in this work, Mr. W. T. 

 Macoun, succeeded in effecting a cross, using a variety of winter wheat as female and 

 winter rye as the male. The one resulting kernel was sown in September, 1892, and, 

 although to all appearance it was a wheat kernel which was sown, the plant which 

 grew from it had the purplish appearance of rye, and the heads at the time of spearing 

 had stripes of purple on the spikelets, as in rye, and in other respects closely resembled 

 rye. Nineteen heads in all were produced on the plant, but there was not a single 

 kernel found in any of them. 



Oats. 



Some experiments have also been made in the crossing of oats and crosses have been 

 effected between those with branching and those with sided heads ; also with white and 

 black oats, white and yellow, and with thin hulled and thick hulled sorts. Many strik- 

 ing instances of intermediate forms have been secured and some of the new varieties 

 have given excellent crops. 



