KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 135 



Many of the stations have achieved noteworthy results and ob- 

 served valuable points in the improvement of field crops. 



The work of the North Dakota Station in plant breeding was par- 

 ticularly large in breeding alfalfa, corn, and winter grains. The 

 blue-stem wheat was largely disseminated through the demonstration 

 farms: the result of 17 vears' work was the first blue-stem seed 

 distributed by the station. The yield at the station in the very dry 

 year of 1910 was 27| bushels per acre on 5 acres, while the average 

 wheat production for the entire State was estimated at onl}^ 5^ 

 bushels per acre. A winter rye bred by the station proved hardy to 

 a considerably greater degree than common rye sown in the country 

 and gave greater yields. In a similar way the development and dis- 

 tribution of new varieties among farms of the State was continued 

 by the Minnesota Station. A new variety of winter wheat and three 

 varieties of oats originated at the station, and which outyielded ordi- 

 nary grains by 15 to 25 per cent, were distributed. One variety each 

 of wheat, oats, corn, and flax originated and sent out by this station 

 ha"\"e become known commercially and are now quite widely grown 

 in Minnesota and the adjoining States. 



The increase and fixation of desirable properties in plants by the 

 Ohio Station included work with 130 strains of alfalfa propagated 

 from seed from as many different plants, 245 strains of red clover, 

 100 strains of corn, 569 strains of oats, 125 strains of soy beans, and 

 1,560 strains of wheat. Pedigreed strains of corn have been de- 

 veloped which are thus far yielding 5 to 14 bushels more than the 

 original varieties; pedigreed strains of oats and wheat are yielding 

 3 to 6 bushels more than the original stock, and soy beans 2^ to 6 

 bushels more. It is estimated that the hybrid wheats originated and 

 distributed by the Washington Station for the last four years re- 

 sulted, in the season of 1910, in an increase of 1,500,000 bushels in 

 the production of wheat. 



Special attention is being given to problems of soil bacteriology, 

 including the importance of humus as a medium of existence for the 

 soil organisms which have to do with soil fertility. The Colorado 

 Station has demonstrated the occurrence of areas of soil in irrigated 

 orchards and sugar-beet fields containing nitrates in such excessive 

 amounts as to destroy the crops. Apparently the excess of nitrates 

 is due to phenomenal bacterial activity, and the problem is to devise 

 means for the utilization of this rapid nitrate formation for bene- 

 ficial purposes and to prevent it from becoming a menace to crops. 

 The California Station in stud5'^ing soil bacteria under arid condi- 

 tions found nitrifying bacteria down to a depth of 12 feet, while in 

 humus soils they occur within the first 6 inches. Results secured at 

 the Kansas Station suggested that plowing from 8 to 10 inches deep 

 tends to increase the number of soil bacteria in both sandy and silt 



