32 PLANT BREEDING!-. 



expense. There is a part of this work, liowever, which must be done 

 l)y tlic grower, since all his conditions can not be duplicated on tlie 

 experiment farms. 



The Minnesota experiment station lias adopted a system of num- 

 bers for varieties, using variety names more as class names. This 

 plan grew out of necessity. Several superior strains or subvarieties 

 of Blue Stem wheat and Fife wheat, for example, had sprung up 

 among the farmers and at the experiment tttation. These could not 

 be clearly identified by any botanical characteristic, but some of them 

 were superior in their yield. 



The following general plan lias been in operation for several years 

 and has given excelh^it satisfaction: 



(1 ) Whenever a sample of seed is received from any source it is .i,nven a number 

 witli the words "Minnesota No. prefixed, written thus: '-Mmnesota No. 1(59 

 Wheat:" "Minn. No. 1-J Corn," etc. 



(2) In a book called the "Minnesota number book'" each variety is entered 

 separately, and its subvarieties are numbered coiisecutiveiy as they are received by 

 the station and its substations. 



(-6) Whenever a new subvariety is taken from the field-crop nursery to the uni- 

 form-test field plots, it also is given a number, taking the next number to the one 

 last entered. 



(4) In the Minnesota num er book are entered in appropriate blank forms all 

 facts obtainable regarding the name, source, and origin of each particular sam- 

 ple of seed which may form the basis of a new variety. 



(5) A small number of the plants of a newly introduced strain or variety are 

 grown, and full descriptive botanical notes are recorded under each, that its iden 

 tity may not be lost. 



(6) For oir purposes the number, with the words "Mmnesota No." prefixed, 

 thus becomes the name of the strain or variety, and in case it is of our own breed- 

 ing there is no other name given, and the experiment station desires that no one 

 else give it another name.' 



(7) By keeping this number and the identical stock of each seed together invi- 

 olate we can attach to it a performance record. And the association of the name, 

 the record for large yield, and the identical stock or variety which made the 

 record, is what gives peculiar pedigree value to the seeds. 



(8) This plan of numbering, or naming with numb.ers. is useful in cases where 

 a variety is improved from year to year, since when the old no longer represents 

 the improved variety it can be given a new number. Thus, iMinnesota No. 13 corn 

 has been sold to the farmers for several years. During each year a field of stock 

 seed has been grown, called our " seed-corn patch." in which this corn has been 

 rigidly selected for better yield, but not to change the appearance. The seedsmen 

 and many farmers are now annua'ly selling large (luantities of Minnesota No. 13 

 seed corn, some or wliich is from seed sold by the e .periment station m the years 

 when the improvement of this corn had been only Ijegun. We shall now give our 

 improved stock of this variety a new number (Minnesota No. 172), and advertise 

 it as an improved progeny of Minnesota No. 13. Names being easier to remember 



1 Seedsmen should not give a name of their own choice to a variety with such a 

 record of performance, and thus lose the connection between the name, the per- 

 formance record, and the seed, or doubly violate good ethics by appropriating to 

 themselves both the name and the experimental record, for which only the experi- 

 ment station which tested, it can stand responsible. 



