EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 193 



METHOD OF KEEPING CROP RECORDS AT THE MICHIGAN 



STATION. 



In appearing before you on the subject, The Keeping of Crop Records 

 at the Michigan Station, my object is to outline the general plan and 

 give some reasons why our methods came into use. As you are workei*s 

 in this field, you will recognize that any fit system will be applied to 

 new uses and change somewhat in detail as time goes on. Our system 

 is composite in origin, but the aim is to outline only such methods 

 as have established themselves. In case the steps are not clear, the 

 author would be pleased to answer questions, and would also be 

 pleased to hear why any point may not be workable in another state. 



REGISTER^ PLANT AND PROGENY NUMBER. 



The numbers that are being used in listing the various plots of a 

 season, in showing their relationship, in giving individual numbers to 

 our various selections and in tracing a pedigreed strain throughout 

 its fioal yield and quality testing, are all members of the same system. 



Our register number consists of three parts; viz., the date, plot num- 

 ber, and selected plant number. Before selections are made, the last 

 two figures are zeroes. In this form it stands for the whole plot. For 

 example, 84700 stands for the forty-seventhi plot of 1908. 84715 is a 

 single plant. It is the fifteenth selection from the above plot. If the 

 selections are ears of corn to be analyzed and later planted, these num- 

 bers may follow the ears through the laboratory back to the field, and 

 the good thing about it is that they indicate the origin at all times. 



Each crop has a separate series of register numbers. Some workers 

 are using a separate series for each variety. We have found our ac- 

 cessions to be mixtures, and that several of them may contain the 

 same elementary species or strain. Thus the ordinary varieties overlap, 

 but all of them may be included under the head of the crop. Each 

 crop has a new set of elements and new problems. There is no reason 

 therefore for including more than one crop in a series. However, we 

 must have the name of the crop as well as the number when any ques- 

 tion is asked concerning one of our pedigreed strains. 



Whenever a select plant becomes the mother of a promising strain, 

 the individual plant number, becomes the strain number. For example, 

 we have a eowpea 60901. (Fig. 1 shows an increase plot of this, sum- 

 mer, 1909.) As can be seen, this strain sprang from the first selected 

 plant of the ninth plot of 1900. Wheat 016600, or the 166th wheat plot 

 of 1910, was a member of a twentieth acre series, shown in Fig. 13, 

 and originated in a single plant (wheat 61202) the second selection from 

 the twelfth plat of 1906. In our wheat register, the two membei*s fol- 

 low each other on the same line. The one stands for the current year 

 and the other indicates the pedigree. 

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