190 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



REPORT OF FARM (JROPS EXPERIMENTS. 



Director R. S. Shaw : 



I have the honor to submit the folloAving report of the Division of 

 Farnij Crops for the year ending- June 30th, 1911. 



CROP IMPROVEMENT. 



The crop improvement work has been carried on along the same lines 

 of previous years. The present season's w^ork promises on the whole a 

 more satisfactory comparison of the different varieties and strains than 

 those of preceding years. It is gratifying to report that this Av.ork has 

 noAv been carried on for several years and sufficient data accumulated 

 to enable a choice of some of the better strains for distribution over 

 the state. A few of these have already been distributed in a small way 

 and seed is available from increase plots on the station grounds for 

 further distribution. The extent of the plant breeding investigations 

 carried on by the experiment station is shown by the following report 

 by Mr. F. A. Spragg, research assistant in plant breeding, who has 

 had immediate charge of this work. 



The work of developing new high-producing varieties, that have de- 

 scended from single seeds and have been increased and tested out in 

 variety series, has been outlined in past years and is being continued. 

 The work with soy beans, cowpeas, timothy, and clover is being con- 

 tinued as reported last year. A large number of select clovers were set 

 out in new nui^sery this spring. 



The plan has been to leave the work of developing new varieties, 

 by artificial cross breeding, largely in the background until tlie work 

 of finding and testing out of high-producing lines indicates valuable 

 strains to he used as parents of our new varieties. Some of the strains 

 of oats were started by Pl'of. J. A. Jeffeiy in 1900, and are now well 

 studied. The best of these have been crossed this year to see whether 

 it be possible to obtain more valuable sorts. We are also attempting 

 some hybridization between the different species of Trifolium, Medicago 

 and some of the other genera of the legumes. The reason for this is the 

 fact that some of the types of clovers and alfalfas that are not in them- 

 selves high producers are very hardy and resistant to disease. It is 

 hoped that a cross between these and high-producing types will enable 

 us to find more desirable varieties. 



Wheat. — There are 248 plots of wheat. Of these 75 are larger yield 

 l)l()ts; 65 are smaller yield plots; 13 are small increase plots; 35 are 

 head-row plots; 42 ai*e plant-row plots, and 18 are selection plots. 



Oats. — There are 323 plots of oats. Of these 3 are large increase; 

 80 are larger yield plots: 35 are smaller yield plots; 191 are plant-row 

 plots, and 14 selection plots. 



Barley. — Eight plant-row plots of winter barleys were started last 

 fall. Three of these strains stood the winter with no winter-killing 

 so far as can be observed. The remaining five lots were more or less 



